Tbf, @dfru, that's very likely the Alcatraz road closure requirement (in that neighborhood). The lines don't purport to be the bike course.
There's only so much you can do with photoshop (or similar). And if the T100 is there Saturday June 8, they would need the road closed beyond 11am, I think (M and W races: 6am and 9am starts: women still on bike course at 11am). Sunrise is at 5:47. For Alcatraz the following day, 11am will be sufficient.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3BJNAqPff9/
See comments: "Photo cred @tomdebruyn1985"
Blanco: "That’s a potential road closure map in the Seacliff neighborhood which is part of the traditional Alcatraz bike course"
After all that, I am not saying (double negative alert) that having the T100 race there, the day before Alcatraz wouldn't be viable. The bike loop is 18 miles but 5 laps turning at the Palace of the Legion of Honor would fit nicely, and keep things compact (for both tele-visual and road side spectators) with the run below (with sand and steps: I really hope so). And would also meet several of PTO's requirements: iconic venue, 'big city', race for amateurs, spectators on the course, proven RD and org. Starts might reasonably be 8am and 11am for broadcast and spectator friendliness.
How about a Hornblower ramp start but closer (for tv coverage, and NB mist/fog) and an aussie exit (again coverage) for another 3/4 mile loop before back to Marina Green?

Might we assume Renouf's oft repeated "southern" was an effort to minimise focus on this Californian possibility. PTO will be announcing the venue shortly: in the ProTriNews interview he said (iirc) that there was one more (?city authority) permission to get. Next week, to maintain the PTO/T100 SM dominance/stream of consciousness.

OK, I jumped the gun on my negativity - I hate that haha. It definitely doesn't mean that's the exact bike course, for sure. Or...Even the bike course? When I try to map it out on strava, that is only like a mile and a half assuming they aren't going to do the out and backs on each road. Is there somewhere that they could have the swim at say - China Beach? And then you have the outer part the bike course into the Presidio (I think) that they could loop?

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

As I suggested up thread, I see no reason, for the swim, that they couldn't replicate the Hornblower ferry start. Normally start in 8s so 20 Pros can go for it "fairly fairly". Have them line up in reverse swim speed order.
GTN:

All in on using the PTO series to get ready for a sub 7:30 Kona winning time.

smart play for ben, i think.

he's already got his kona slot, so doesn't need to do any more full IMs this year. and he's able to be competitive across distances, so he could bring home some money at PTO events. it also avoids the risk of carrying fatigue from full-distance racing into kona, which we've seen before from guys who go bonkers at events like roth and are still flat months later. i've always liked kanute's approach - he seems thoughtful about this stuff.

i also have to say that for an athlete like him (or ali brownlee, or whoever), i think i'd say go all-in on the PTO for now. IM will always be there, but PTO might not be. cash in while you can and then if the PTO series folds, fine - go back to doing what you were before.

i'm curious to see how it'll play for 2025, though - anyone who wants to do kona/nice/70.3 worlds will need to qualify and validate, somewhere, which means fitting in a lot of racing around the PTO schedule. starts to really add up!

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Tim Heming interview: recommended:

YES! My boy Travis and Tim! It's a good episode. Lots of good stuff.

I help Travis out with the race podcast just in case anyone wants to find out what kind of crap can come out of my mouth!

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

I was very surprised to hear Rico Bogan say he didn’t get offered a PTO contract until a week before the tour announcement. I’m gonna guess they were waiting on Hayden Wilde who decided to pass at the last minute, but I have absolutely no inside knowledge on this.

As a matter of fact, Rico himself says the proposal came 4 days before the announcement (source: interview on Talking Triathlon).

My take:

1. A lot of people assumed that the 70.3 title was a one-off in a field that was softer than usual, and well, nothing has disproven this idea so far. Maybe the PTO was waiting for Rico to race and win somewhere. His only finish since Lahti has been 3rd place at Challenge Vieux Bocau. He did beat Brownlee and Funk.

2. Rico has his work cut out in terms of media presence and skills. This quite possibly matters to the PTO? Young PROs have it hard enough without a ton of hilarious stories to tell from their "career" of 6 years, including 4 as a short course junior/U23, but it's also a matter of being able to speak in a way that is lively, relatively fast-paced and addresses the most interesting aspects of the question (this is where Rico's current level of English might be a limiter as he's not that fluent).

