The latest change to the T100 Triathlon World Tour calendar sees Oropesa del Mar replace Valencia as the venue for the 20 September races.
The Professional Triathletes Organisation have had to deal with a number of challenges this year, the most notable being the “postponement” of T100 Lake Las Vegas and substituting that event with T100 Woolongong 8,000 miles away on the other side of the world in Australia.
But this latest news does mean that they are set to hit their target of nine races in 2025, culminating with a finale in Qatar in December.
Where is Oropesa del Mar?
Oropesa del Mar is a historic town in Castellón, located just 45 minutes from Valencia and the PTO says it “offers an exceptional setting along with a well-regarded triathlon course and infrastructure to host the professional races”.
Plenty of the world’s top 20 female and top 20 male triathletes will compete over the T100 distance of a 2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run, taking place on the same date that was initially planned for Valencia.
“We are pleased to announce this new T100 venue for the sixth race of the season and we are grateful to Oropesa del Mar and its mayor, Mr. Rafael Albert, as well as to our partners at the Spanish Triathlon Federation, for stepping up at such short notice to help us deliver a world-class event,” said Sam Renouf, CEO of the PTO.
“We have always wanted to stage a competition in the Valencian Community as originally planned. It was important for us to ensure a T100 race remained in the key Spanish market, while also keeping our promise of a nine-event T100 circuit announced at the start of the season – and we have achieved that.”
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However Renouf also admitted that the changes – and this one comes just a month out from the race – haven’t been ideal.
He added: “Of course, we acknowledge that this year there have been some challenges in the T100 calendar that both our professional and amateur athletes have had to deal with, and we are very grateful for their continued patience and support.
“Delivering world-class triathlon events is never simple, especially when building a new series – as anyone in the industry knows well. But we are very satisfied with the first four T100 races of 2025 held in Singapore, San Francisco, Vancouver and London. Each has raised the standard and clearly shown the direction we want to take the series and the T100.
“Now we look forward with excitement to delivering the second half of the season, beginning in a few weeks with our brand new French Riviera T100 weekend.”
What the news does mean is that Hayden Wilde, the only athlete – male or female – to have won more than one T100 race this year, looks set for what he termed a “diabolical” September schedule.
He’s set to race Oropesa del Mar even though it’s sandwiched between WTCS events at Karlovy Vary (14th September) in the Czech Republic and then Weihai (26th September) in China, both of which he currently intends to compete in.
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