Ironman announced today that the Pro prize purse for the 2014 70.3 World Championships in Mont-Tremblant, Canada was upped by $50,000 - making it now an impressive $250,000 total purse.

At this time the GoPro Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii offers the most money with a massive $650,000 amount and with that new $250,000 purse now would make the 70.3 World Championships the second richest.

"A quarter million prize purse is exactly what we were aiming for in Mont-Tremblant and we are happy that this will be given this September in Quebec," said Dominique Piche, the race director of Mont-Tremblant to slowtwitch. "I sincerely believe that this will drive up the competition and certainly the region will be ready to host the best in the world to compete for that prize purse."

The Abu Dhabi International Triathlon had until recently a $230,000 purse but now only shows $193,000 for both the long course and the shorter course. But that race also adds quite a few perks for the Pros with flights and hotels etc.

Other races with big purses are Ironman Melbourne, Frankfurt and Ironman Mont Tremblant and each of these regional championship events offers $125,000 purses for the Pros. Plus there are some other benefits in addition to the highly sought after Kona points.

Metaman Bintan in late August offers $134,000 for the Pros plus some travel and lodging assistance and the Koh Samui Triathlon in Thailand on April 27 has a $115,000 purse for their long course 4k swim, 122k bike and 30k run event, plus there is additional cash for Masters racers.

The Euro 73,500 purse at Challenge Roth is just below the $100,000 mark as the currency is handled now, but they also offer home stays and other travel help for Pros and age groupers.

Edit: We almost forgot that Rev3 Quassy also has a $100,000 purse for this half distance race in early June.