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

Some decent insights from Baekkegaard, in particular the challenge of pacing and peaking through the year.
And sounds as if he's trapped.

The T-100 view from someone we don't hear a lot of around here.

Fred Funke said today he got $70,000 for his contract. I wonder if top 5 got $100k, 5-10 got $90k, 10-15 got $80k and 15-20 got $70k. Every athlete going home with minimum $100k for the season seems like a pretty darn good deal for a lot of these guys and gals.

Funk was #14 in the mid December PTO Rankings so in the #11-16 tranche.
For how much is earned (well for 2023, winnings and PTO bonus) Thorsten did the analysis:
https://www.trirating.com/...riathlon-money-list/
In the long course athletes, 8 WPRO and 12 MPRO earned >$100k.
With the additional PTO/T100 monies and the extra $2M from Ironman, those figures will be significantly higher. As said, Funk, if he fulfills his contract is guaranteed $70k, plus 6 x £2.5k (finishing #11 or lower in his minimum 6 races = $15k) plus a tour series bonus of >$15k: a total of >$100k.
https://t100triathlon.com/pro-series-explainer/
An athlete (eg Funk) finishing an average of #10 in 6 T100s, and #10 overall will earn $135k, to which might be added another $30k for the end-of-year PTO Bonus.
Compare that with IM Series winnings and series bonus: an average of #8 (2x70.3, 3x IM) gets you circa $65k.
And some of the T100 athletes will dabble in IM (eg an IMWCQ and Nice, and Taupo) which will push their totals up, if they can stay uninjured on that number of races.
As an aside, on that trirating money deep dive, I note that the order of WPRO (long course) athletes is very close to the 2023 PTO ranking list (NB Ryf's figure does not include her Roth participation fee).

That’s a very generous package and I hope T100 can keep this going for years to come! It will be good for the sport!

I thought the cut off was end Aug? Or were there 2 cut offs?

Any idea if the contract comes with health insurance and is insured for injury?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I'm guessing not, else they'd be talking about it. A much better bang for the buck would be if the PTO paid for disability insurance for their top 20 though. They don't need to be on the hook for covering therapy and hospitalization bills, etc. But it would be a pretty good move to buy a policy with Aflac or some disability insurance company, and then sell them some marketing benefits in the process.

Athletes who get insured could be insured to get paid 8k a month in disability benefits. That policy doesn't seem like it would be too expensive and they'd likely make more back than they paid in advertising sales to the company (assuming it became a sponsor, which is an ideal fit to have a big money insurer as an advertiser).,

Matthews all in:
https://www.tri247.com/...triathlon-world-tour
Miami (Feb) then Texas (Apr). Enough T100 races (another 4, maybe: "northern" California (Jun), London (Jul), Las Vegas (Oct), Dubai (Nov)?) plus a summer IM and Nice (Sep). Then T100 GF (Nov) and Taupo (Dec). And breathe!
Edit: “For me, IM is my continued focus but the competition in the T100 Series is too good to miss in this first year. I plan to race the T100 series (5+1) and the IM Pro Series; 2 IMs, Nice, a 70.3 and Taupo.”

what she is basically saying she does not race the pto series proper , its of course financially good for her at the same time not that great for the series. ie she never finished more than 5 races a year. and of course it makes sense for her to focus on kona she is the very least a top 3 contender.
her coach already has said 70.3 ,might not happen.

and of course it makes sense for her to focus on kona she is the very least a top 3 contender. //

I would pick her for maybe a top 40 at Kona...(-;


She is one that I thought might do both series, and one that could do well in both

For most (non middle distance pros) I think 2024 will be an experimental year for them. Think majority believe that they can mix IM and T-100 with 8-10 races a year? However more and more are saying Kona and Nice will be top focus for 2024. Personally I doubt one can race hard 10x a year but we will see

LBC probably the exception, I can see her shine in T-100 but she will have loads of competition

Lucy raced 4 times last year after starting and ending the season with an injury... I don't think she's going to be the exception to any rule about racing 8-10 times this year.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

What I meant was LCB is probably the only (long distance pro) exception that has clearly stated she is only racing T-100 and middle distances (IM)

Think everyone else will probably dabble in both , although not everyone has stated their intentions for 2024

Ah. Sounds like Ashleigh might also be all in for t100. And not sure if we have plans from Paula yet?

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

Think middle distance specialist will go all in and maybe 70.3 worlds. It’s lucrative so where else will they go

This. Absolutely this