Calls for tougher bike courses at ITU races grow

My latest Letter from Europe column appearing in September/ October's Vo2max.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Javier Gomez, one of the world’s top triathletes. He had plenty to say about the progression of the sport and the ITU’s new World Championship Series which has made its debut this year.

The Series runs over seven races from April to September and visits large cities such as Sydney, Hamburg and London. Although there are some complexities, athletes basically score points at each race and whoever has the most points at the end of the season is crowned World Champion. At the time of writing, Gomez is lying in second overall with just the Grand Final to race in Budapest in mid-September.

The Spaniard is undoubtedly a fan of the Series. “The winner will definitely be the best of the year.”

But interestingly he had a few points where he figures improvements could be made, including the design of the bike courses.

“Every course is flat,” he says. “It would be much better to see at least two or three that were much harder. I mean, we went to Kitzbühel in the Austrian Alps and we had a totally flat course.”

“It would be better for the spectators, more exciting to see breaks go instead of large groups riding together.”

What makes his comments particularly notable is that Gomez’ strongest discipline is running – he has regularly knocked out a 29min 30sec for the 10km run sections this year – and that he would not benefit if bike courses got tougher.

“It would make it fairer for the guys who are better cyclists,” Gomez says, “and it’s good for the sport when different people win.”

He’s not alone in thinking this. Australian triathlon site firstoffthebike.com said in a blog in August that the ITU should, “Put up a super tough bike course and then we'll see how the likes of (Alistair) Brownlee and Gomez et al will fare.”

The WCS has brought triathlon into some of the world’s greatest cities, it would be a positive move to throw some variety into the bike leg and increase the excitement.

Footnote: Javier's second place at Saturday's Grand Final in Budapest was enough to secure his second World Championship title. The bike leg was undoubtedly tough but this was basically because it was pissing with rain and full of potholes. It was still flat as a pancake.