Elite Race Series
SERIES CREATES DRAFT-LEGAL OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME
By John Martin
There is no need to travel outside the country to get draft-legal racing experience.
Thanks to the USA Triathlon Elite Race Series, the United States’ top emerging triathletes will no longer have to stage a remake of the 1987 comedy “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” to search for the valuable draft-legal racing experience necessary to climb the ladder in the National Team Program pipeline.
With very few International Triathlon Union Continental Cups contested in the United States in the past, newly minted professional triathletes have been forced to travel extensively with the hopes of boosting their international ranking. Thanks to this series, times are changing.
“There is no need to travel outside the country to get draft-legal racing experience,” said first-year elite Kaleb VanOrt, who has raced just a handful of draft-legal events. “Most of the Continental Cups in Central and South America are difficult or very expensive to get to, so having domestic races makes it a lot more convenient to gain the necessary draft-legal experience.”
Comprised of five events, the 2011 USA Triathlon Elite Race Series delivers an opportunity for the nation’s top Olympic-distance triathletes to compete for more than a quarter million dollars in prize money and a series title — all while honing the draft-legal racing skills necessary to challenge for the podium at the London Olympic Games in 2012 and beyond.
All five of the events will be ITU Continental Cup races, meaning promising triathletes have the chance to boost their international standing with key rankings points that can open the door to compete at the highest level of the sport.
The series kicked off on March 5 in Clermont, Fla., and continues with events in Monroe, Wash. (June 25), San Francisco, Calif. (July 9), Buffalo, N.Y. (Sept. 24) and Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Oct. 9).
For USA Triathlon National Events Director Jeff Dyrek, who manages the logistics of the series, the aim is twofold. The main goal, of course, is to give U.S. athletes the chance to compete in draft-legal events on their home soil. Only two Continental Cups were held in the U.S. a year ago.
“For the up-and-coming athletes, they had to travel to South America, Central America and Europe to get those points needed to raise their game to a World Cup event or a World Championship Series event,” Dyrek said. “Being able to have five ITU points races on U.S. soil is going to create a lot of opportunities for athletes to get that experience and earn those valuable ITU points.”
50 USA TRIATHLON SPRING 2011
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