Max Neumann has stated his intention to return to professional racing next month, after an injury layoff that has seen him sidelined for over a year.
Contracted to the T100 Triathlon World Tour in 2024, the PTO announced that Neumann was the first athlete to invoke the T100 Injury Clause this season.
The clause, which allows an injured athlete to miss two of their contracted six T100 races, is explained in full detail below following the organization’s announcement.
“I’m targeting a return at the London T100 event”
For Neumann, the past year has been a real struggle, with setbacks preventing the 28-year-old from building on breakthrough races in 2022 and 2023.
Explaining this situation, he said that “I’ve been injured, which has affected my racing plans. But what it has given me is an opportunity to fine-tune aspects of my training.”
Convinced that he will return to racing better than ever, the unranked pro underlined his short term objective, which was to play a role in the remaining races of the tour this year.
“I want to play my part in the series. I believe in the T100 and think it will have a game changing impact for the sport.
“Winning the PTO’s Ibiza event was an important moment for me and whilst it’s been disappointing not to have been able to kick on from that, these are the type of races I want to compete in and which will take our sport forward.”
The “T100 Injury Clause” explained
A recently made public feature of the ever evolving T100 Tour is the “Injury Clause”, which according to the PTO, allows athletes to miss two of their contracted races through injury in exchange for marketing work.
The organization states that by working with the PTO on “alternative marketing activations”, which help to promote the T100 Tour, athletes will not see their compensation impacted if they are forced to miss races.
The clause also dictates that in addition to the marketing work, the athletes also then prioritize the tour, as “racing in another event within 15-days either side of a PTO Tour Event and NOT racing in the Tour Event will count as a missed Event Obligation, unless otherwise approved by the PTO”.
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