It may have been a long time coming, but the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has today announced its full calendar of events for 2024.
Alongside the announcement of dates and (most) location, there’s also been a name change.
What was previously known as the PTO Tour is to be called the T100 Triathlon World Tour going forward, with that change prompted by the partnership with World Triathlon to turn it into a world championship series for long-distance triathlon.
The big reveal
So where will the T100 Triathlon World Tour be heading? Well, there’ll be eight events spread across three continents.
The first in the schedule takes place in Miami on 9-10 March, before heading off to Asia for Singapore T100, where Kristian Blummenfelt delivered a remarkable win two days after the Paris Olympic Test Event.
In June the event heads to California, before making its first visit to Europe with an event in London in July. That event will see the PTO acquire Challenge London (formerly London Triathlon) and run the pro race concurrently with the other distances set to take place over the same weekend.
After London, the tour heads back to Ibiza for the second time in September, before taking athletes to Vegas in October, Dubai in November and then to an as-yet unconfirmed location in the Middle East for the Grand Final.
Each event will also have age-group racing on offer, with a mix of events available to suit people of all ages and abilities.
The PTO’s T100 Triathlon World Tour schedule
- 9-10 March: Miami T100
- 13-14 April: Singapore T100
- June TBA: California T100
- 27-28 July: London T100
- 28-29 September: Ibiza T100
- 19-20 October: Lake Las Vegas T100
- 16-17 November: Dubai T100
- 29-30 November: Grand Final – location TBC
Who’ll be racing the T100 Triathlon World Tour?
The other big news is that the PTO will effectively be contracting a set number of athletes to line up at a minimum of five races, plus the Grand Final.
That includes 20 men and 20 women, with some big names understandably involved. Thirty-two of the chosen athletes have been picked based on their PTO World Ranking at two events from 2023, while the remaining eight have been picked based on past results and future potential.
The women’s field is stacked full of talent, with big names such as Anne Haug (GER), 100km ace Ashleigh Gentle (AUS), Taylor Knibb (USA), Ironman world champ Lucy Charles-Barclay, Laura Philip (GER), Kat Matthews (GBR), Flora Duffy (BER) and many more.
Among them, Taylor Spivey (USA) stands out as one of the athletes with ‘future potential’ given her lack of racing at this distance, while many fans will be excited to see Duffy go head-to-head with established long-distance stars.
The men’s line-up includes the likes of Magnus Ditlev (DEN), Jason West (USA), Leon Chevalier (FRA), Sam Long (USA), Sam Laidlow (FRA), Alistair Brownlee (GBR), 70.3 world champ Rico Bogen (GER) and Javier Gomez (ESP).
There’s no sign of Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt or Gustav Iden, though, likely due to it being an Olympic year.
That said, the PTO has said that it will award individual wildcards for each event in consultation with World Triathlon, so don’t be surprised if you see them popping up somewhere.
Athletes will be competing for a hefty prize fund of $250,000 per race, with $25,000 awarded to first place, $16,000 to second place and $12,000 to third. Across the eight races that totals $2million of prize money.
There'll also be a $210,000 prize for the series winners after the Grand Final, with other athletes also awarded money based on their ranking at the end of the series. This comes from an additional prize pool of $2million.
Interestingly, the total fund for the entire series is $7million, which suggests just under half of those funds are going to the contracted athletes as part of their agreements to compete.
Full athlete line-up for T100 Triathlon World Tour
Female athletes
- Anne Haug (GER)
- Ashleigh Gentle (AUS)
- Taylor Knibb (USA)
- Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR)
- Laura Philipp (GER)
- Kat Matthews (GBR)
- Paula Findlay (CAN)
- Daniela Ryf (SUI)
- Imogen Simmonds (SUI)
- Emma Pallant-Browne (GBR)
- Chelsea Sodaro (USA)
- Marjolaine Pierré (FRA)
- Skye Moench (USA)
- Tamara Jewett (CAN)
- India Lee (GBR)
- Amelia Watkinson (NZL)
- Holly Lawrence (GBR)
- Lucy Byram (GBR)
- Taylor Spivey (USA)
- Flora Duffy (BER)
Male athletes
- Magnus Ditlev (DEN)
- Jason West (USA)
- Pieter Heemeryck (BEL)
- Mathis Margirier (FRA)
- Rudy Von Berg (USA)
- Leon Chevalier (FRA)
- Sam Long (USA)
- Daniel Baekkegard (DEN)
- Bradley Weiss (RSA)
- Sam Laidlow (FRA)
- Frederic Funk (GER)
- Clement Mignon (FRA)
- Aaron Royle (AUS)
- David McNamee (GBR)
- Ben Kanute (USA)
- Rico Bogen (GER)
- Alistair Brownlee (GBR)
- Max Neumann (AUS)
- Marten Van Riel (BEL)
- Javier Gomez (ESP)
New scoring system also arrives
Alongside the announcements of dates, locations and contracted athletes, the PTO has also revealed a new scoring system to accompany the series.
First-placed athletes will secure 35 points, with points then reducing for each place down to 20th, which would earn an athlete one point.
Meanwhile, the Grand Final will have an increased points tally, with 55 points available for the run, dropping down to four points for 20th.
The PTO's existing World Rankings system will remain, meaning athletes racing other events will still be able to earn points to their end-of-year PTO rankings.
