A) Which Sam are you referring too?
B) Which series are you talking about giving Sam a run for his money?
LS is at best MOP at PTO and with how the prize structure is even WAAAAY less than years past (1st = $25k now?), if you are MOP in PTO you are basically only going to make money from your "contract" (and the ability to be end of season ranking bonuses due to racing PTO "stacked" points races). Then to find out the contract is an appearance fee setup, you then have to go all in on the PTO races to get the full salary. Thus you then limit your other opportunities at worse with world traveling training disruption even if you "train through" an PTO event.
So it was a no brainer LS was not going to race PTO. Cool to confirm that he was "offered" but PTO was not going to be LS's jam. Or if his "offer" was 1-2x "wildcard", cool....That makes sense but it would have been dumb on LS's part to go all in on the series when he has but a few years left to win the races he *actually* wants to win. Again if you are "retiring" and want to take said contract as sorta an easy way to get 1 last pay check for a year and have a "retirement tour"- hell yeah do that. But LS isn't at *that* point just yet.
Each athlete will have their own needs / reasons why they make a certain decision. I think the gurantee of a 6 figure salary is hugely important for some athletes, but not necessarily for an athlete like LS who's years are limited left. A guy like Sam Long has 10 more years in the sport at a high level, LS probaly less than half of that. So a guy like Sam Long can race this "intensity" and be ok MOP as it helps him "long term" while LS finishing MOP at PTO for an entire year is basically "wasting" valuable time that he can be used to race more important goals. Again LS isn't going to be racing for podiums at PTO, so if you are only MOP, then you truly have to ask yourself- is the money so good that it offsets any chance of racing more important goals? The PTO money doesn't seem to be all that great considering you must show up to each race in order to get the money (which makes sense if you are PTO- you aren't going to offer $100k contracts and they race 1 PTO race).
ETA: It kinda reminds me of a podcast I listen to. Bill Simmons. He was talking about now that he lives in LA while his dad lives in Boston (and he's in his 80's I believe). He and his co-host were once talking about "you know, now living on the west coast, I'm literally only going to see my father X number of times now"....It's a rather sobering reality when you realize you have a limited time to your career at a high level.
Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II
B) Which series are you talking about giving Sam a run for his money?
LS is at best MOP at PTO and with how the prize structure is even WAAAAY less than years past (1st = $25k now?), if you are MOP in PTO you are basically only going to make money from your "contract" (and the ability to be end of season ranking bonuses due to racing PTO "stacked" points races). Then to find out the contract is an appearance fee setup, you then have to go all in on the PTO races to get the full salary. Thus you then limit your other opportunities at worse with world traveling training disruption even if you "train through" an PTO event.
So it was a no brainer LS was not going to race PTO. Cool to confirm that he was "offered" but PTO was not going to be LS's jam. Or if his "offer" was 1-2x "wildcard", cool....That makes sense but it would have been dumb on LS's part to go all in on the series when he has but a few years left to win the races he *actually* wants to win. Again if you are "retiring" and want to take said contract as sorta an easy way to get 1 last pay check for a year and have a "retirement tour"- hell yeah do that. But LS isn't at *that* point just yet.
Each athlete will have their own needs / reasons why they make a certain decision. I think the gurantee of a 6 figure salary is hugely important for some athletes, but not necessarily for an athlete like LS who's years are limited left. A guy like Sam Long has 10 more years in the sport at a high level, LS probaly less than half of that. So a guy like Sam Long can race this "intensity" and be ok MOP as it helps him "long term" while LS finishing MOP at PTO for an entire year is basically "wasting" valuable time that he can be used to race more important goals. Again LS isn't going to be racing for podiums at PTO, so if you are only MOP, then you truly have to ask yourself- is the money so good that it offsets any chance of racing more important goals? The PTO money doesn't seem to be all that great considering you must show up to each race in order to get the money (which makes sense if you are PTO- you aren't going to offer $100k contracts and they race 1 PTO race).
ETA: It kinda reminds me of a podcast I listen to. Bill Simmons. He was talking about now that he lives in LA while his dad lives in Boston (and he's in his 80's I believe). He and his co-host were once talking about "you know, now living on the west coast, I'm literally only going to see my father X number of times now"....It's a rather sobering reality when you realize you have a limited time to your career at a high level.
Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II
Last edited by:
B_Doughtie: Feb 11, 24 6:01