International Age Group Racing MOD WARNING POST 1

mossym

pgibbo wrote: »

Apart from Kevin Thornton, I don't believe they are. I could be wrong there but I don't think anyone else that finished top 3 in a NS race traveled.

Andree Walkin was the only other on that sprung to mind that went but not sure she finished top 3 this year, could be wrong.

fluboy

catweazle wrote: »

I would suggest he is representing Lotto-Belisol here.

The caption under the picture that I found is "The Australian cyclist Adam Hansen fully enjoyed the madness in the Tour de France on Thursday 18th of July"


Anyway I am only asking you why a picture of an Irish athlete holding a beer would annoy you. The picture from the Tour shows you that an athlete competing at the highest level, in the toughest stage of the race in the hardest race on the planet did the exact same thing as the Irish fella did.

From what I know this lad had a bad race, his race was over so he decided to make the most of it and have a bit of crack along the way. IMO it was a great picture

tunney

fluboy wrote: »

The caption under the picture that I found is "The Australian cyclist Adam Hansen fully enjoyed the madness in the Tour de France on Thursday 18th of July"


Anyway I am only asking you why a picture of an Irish athlete holding a beer would annoy you. The picture from the Tour shows you that an athlete competing at the highest level, in the toughest stage of the race in the hardest race on the planet did the exact same thing as the Irish fella did.

From what I know this lad had a bad race, his race was over so he decided to make the most of it and have a bit of crack along the way. IMO it was a great picture

Because the "athlete" in the Irish trisuit (I'm going to guess was one of the "other kind" of athletes with a physique to match) was d1cking about when his sole goal *should* have been finishing time.

Hansen's, and indeed all pro cyclists, job is not necessarily to win but to get as much positive publicity for their sponsors as possible. That may be by winning a stag or it may be as someone on a team domiciled in a massive beer drinking country taking a slug of beer on the second pass up Alp d'Huez. I'll venture a guess that alot of posters never heard of Hansen nor Lotto Belisol outside of this photo.

bryangiggsy

fluboy wrote: »

The caption under the picture that I found is "The Australian cyclist Adam Hansen fully enjoyed the madness in the Tour de France on Thursday 18th of July"


Anyway I am only asking you why a picture of an Irish athlete holding a beer would annoy you. The picture from the Tour shows you that an athlete competing at the highest level, in the toughest stage of the race in the hardest race on the planet did the exact same thing as the Irish fella did.

From what I know this lad had a bad race, his race was over so he decided to make the most of it and have a bit of crack along the way. IMO it was a great picture

The picture will not tell that story around the world. Will more likely reinforce the old stereotype "theres the Irish on the piss again".
Sure they dont care about representing their country. Its an embarassment imo.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

I cringe when i think back to putting my name down to "race for Ireland":rolleyes: in 2011 for the 2012 Euro AG Long Distance race in Roth. Firstly because there was no qualifying criteria which made a mockery of it and no sense of achievement, secondly i was a little naive back then, thirdly i was not going to be competitive in my AG so what was the point.
Thankfully i seen some sense and did not buy get ripped off on buying the tri suit or any other associated costs.

AG World Champs have their place but the qualification needs to be tough that we send only our best/select few...thats if they even want to, probably not.

pgibbo

Huff n Puff wrote: »

The argument in the blog post can be summed up as follows. Represent your country in age group races all you want. You can be proud of this. Just don't try and kid people into thinking it is a bigger achievement than it actually is. Don't delude yourself. You were at the 'AMATEUR World Champs' (keyword in capitals) that had a free for all entry policy in Ireland. Don't be silly and try to pass it off as the actual world champs and don't go around claiming you are in the top 100 triathletes in the world afterwards. This is called modesty. The blog post only applies to a small % of age groupers.

This reminds me of a git I overhead bragging on holidays about how he was in the top 10 for his age in triathlon in the world after the last World Champs in Auckland. Proud as punch he was :rolleyes:

traxam

Sandra Enough Tonsil wrote: »

I cringe when i think back to putting my name down to "race for Ireland":rolleyes: in 2011 for the 2012 Euro AG Long Distance race in Roth. Firstly because there was no qualifying criteria which made a mockery of it and no sense of achievement, secondly i was a little naive back then, thirdly i was not going to be competitive in my AG so what was the point.
Thankfully i seen some sense and did not buy get ripped off on buying the tri suit or any other associated costs.

