The Professional Triathletes Organisation announced a beefed up PTO Tour in August, including a new partnership with World Triathlon to crown a 100km world champion.
But since chief executive Sam Renouf laid out the ambitious plans for both professional and age-group triathletes to take part in the series, the majority of dates and locations have not been confirmed.
With only Singapore (12-14 April) and Ibiza (28-29 September) secured in the calendar, the organisation has now advised that its full season-long roster of events will be revealed in the new year.
Worth the wait?
Outlining some of the challenges the PTO has faced, Renouf said part of the delay has been caused by governmental approvals from prospective host cities.
He said: “We have been working hard to double our calendar from three events to at least six races in 2024, as we strongly believe that is the way to create a cohesive, season-long narrative about the PTO Tour that will ultimately take the sport to a broader global audience and build a fanbase that drives more money into the sport.
“We are in the final stages of planning with new host locations, however, as several are requiring further government approvals before being publicly announced, we felt it was important to let people know that we won’t be announcing our full calendar of professional and age grouper races until early in the new year.
“This is a more complex process for the PTO versus most stakeholders in the sport as we mandate to all our host partners that we must have entirely separate racing for professionals and age groupers, which we believe is essential both for athlete safety and to create a compelling broadcast product to grow the sport.
“While it’s admittedly taken us a little longer to announce the stages than we expected, we are hugely excited in how things are shaping up and believe it will be worth the wait.
"Each of the stops of the 2024 Tour will be at iconic locations that provide a backdrop worthy of the highest level of the sport.”
The PTO story in 2023
The PTO Tour took place in Ibiza, Milwaukee and Singapore this year and helped create some of triathlon’s biggest headlines including Jan Frodeno’s final victory before retirement.
But there was no continuation of the Collins Cup, the team-based format that took place in Slovakia in 2021 and 2022.
It says it reached a global dedicated TV and streaming audience of 24.6 million for those three races and broadcast to 195 plus territories around the world.
It pointed to its growing social media reach and new and returning commercial partners such as Canyon, Garmin, Rouvy and FORM, among other successes.
PTO executive chairman Chris Kermode said: “I remain extremely positive about our direction of travel and the job the team has done to get things to where they are.
"We knew at the start of the year that we needed a plan to go bigger in 2024, which is what we’ll announce in the new year. But it takes time and, frankly, there’s usually a good reason why someone’s not done something before - because it isn’t easy.
“Is it ideal that we still can’t publicly share our full calendar yet for next year? ‘No’. Will we be announcing an exciting line-up of races for 2024 early in the new year? ‘Yes’. 2024 is set to be an incredible year for professional triathlon and we’re excited to be working with our athletes and partners to make that happen.”
Opinion: 220 Triathlon columnist Tim Heming says…
“Since inception, the PTO has had its naysayers who believe the idea of building a successful business on the back of professional triathlon broadcasts is flawed.
“Those snipes didn’t look without substance as the organisation took time to work up a head of steam with the delayed ‘will it, won’t it happen’ Collins Cup being just one example.
“The multi-million pound injection from businessman Mike Moritz changed the PTO fortunes, and as other investors have come onboard, it’s become a pillar of non-drafting professional triathlon to rival and often surpass what Ironman offers.
“But the PTO knows it has to step up another level - and fast. It has conceded that while each of its Tour events in 2023, in Ibiza, Milwaukee and Singapore, were well received, the organisation was also in a holding pattern for 2024, knowing it had to improve not just quality but quantity of races to ingrain the familiarity it needs with its audience.
“Renouf’s late summer announcement of not just an enlarged tour but partnership with World Triathlon that would include age-group racing, underlined the ambition the organisation has, but it again put the PTO in the firing line of cynics who say they’ll believe it when they see it.
“The delays to naming the venues has added fuel to that criticism, and in the meantime Ironman has opportunistically rolled out its own Pro Series on an already scheduled calendar to try and turn the heads of the pros.
“In many ways this is only good news for professional triathletes, offering more money and more opportunity that would be to the envy of previous generations.
"But while the media and the fans can stomach delayed announcements, the athletes need to make hard decisions about their training and racing plans for next year.
"With the fact that it's an Olympic year also taking the focus of several triathletes who would be guaranteed PTO starts, the organisation knows that if it wants to be certain of not just getting the best to race, but getting the best to race more often, it now has to move with a real sense of urgency.”
Top image credit: PTO
