World’s top female triathlon stars set for THREE huge showdowns in just FOUR weeks, but is it too much of a good thing?

Jonathan Turner September 19, 2024

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World’s top female triathlon stars set for THREE huge showdowns in just FOUR weeks, but is it too much of a good thing?

It has been confirmed that just like T100 Ibiza next weekend, all 17 contracted T100 women currently racing are also on the start list for the Lake Las Vegas T100 Triathlon on October 19.

It means that the big six favourites for this Sunday’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice – Lucy Charles-Barclay, Anne Haug, Laura Philipp, Kat Matthews, Chelsea Sodaro and India Lee – are all scheduled to take each other on THREE times in the space of four weeks.

It’s the clearest indication yet of the changing landscape of middle and long-distance racing, with the best racing the best on a regular basis rather than just once or twice a year.

Ibiza a big ask

That is the positive spin, but it does raise a number of questions.

The most obvious of which is how can the likes of those six athletes – and others – be in anywhere near top shape at T100 Ibiza just six days after the most important full-distance race of the season?

However, with the T100 series now being seven races rather than eight and the scoring best three plus Dubai, quite a few of the athletes – including British trio Charles-Barclay, Matthews and Lee – do have a bit of wriggle room. So the fields – especially Ibiza – could easily be subject to some late changes. Watch this space.

Kat Matthews T100 Triathlon London 2024 Finish — Kat Matthews finishes third at T100 London in July 2024 (Photo – PTO).

Who’s likely to benefit?

But as things stand both T100 Ibiza (97.17) and T100 Lake Las Vegas (97.17) actually have a higher strength of field [click here for what that means] than the IRONMAN World Championship (95.61) itself.

And two of the biggest beneficiaries could be the world #1 and #3 ranked athletes – Taylor Knibb and Ashleigh Gentle respectively, neither of whom are racing in Nice this Sunday on a course which includes a hilly 180km bike element and a marathon in the heat of the day.

Australian Gentle is in pole position anyway as the T100 series leader but Knibb, the winner of T100 San Francisco, needs to notch one more good result as she returns to middle-distance action after her silver medal as part of the Team USA Mixed Relay squad at the Paris Olympics.

But there’s little margin for error for Tokyo Olympics winner Flora Duffy who needs to race both Ibiza and Lake Las Vegas to put herself in contention for the final in Dubai.

The women’s race in Las Vegas will at least avoid the hottest temperatures – it starts at 0815 local time on Saturday 19 October, with the men’s pro race going off at 1415 the same day.

And the 80km bike course promises to be an interesting one – it consists of five laps which each start with a steep 20% gradient climb onto a rolling course. The total elevation is more than 1,400 metres – the most on any bike course in the T100 series.