It was never going to be pretty for the PTO [the Professional Triathletes Organisation] or the sport of triathlon after what happened in the men’s race at Dubai T100.
There was confusion, bewilderment and anger as things unfolded and you can read about that here.
Belgian superstar Marten Van Riel was in the thick of the action and to give what follows some context, he is the reigning men’s T100 champion. And the PTO is the body that represents professional triathletes, aiming to elevate the sport and create a more professional structure, including its own racing series, the T100 Triathlon World Tour.
With incredible irony, Van Riel sealed that title in Dubai around this time last year.
‘Professional can go’
But taking to Instagram after the Dubai race, he said: “Shoutout to the real winner today; @ironmantri
(Sorry @morgan_cadwell_pearson 😜)
“I will give a bigger update on the whole situation later, but I am honestly quite devastated right now. I not only lost 10s of thousands of dollars, but I mostly feel let down by an organisation I tried supporting and sacrificed a big part of my season for. I think the professional can go and we can just call it the “triathlon organisation” from today onwards 😉”
Clearly emotions were running high but this came a few hours after the race. The @ironmantri reference is to the rival IRONMAN Pro Series.
How will Qatar play out?
The T100 season is scheduled to finish with a grand finale in Qatar in December.
And going into that Hayden Wilde still leads the way with a perfect score of 140 from his best four counting races.
But plenty of athletes, including Van Riel, will feel massively frustrated by what happened in Dubai.
He, Wilde and Mathis Margirier all ended up doing an extra bike lap and the reason for that will be hotly debated between now and Qatar. The end of the run was even more chaotic too – find out why here.