AG World Champs have their place but the qualification needs to be tough that we send only our best/select few...thats if they even want to, probably not.

<snip>

tunney

traxam wrote: »

<Snip>

Yes yes he did. He won his age group.

traxam

tunney wrote: »

Yes yes he did. He won his age group.

LOL

Oryx

Before I knew how it worked, I used to think that AG qualifying was hard, and worth something. I thought it would be something to aspire to after years doing this stuff. Until I looked at the criteria quite recently, and realised it was a bit of a racket, with people qualifying for distances they had never even raced before, let alone qualified in.

It has to be all about the money, to attempt to send such a number of athletes from such a small country. And I know there is a finite amount of really good triathletes in this country, because you see the same faces at the sharp end of every race. And to be fair, I think they must see the worlds for what they are, and they don't go.

BTH

Oryx wrote: »

Before I knew how it worked, I used to think that AG qualifying was hard, and worth something. I thought it would be something to aspire to after years doing this stuff. Until I looked at the criteria quite recently, and realised it was a bit of a racket, with people qualifying for distances they had never even raced before, let alone qualified in.

It has to be all about the money, to attempt to send such a number of athletes from such a small country. And I know there is a finite amount of really good triathletes in this country, because you see the same faces at the sharp end of every race. And to be fair, I think they must see the worlds for what they are, and they don't go.

I used to think this, hence my publicly stated goal at the start of 2012 of qualifying for London this year. The ease at which people were signing up for Athlone in 2010 didn't really register for me at the time as that was only my second race. I figured qualifying for London would be difficult enough given its close proximity.

Turns out I qualified with ease, it was never in doubt. I had a great year in 2012 anyway, but when I realised how easy it was to qualify, and then saw the ridiculous entry fees, it made not being able to go (because of illness this year) much easier to take and I'm not sure I'd bother looking at the possibility again.

Oryx

What were the costs involved, BTH? I never got that far.

sconhome

Oryx wrote: »

What were the costs involved, BTH? I never got that far.

Savage!!

Reserve your intention - €20/25 (?)
Race registration £200 odd
Accomodation anywhere from £100 per night
Food & drink
Flights
Bike transport

If you got out of it for €1200 you did well.

BTH

Oryx wrote: »

What were the costs involved, BTH? I never got that far.

Race entry fee were (copied from e-mail from TI)

Standard Distance: £195 (€225)
Sprint Distance: £185 (€215)
Aquathlon: £79 (€91)
Standard Distance + Aquathlon: £224 (€260)
Sprint Distance + Aquathlon: £214 (€247)

Throw in a new trisuit on top of that.

I had withdrawn early enough so I don't know what other costs may have been involved.

Oryx

BTH wrote: »

Race entry fee were (copied from e-mail from TI)

Standard Distance: £195 (€225)
Sprint Distance: £185 (€215)
Aquathlon: £79 (€91)
Standard Distance + Aquathlon: £224 (€260)
Sprint Distance + Aquathlon: £214 (€247)

Throw in a new trisuit on top of that.

I had withdrawn early enough so I don't know what other costs may have been involved.

Tbh, it seems cheap compared to all the Ironman kerching.

tunney

Oryx wrote: »

Tbh, it seems cheap compared to all the Ironman kerching.

Ah but you cannot get an ITU Worlds tattoo. Nor an ITU branded bed.

Oryx

tunney wrote: »

Ah but you cannot get an ITU Worlds tattoo. Nor an ITU branded bed.

Wow! Take my money WTC, for I simply must sleep like an Ironman!

RacoonQueen

BTH wrote: »

Race entry fee were (copied from e-mail from TI)

Standard Distance: £195 (€225)
Sprint Distance: £185 (€215)
Aquathlon: £79 (€91)
Standard Distance + Aquathlon: £224 (€260)
Sprint Distance + Aquathlon: £214 (€247)

Throw in a new trisuit on top of that.

I had withdrawn early enough so I don't know what other costs may have been involved.

