The Professional Triathletes Organisation has rebranded its elite PTO Tour as the T100 Triathlon World Series. The organisation has also announced that a London event has been added to the 2024 tour, as a result of acquiring the Challenge London Triathlon from Challenge Family.
The London stage of the prestigious event will take place on the weekend of 27-28 July 2024. The traditional Challenge London course will remain in use, with the addition of a made-for-TV event. This will consist of a 100km triathlon contest featuring the top 20 male and female triathlon professionals in the world.
The course takes place within central London, starting and finishing at the ExCel Exhibition centre. The cold water swimming stage takes place in the Royal Victoria Dock, while the cycling stage takes in Docklands, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster. The running stage consists of multiple laps around the Docklands.
PTO CEO Sam Renouf commented: “Our ambition to hold spectacular PTO Tour races in the centre of iconic cities around the world is something we’ve been very clear about – and this race in central London fits that criteria perfectly, which is why we’re delighted to be announcing its acquisition and the plan for the race to be part of the 2024 PTO Tour.”
He added: “Since the PTO’s inception we have had a close partnership with Challenge Family, with shared ideals and ambition to grow the sport. Its history tells us this is a world class event and it’s very much our ambition to continue the good work Challenge started and return it to that status as one of the largest in the world.”
Further stages of the eight-stop tour, which has now been rebranded as T100, will take place over three continents, beginning with Miami, USA, on 9-10 March.
The next stage will be held in Singapore on 13-14 April, followed by a Californian stage in June, the previously mentioned London stage in July, Ibiza in September, Lake Las Vegas in October, Dubai in November, and a Grand Final on 29-20 November at a yet to be announced location.
The event attracts the world’s top long-distance triathletes, including Britain’s double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee. The 35-year old spoke to Dudley News about how much he is looking forward to taking part in the elite event, which will feature 40 of the best triathlete competitors in the world.
He said: “The calibre of racing is high and everyone is still trying to work out how to race 100km right now. It’s that half distance that seems to be raced quite aggressively so having it on different courses across the season will make it really interesting.”
He added: “It’s great to have a full programme with eight races as it will give fans the opportunity to engage with triathlon multiple times across the year. And it also allows us to race against the best in the world eight times so this is the best time in history to be a long distance triathlete.”
“We want to engage fans and bring new fans into the sport and I think this tour is doing that. The PTO wants to be a global sports property and to do that we need to be racing at some of the best sporting locations in the world. It’s brilliant to have one in London, I think every time we have a big sporting event here people will come out and support.”
Brownlee was the ITU World Champion in 2009 and 2011, and the Olympic Champion in London 2012 and Rio 2016. He was also the 2016 Aquathlon World Champion.
The reigning women's Ironman World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay will also be taking part in the T100 this year. The 30-year old from London was an elite distance and open water swimmer before she took up triathlon. After winning the 18-24 women’s category of the 2015 Ironman World Championships as an amateur, she decided to turn professional.
She went on to win the Ironman 70.3 World Championship 2021, with a time distance of 8 minutes over her nearest rival. In October 2023, she won the IRONMAN World Championship, having finished second in 2019.
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