T100 Sees More Than 6,000 Age Groupers Race in London
Photos: Kevin Mackinnon
All eyes were on London for the pro races at the fourth stop of the T100 Triathlon World Tour on Saturday, but there was a lot more going on than just a couple of elite events. Over Saturday and Sunday, T100 London saw more than 6,000 age groupers compete in a variety of races. Some of the amateur races were before the pro events on Saturday, while the rest took place on Sunday, giving the age groupers in attendance the chance to take in the top-level racing as spectators and fans of the sport.
T100 London offered age groupers four options for individual events. There was a super sprint, a sprint, an Olympic-distance race and the tour’s flagship event, the 100 kilometer (62-mile) triathlon. The sprint and super sprint took place on Saturday, with athletes jumping into the water at the same spot where the pros would dive in just a few hours later. After these races wrapped up, the pro women took to the race course at noon local time, followed by the professional men at 2:45 p.m.
On Sunday, things got started bright and early for the 100-kilometer race athletes, followed by the Olympic triathlon a few hours later. While all of the athletes, both amateur and professional, swam the same course, the bike was different. The pro course was designed with fans in mind, so it took athletes on a quick six-mile loop — one they completed eight times. This made for a fun viewing experience for spectators looking to catch a glimpse of Lucy Charles-Barclay, Hayden Wilde or any of the 38 other top pros racing, but for the athletes themselves it was not the most exciting of courses.
That was not the case for Sunday’s T100 age group race. Not only would there have been massive traffic jams if the course had featured eight laps, but it would not have given athletes all that London has to offer in terms of sightseeing. Instead, age groupers followed a three-lap route, on which they were treated to views of Big Ben, the London Eye and more. The run course was the same that the pros followed, with five 2.2-mile laps before the finish inside London’s Excel convention center.
The event offered athletes a lot when it came to a unique, fun race experience, which is why it attracted so many participants. Athletes from all around the world were at T100 London, but there were also some hometown celebrities who made appearances in the race. The most famous in attendance was chef Gordon Ramsay.
Ramsay was slated to race the Olympic triathlon with a group of family and friends, but a medical procedure left him sidelined. He still showed up to support the race and his team, however, rooting them on while promoting his fundraising efforts for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. While he was out of the race, his family wasn’t. His wife, Tana, raced her first triathlon, and his daughter Holly’s fiancé, British Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, competed as well.
All told, T100 London was a massive success. If it wasn’t a fan favorite before this weekend, it soon will be. Race registration for next year isn’t available yet, but anyone interested can sign up to be notified when it opens by clicking here.
Here are some photos from today’s racing:
Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty raced the Olympic-distance triathlon on Sunday.
Greg Welch announcing at the finish line.
We (those watching the live feed carefully) saw you moving ‘at speed’ on the pontoon a second before the men were “placed in the hands of the starter” and you still got that great shot of all twenty in the air.
They’re off!
so cool would love to do a dive in start race
So how long was the bike loop for the run and ride in the 100k.?
For the Pros think 8 bike laps of 10km and 5 run laps of 3.6km.
For amateurs the ride was to Westminster and back; the run was, aiui, the same.
Does anyone know if T100 owns the entire thing? Are they contracting someone local to put it on?
Drafting must have been awfule haha. That’s pretty successful.
Google tells me London Marathon Events organized the race.
Thanks for the summary. With 6000 age groupers it seems that T100 can make a good revenue stream of age groupers in certain locations.
Also I found Adam Peaty’s results elsewhere:
Adam Peaty: Swim – 19:44. Bike – 1:06:25. Run – 56:52 – 2:34:37
Pretty commendable for a big guy probably doing his first sports event longer than a few minutes !!!
The article said the bike loop was three loops for the T100. So I guess it must have been 26.67 unless it was a lollypop shape course where you went one way to the loop, did the loop three times and came back on the “stick”
Thank you, great recap of the Age Group race. It is fantastic to see that T100 can garner big crowds too, albeit primarily for the Age Group events. Would appreciate some comments on the bike course - I heard last year it was rather patchy.
If T100 thinks about making the best broadcast product they should look at Roth and see how much you need amazing crowds throughout the course, not just in 2-3 spots where it is allowed to cheer on the Pros. It is clear from the images that Brits love tri racing and come out to support.
Personally having friends in London and it being with Eurostar just two hours away from Paris, I am low-key interested in giving this a thought for next year or the year after.
Yes, and of course we’re looking at a race that had huge attendance (the London Triathlon, sprint and Oly) before it was rebranded to Challenge London and now the T100. In London Triathlon times, we’re talking about over 10,000 participants pre-COVID, competing with World Triathlon Hamburg to be the biggest triathlon event in the world (bar maybe some Australian multisport weekend or sth with emus). It has basically shrunk by half.
This race has been there for many many years. Always same organization with different hats on. It had passed to challenge before T100 bought it.
It was, roughly 500 metres to get from the Excel centre to the loop and viceversa, I reckon the whole race was slightly long, around 80.6 or so.
I did the T100 race last year and watched the pro’s race on Saturday this year, had severe FOMO down there!
Looks like the run course is actually slightly different this year (turning right off the main drag and then returning to it later on) plus the fact the Sprint and Super Sprint people raced the day before will have made for a better run experience. The bike was class last year, loved the tunnels and then the views along the river.
It’s a shame they have totally messed up Frejus as a AG race and weren’t allowed back to Ibiza. Due to this I don’t think I would give my money back to T100 despite really liking the concept.
yeah the run was much better this way and much less chaotic.
Did T100 buy the race or naming rights? It would be good to see if it’s an owned race.