I'm happy this is a BIG F U to Ironman for their ridiculous money grab that is their World Championships in France... Good on Ryf & Lucy Charles

He was asked that in the PTN podcast.

No, it's not in the short term future plans (meaning the first couple of years) for Malibu to be a location but never say never

He made up some reason for the donation to be preserving the celebrity race aspect of Malibu as celebrities being eyeballs.

Gripe ye not oh negative one!
The calendar shows that the Grand Final will be 28/29 Nov (earnestly recommend you cut "literally" from your vernacular: it adds literally nothing, and debit points when plain wrong).
https://t100triathlon.com/pro-racing/ and pointer over "Grand Final"
As far as its venue, in the PTN pod Renouf said " grand final . . . the final stage in the Middle East". Dubai early November, then . . . and it isn't going to be in Israel or on the Red Sea. Neom? (not a venue to visit!) Wordle? A proven venue and a city with water?

"With 8 races in the 2024 T100 season, the sum of each athlete’s 4 best point-scoring performances over the T100 season will be crowned the first-ever T100 World Champion. For those athletes who are also racing the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the minimum number of races required is 3 plus the T100 Grand Final."
Contract for 5 plus the GF unless racing in Paris in which case 3+GF.
Purse for each race is $250k.
Besides the T100 World Championship crown there's a $2M end-of-series payout on the line and a relatively closely aligned $2M EoY PTO ranking bonus.
Lucrative months to be a pro. Look after your bodies, people: need to be 'still' racing in November.

Sam mentioned on the Pro Tri News pod they are still working through the commentating crews and it likely won't be the same folks for every race. He said they are interested in trying out some recently or soon to be retired pros so I imagine we'll be hearing from Seb and Jan this year, which is great news.

Dallas was a three year deal and they didn't fulfill the second and third year. So term length ends up not being THAT relevant. This will be a huge test for them.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

The women's field is amazing. By my count, the only woman in the top 16 that is not doing the T100 is Sarah True (16). Maybe True is too busy with school and kids.

One question I have is how will someone who was left off the original list work their way onto it next year? Presumably someone like Ellie Salthouse, Sarah Perez Sala, or Jackie Hering could have a good year and crack the top 20, but can they earn enough points if they're not doing PTO events?

Every time I hear "TBA"

Its my understanding that Ironman events are ranked with a couple others. So they would have to do very well in those I suppose, maybe a wild card here and there too..

But really, who on that list would they beat anyway at the 100k distance? The odd woman out for sure, but they will do much better in the ironman series financially. And as long as it continues, why would they even care much about PTO rankings, as long as they are crushing the ironman series? This is a blessing to ladies like that, carves out virtually all the top competition in a lot of the races they will be doing. Probably make more money than many on that list too, and that is what the pro scorecard is at the end of the year anyway...

Sanders is off the list - though he was expected to lean IM. Ditto with Skipper.

The one that strikes me as odd is Sam Long - he's never really excelled at this distance/format, so I would have expected him to go for the IM purse.

The new IM CEO has certainly got his work cut out.

I feel a bit sorry for Nice….this years ladies race could be a flop, they don’t deserve that.

There’s obviously a question mark over the long term sustainability of PTO but for now it’s a great time to be a fan (and obviously fantastic for the athletes).

I still think most of the women will show up at Nice, probably do 6 T100 races and 2 IM. It will be a long season for many of them and really depends if they can go through 10 months without any injuries as any minor niggles could mean sitting out one race and that would mean no WC

this has probably been clarified elsewhere, but if someone could just help me understand -

are these listed athletes for T100 contractually prohibited from participating in IM branded events? Or, rather, is it that they just have to fulfill the 5 out of 6 + grand final requirement for T100 tour, and the implicit aspect of that is these athletes probably won't choose to race any additional events since their calendar is full?

I think it’s manageable if one doesn’t get injured and gets a WC slot on their first attempt (so no flats)

Somewhat agree with you now, little flexibility especially if there are injuries or something goes wrong in a (IM) race that ruins WC qualifications

I dunno about Sam Long, 13 wins in 70.3s (IM - mostly - and Challenge branded), #2 in 70.3 WC St. George plus a #2 and two #5s in the 100k isn’t so bad? Hasn’t won a 140.6 since 2021. Just 2 wins and #3 in those, and not for lack of trying.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I originally asked ....So what did I miss in the story? How do PTO and Epstein's co. relate? Then went and googled. Had no idea PTO was the $$ behind Zuma Foundation. And here I thought it was being returned to a local race.

Given the council's reaction to the course, elimination of the Oly, etc. i find it hard that they'd approve an even longer race at that venue

100k is very similar to 70.3 & Sam has had much more success at 70.3 than he has at 140.6

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

They can do any race in the world as long as they fulfil their T100 contract obligations

It's Roth I feel a bit sorry for. There are two top WPro athletes I can see racing:
Langridge and LCB (just doing the one long distance with no T100 race close and no requirement to validate (an IM) to secure her AQ IMWC slot.
I reckon that apart from LCB, 5 (of the top 7 at Kona) will be there to race Nice (Haug, Ryf, Sodaro, Philipp, Matthews) if fit. IMWC(WPro) was 'completely stacked': 2024 only a little less. And think LCB not risking it is a smart move.
A contracted athlete (and they all are) has to race 5 plus the GF. So they can drop Ibiza or race it as a warm down (if body lets them). Knibb's participation is not dependent on this: her challenge is to validate her IMWC AQ (assume with two 70.3s) by 19 Aug.

Its 5 out of 7 plus the Grand Finale.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

So I was trying to figure out the Cali race location/date. I thought about the USAT Legacy event that will end up being the LA Games Olympic venue in Long Beach....but that's 1 week prior to London's race date (July). So I'm curious what site is going to be the June Cali race venue.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I was wondering about the CA location too. Protrinews has the dates as June 8-9 instead of TBA on PTO. Unless they make a new race, that could mean Escape from Alcatraz! If they are going for picturesque and iconic locations, can't think of a much better race. Although I don't envy the person who has to deal with the red tape.

Now that would be epic. Bringing Alcatraz back to the top of pro sport would be amazing.

Sam seemed to let slip on the podcast that the California date was in SoCal in June.

Oof, that would be a lot of horrible laps to get to 100K

Reading the ST front page....listening to the PTN pod w/ SR now.

Interesting to read about the finances of the races, makes sense financially the prize pool was shrunk with the additional "pto contracts":

Each race will feature a $250,000 prize pool, with $25,000 to the winner, $16,000 for second, and $12,000 for third. The T100 Triathlon World Champion, awarded based on points totals at the end of the year, will win $210,000 out of a $2 million prize pool. Between the cash prize pool and athlete contracts, more than $7 million will be awarded in compensation in 2024.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II