While the Roth, Germany-based Team Challenge has had a string of artistic and financial successes as they have expanded their race schedule to New Zealand, Germany, Austria, France and Denmark, they are now fighting one embarrassing problem child in Spanish court.
Right now, the 50,000 Euro pro prize purse for the October 2009 event has not been paid and there are two separate websites seeking entries for a May half distance and an October full distance Challenge Barcelona event.
Felix Walchshofer’s Team Challenge, the organization that runs the classic Challenge Roth Triathlon and new Challenge events around the world, is suing the 2009 Challenge Coast of Barcelona-Maresme promoter Roberto Mondejar and his Evolution organization on several fronts. One, to force Evolution to pay the promised 50,000 Euro professional prize purse, and two, to stop advertising on their website that they will be running Challenge Barcelona half and full distance races in 2010.
As of this writing, Mondejar’s Evolution organization is operating the Challenge-barcelona.com website and advertises a Half Challenge Costa de Barcelona-Maresme event on May 23, 2010 and a full distance Challenge Barcelona-Maresme event on October 3, 2010. Meanwhile, Walchshofer’s Team Challenge asserts that the Evolution group has no authority to advertise a race under the Challenge brand and has set up a new race organization and is advertising a May 16, 2010 Half Challenge Barcelona and an October 3, 2010 Challenge Barcelona event on their new website, challenge-barcelona.es.
“After the race in October, we decided to cancel the contract with Evolution to continue running Challenge Barcelona events,” said Walchshofer this Wednesday in a telephone call from Barcelona where he is pursuing the second round of a court case against Evolution. ”This happened because they didn’t fulfill many points of our contract and they failed to pay many contractors as promised. For Team Challenge, the quality of our events is most important. And quality means, of course, payment of prize money and the experience of the age groupers. We have to insure the quality of our events and to do so we filed against Evolution in Spanish courts in December.”
Mondejar and his Evolution organization did not respond to several emails and telephone requests for comment.
This week, Walchshofer announced that Team Challenge has formed a new partnership to run the Barcelona events. The new local organizer will be Triathlon Spain, SI, headed by CEO Jose Maria Corrales, the owner of Sport Area in Calella, the race site. The new race director will be Agusti Perez Capdevila and course director will be Jordi Perez Capdevila. Joining Walchshofer and the new organizers in a Barcelona press conference were prominent local politicians Maresme County Government President Josep Jo and Calella Mayor Josep Maria Juhe.
While Walchshofer is pursuing this case on several fronts in order to defend the integrity of the Challenge brand, he says that his lawyers in Germany and in Spain have advised him to let the legal proceedings play out before stepping in to pay the professionals money that Evolution is legally obligated to pay.
Walchshofer says if Team Challenge stepped in now—before getting a legal judgment—to make good on the prize money that Evolution refuses to pay, his lawyers have advised him that Evolution might claim that the payment had been made and they were no longer liable for the payment.
If the legal process fails to compel Evolution, says Walchshofer, “The most important thing is that the pro athletes will get all their money. We expect a resolution of the court case here in Barcelona in a few days which will require Mondejar to pay the money immediately. If this does not happen, we will speak with the new company here which has taken over the agreement and they will take care of the prize money.”
Right after the October event, race organizers promised third place finisher Hillary Biscay that prize money would be delayed one month until all drug tests were announced. On November 10, the results came back and all tests were negative. By December, Biscay had not received her 1,500 Euro travel costs and 3,500 Euro prize money—and neither had any of the top 10 men and top 10 women owed prize money.
Fourth place men’s finisher Graeme Stewart wrote about the situation on his blog, “The Evolution boss has a poor reputation in Spain and it seems unlikely that the pro athletes will be paid until they are forced to do so in court. This process could take months and many of the athletes are now cooperating to seek legal advice on getting the money sooner.”
While generally supporting Walchshofer’s Team Challenge, Stewart added: “It is now the view of many that Challenge should accept responsibility for athlete welfare not just in Germany but in all of their franchised races and pay defaulted prize money. The success of their new races has come from a trusted Challenge brand and good prize money that attracts top pro athletes. If we are left to flounder when things go wrong, however, athletes are feeling let down and betrayed so what happens then?”
Walchshofer’s new Challenge Barcelona organization has made a commitment to give free entry to any age grouper who has been fooled into sending entry fees to the Evolution website and does not receive a refund.
As for the many pros who have formed strong bonds with Team Challenge for their generous expense and prize money policies and warm, personal attention at all their races, Walchshofer offered these words: “We say we will not let anyone stand alone in the rain. We definitely won’t let pro athletes caught in this situation stand alone in the rain.”
Twenty pro triathletes are waiting for Walchshofer to make good on his promise.
