The T100 World Tour recently made its first stop in Europe as triathlon’s shiniest new series reached the halfway stage of the inaugural tour, and we were on hand to watch the action and look at how things are progressing.
Six months ago the PTO announced the launch of the tour to much fanfare, with a bold claim to make triathlon a top-10 sport, which certainly raised a few eyebrows.
Things did not get off to the best start in Miami, with the broadcast blighted by several issues and the multi-lap course making it hard to work out who was where (you can read our verdict here). But since then we have seen progress across the races, and London for me was the best one yet.
Investment in fan experience paying off
It is clear that the PTO is genuinely putting its all behind making triathlon a much better broadcast product. The on-screen experience for the fan is leaps ahead of others within triathlon and is at last starting to get up there with some of the leading major sports with data a focal point. Viewers (and the commentators) can keep track of the live positional data, percentage of maximum heart rate (to view how hard athletes are racing), and pace/speed.
The challenge of following 20 different athletes allows viewers and commentators to see what is going on all over the course, while the pictures focus on one or two of the main groups. Fans can also benefit from a second-screen experience where live data can be viewed on position, gaps to the next athlete, pace, and percentage of max heart rate. We also had a new feature in London, live virtual standings for the T100 tour – that might come in very handy given the complexity involved. Remember only the top 3 races plus the series final count.
The commentary team
Another feather in the broadcast cap is the commentary team – they seem to have a great rapport and are able to share knowledge in a way which helps newcomers to the sport make sense of the action. Jan Frodeno, one of the greatest athletes of all time, looks like he might be making a play for a similar moniker when it comes to broadcasting. He’s confident, speaks his mind in a forthright and insightful way, and it comes across as pretty effortless. Pretty strong start…
The team also, positively, appears to have an element of independence from the PTO and is able to call out things which are not a great look – drafting being a case in point. It shows a desire to put the viewer first, ahead of any thoughts of reputational protection. This is what the sport needs, the product needs to take precedence.
Leveraging pros for mutual benefit
The PTO really is working with the pros in a symbiotic way to help elevate their profiles in a mutually beneficial way. The storytelling around the pro athletes and content output has been great to see and helps existing and new fans connect and engage with some of the top athletes in a way that wasn’t really done before.
You have to give fans a reason to care and get them to engage and invest time watching a product. The PTO seems to understand this and has been delivering regular, great-quality content in the build-up to the races. Another great example of this was visible over the T100 London weekend with their broadcast output.
Given the timing of the event this year and the clash with the Olympics, one of their key partners, Eurosport, also an Olympic media partner, decided to refrain from broadcasting the T100 on their channels.
Whilst I’m sure this frustrated the team, they were able to make a decision to make their live stream available to some of their key athletes in key markets. So the likes of Lucy Charles-Barclay, Sam Long, Sam Laidlow, and Daniel Baekkegard had the live stream on their YouTube channels to utilise their audience to grow interest in the sport.
Smart move – the athletes are all partners in this with the PTO, so it makes sense to share the load in terms of promotion. In short, everybody wins.
Investing in the sport for Age Groupers
To many who haven’t experienced a T100 race yet, it might seem like all of the investment and time is aimed at the pro field, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. While some of the races are just pro races, five of the eight races also have a mass participation element to them. Although the events are branded as T100, they are, in fact, a festival of multi-sport with various distances. In London we had Supersprint to T100, but in Singapore, there were also individual elements to engage newbies.
It was wonderful to see new life breathed into a London event which has sadly lacked investment and attention over the last few years; it should be noted that this event once was the largest in the world with 14,000 athletes taking part. This year we had over 4,500 (this was an increase on previous years).
Based on the atmosphere and the feedback I had from athletes, I’m convinced that number will increase quickly and hopefully bolster the battle to get the sport growing again in the UK.
Drafting (or not) and penalties
One area which is holding back the sport in general is the bureaucracy, and it really needs to be addressed. Triathlon is a sport filled with silly little rules (and people keen to enforce them), yet at times people don’t seem able to make the important big calls which can have major impacts on the race outcome. T100 London was a perfect case in point.
Rico Bogen received a 30-second penalty for his socks not being in the transition box, whilst the drafting on show by the front pack went completely unpunished (not the first time in T100).
We appreciate PTO are working with RaceRanger and that there were operational issues with its deployment in London due to the indoor transition, but surely going to a manual approach would/should have been an option for the race referees.
For the integrity of the sport this needs to be sorted out – we cannot have a situation where an infringement which benefits athlete performance isn’t picked up when abundantly clear, but an insignificant misdemeanour is punished and fundamentally impacts an athlete’s race. This means prize money and points, which can also impact future prize money and sponsorship bonuses.
It is the same in all sports, what we need above all is consistency – both in terms of scrutiny on the course and decision making.
Mid-season grade, and what next for T100?
As we move into the second half of the inaugural season, with stops planned for Ibiza, Las Vegas, Dubai, and the World Series Final, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming clashes with the IRONMAN World Championship races impact Ibiza and Las Vegas in terms of athlete participation and depth of fields. The triathlon calendar continues to be a concern.
The PTO also needs to get on and announce the venue for that big finale in November, we’ve waited too long…
At the midway point I think the series has been an exciting addition to the calendar, and the signs are now more positive that the broadcast product is starting to deliver on some of those bold claims. It’s also good to see investment in that Age Group experience to keep participation strong.
Overall it’s B++ so far – doing a lot right and moving in the right direction. But with definite areas for improvement which can be easily addressed.
