PTO apologises about age-group pricing

The PTO has today announced it’ll cut age-group registration pricing by 50% after receiving complaints

Published: February 10, 2022 at 3:35 pm

Following a vote from its Professional Athlete Board, which includes the likes of Olympian Alistair Brownlee, the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has decided to reduce the age-group registration fee for the coming PTO Tour.

This year will be the first time that age group racing’s added to the PTO Tour, but for athletes who don’t make a living from doing triathlon, the costs can rack up.

The PTO says that although they believed their races were priced competitively, they acknowledge they first need to make a name for themselves on the age-group calendar, with CEO Sam Renouf admitting: “Having often shared the concern that age-group pricing is too high, we initially priced our events lower than the championship events we took inspiration from, with the aim of making the sport more accessible.

“However, having spoken with our PTO Professionals, we quickly realised that although we believe PTO Tour events will soon become bucket list races on every fan’s calendar, this is not a status that we can automatically assume."

“Like an ambitious young athlete, we must first earn our stripes through proven results before we can be compared to the greats. We apologise for not recognising this at the outset and hope that the triathlon community can forgive the error."

As a result of feedback from age-groupers and PTO professionals, a vote was taken, which resulted in a unanimous decision to reduce all age-group pricing by 50%. Anyone who had already signed up will automatically receive a refund.

The inaugural PTO tour will be a three-part race series, with each race taking place roughly a month after the next. It’ll commence in Edmonton on 23-24 July 2022, before jetting off to Bratislava in Slovakia for The Collins Cup and finishing in Dallas, Texas.

Most races have either a 25km option (500m swim, 20km bike and 4.5km run), or a 100km option (2km swim, 80km bike, 18km run). Races in Canada seem the cheapest, starting at $75 (CAD) for the sprint distance and $195 for the 100km distance.

Entry into The Collins Cup currently starts from €165 for the 100km distance, while entry into the US Open in Dallas is priced at $75 (USD) for the 25km race and $195 (USD) for the 100km event – and that’s with the fees already reduced by 50%.

PTO 2022 Tour

  • 23-24 July: PTO Canadian Open, Edmonton, Canada.
  • 20-21 August: The Collins Cup, Bratislava, Slovakia.
  • 17-18 September: PTO US Open, Dallas, Texas.

For more information on the tour, check out the PTO website.

Top image credit: Professional Triathletes Organisation