Last Learnings from T100 London

Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

The Professional Triathlete’s Organisation (PTO) has had what one could charitably refer to as growing pains throughout 2025. On the positive front it has delivered on its mission of world-class professional racing across nearly every T100 event thus far this year. It’s also landed another round of sizable investment, which should comfortably allow it to operate for at least another couple of seasons. On the negative, we’ve seen multiple race date moves, as well as not paying out on its 2024 bonus structure until very recently.

At the very least, the PTO never gives you a dull moment.

My family and I recently went on a long European vacation — we flew into London Heathrow and spent a couple of days in town prior to boarding a Disney Cruise Line boat out to Belgium and Norway for over a week. It was only in the final week before we flew out that I realized hey, we’ll be in town for T100 London. So in between the chaos of fitting in as much London as we could into a couple of days on vacation and before entering the Mouse’s boat, I figured at the very least I could check out what was happening with the T100 event.

Let me tell you: I came away pretty impressed. Here’s why.

Big Age-Group Events Give You Built In Spectator Audiences

The sheer size of the following day’s age-group race in London gives the professional event the thing that translates onto streaming screens globally: the almighty spectator audience. (For what it’s worth, this is also a reason why people wind up choosing IRONMAN branded events when they race longer — the crowd vibes help).

Ever since the original PTO-branded Open events in 2022, the PTO has been chasing having large numbers of spectators at its events. Those original races, which tied into World Triathlon and USA Triathlon events, brought out massive (for triathlon) crowds that lined streets and run courses. It’s those things that help make the race bigger, feel bigger. Atmosphere matters. Part of why people watch the Tour de France every year are the spectators. You can’t have one without the other.

The genius of the T100 scheduling in London is that the professional races roughly coincide with athlete check-in for the age-group race the following day. It naturally creates a spectator destination. And it’s a more invested audience, as opposed to when professionals are racing alongside age-groupers; it’s usually the triathlete racing that’s going to know the names of the pros they are rubbing shoulders with, rather than their families. Or, if they are going to inspire their families to start following the sport, you have someone to help explain the who / what / how of what’s taking place.

It’s smart. And it simply has to be the model forward for the other T100 events — assuming that, of course, the end game remains to help build a sustainable media-rights based business. That remains the multimillion dollar question; what is the actual end-game, here? If it’s on media rights, which it would appear that the PTO is as primed as any to capitalize on, having spectators on course is a critical component. Which means that either a.) the age-group race business has to become self-sustaining, or b.) they need to continue to look at partnering with existing large races to run a similar model as to what happens in London.

There’s another ingredient missing in London.

The London Pro Course Does Not Show Off the Location

Well, unless you really like the area around City Airport.

Located well to the eastern side of the city, the home base for the T100 event is a necessary one; it’s by far the best spot in the city for a safe swim. But, unlike the age group race the following day, which takes athletes on a three lap course all the way back to Westminster and past iconic city structures like the Tower of London, the pros race a much shorter, multi-lap circuit that is far more industrious.

It simply misses the mark on what could, and should be, the crown jewel of the T100 event circuit. The courses need to bring just as much personality as the athletes do. Kona looks iconic. Roth looks iconic. Heck, even the Ibiza T100 event had a fantastic look to it. We need to see these athletes in London.

The Age Group Model – What Will it Take?

The PTO has done a somewhat good job building up age group events in a couple of locations. Namely, here in London, as well as in Singapore and in Dubai. There’s still plenty of work to be done; the now cancelled Las Vegas event, for instance.

They’ve hired some of the right people to make that happen. Eric Opdyke is now part of the PTO/T100 team. That name should be familiar to athletes who’ve been around for a little while; Eric was the long-time race director turned face of the franchise at Rev3. One could easily make the argument that Rev3 was the last sizable race series challenger for age-group dollars to IRONMAN. And Eric’s got experience in building memorable experiences and events for both professionals and age-groupers. When given the resources, he puts together a hell of an event. (Disclosure: yes, we worked together back in the day.)

The bigger question is on those resources. If there’s conflict between professional needs and age grouper ones, which wins out? We know the answer at IRONMAN. We don’t know the answer yet for T100. And that, ultimately, might be the biggest hurdle they have to overcome.

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