Jesus

Peterx

It's a great set-up.
Those with the cash get to play and at the same time pay for those with the talent.
What's not to like?

We have something similar in hillrunning. Anyone can get to run for Ireland once they are over 35 in the masters events. A great weekend away. Where the hillrunning organisers let themselves down is not milking the runners for every cent they have:D

ChickenBalls

BTH wrote: »

Race entry fee were (copied from e-mail from TI)

Standard Distance: £195 (€225)
Sprint Distance: £185 (€215)
Aquathlon: £79 (€91)
Standard Distance + Aquathlon: £224 (€260)
Sprint Distance + Aquathlon: £214 (€247)

Throw in a new trisuit on top of that.

I had withdrawn early enough so I don't know what other costs may have been involved.

I actually went to London and spent a bloody fortune - the prices above are correct plus the Tri suit cost €95 and €10 to get my name printed on which I'll probably never wear again unless I go abroad to a race which I hope to do next year. The Expo was a rip off too for the most part...

Accommodation cost me €400 for 2 nights but it was the Crown Plaza and that was cheap as I got a special rate cause there web site screwed up the currency conversion - try it!

After reading these posts I am one of the guys who didn't qualify and now realise how easy it is to get into one of these things. I came 92nd out of 106 in my AG which I'm proud of as I beat a few Mexicans! Anyway, what I do take out of it (apart from a big hole in my pocket) is the experience of this size of event and the determination to qualify legitimately so as to compete for top 20 - maybe Chicago 2015 but doing this will keep me focused for the off season ahead for sure.

PS. I do agree that it should be tougher to qualify for these types of events especially for the people who put the effort in.

littlemsfickle

I feel like people are overly focused on how easy it is to qualify and using this to dismiss the value of competing in the world championships. Yes I agree that the low qualification standards basically mean that if you want to go you can...but the race itself is by no means low quality. KT has been tearing it up in Ireland this year but came 6th in his age group in London. Competing in the race isn't something to brag about but yeah, I think that winning a medal deserves respect.

shotgunmcos

chicofuentes wrote: »

.... The prices quoted are accurate but they are a fraction of the price of competing in a european ironman event. .

Not really. I've done both AG Worlds and Euro IM and to be honest while both were up there in terms of a cool experience. I felt fleeced for the Olympic race in the green vs LD tri! That 90 quid tri suit was worn once and thats it! Most of these ITU events have an open race too which might be a cheaper option than the age group race. You can still mop up the vibe.


With Regard to SS repulsion of a certain type of age grouper...

It just the same category of folk who walk 10k and brag that they completed a marathon. The entry requirements are a bit soft but narrow it too much and how do you fund the high performance programme? I see both sides of the argument here. While the ITU is most certainly a cash cow, it is growing the sport and that is good. People pay, people go. Same with WTC. Gold mines!

Is it dropping the standard of the sport? Quite the contrary. Some 8000 people doing Tri in a closed London last weekend and BBC televising the elite race on a Sunday afternoon is a marvel. The standard of British triathlon is unreal and the depth is there because the sport has taken off. Developing here too, Aileen Reid made the main evening news!

Huff n Puff

Back to writing about puppies, kittens and rainbows for me.

chicofuentes

@ shotgunmcos The trisuit is one issue alright and most people won't wear them at home races as in my view they would be like wearing a target on your back. I had priced up doing IM vs this race and even with expense of suit it cost me much less to do London, but I think I got Michael O'Leary on a very good day when booking flights. Regarding standards, do you drop them initially to raise the profile and get numbers up in a minority sport then make the qualifying standards harder as the interest has been generated. There was an oversubscription to some of the age groups in the olympic race according to some of the mails received.

@huffnpuff appreciate the response, I have never doubted your committment to the sport and having read your blogs I'm fully aware of your coaching for the local club. I feel it was an overreaction to a flippant comment from a 50 something agegrouper. Again in all walks of life people are deluded. A few who you have seen or overheard doesn't merit that response as in the small community that is triathlon in Ireland most are aware when its a few why try and upset the rest.


MOD MOTE - Closing this thread now. I feel its run its course and shutting it down before it gets personal. Also, the original linked article has been removed.