TSP20: The 1991 St. Croix Triathlon

The Streak Podcast is back for Season 2. I’m hoping to do lots more, and better, in 2024. I guess I’m aiming for an episode every fortnight.

In this one I’m reunited with my most popular guest slash co-host from Season 1. According to the Buzzsprout statistics at least. Luke. My brother. Calling in from Newbury.

The last time he was on was TSP14. When we spoke about the 1992 Nice Triathlon. Today we are going to do a similar thing. Looking at an iconic late-80s / early-90s race. By going through some race reports and analysing the video that’s available on YouTube.

The event we are focusing on today is the 1991 St Croix Triathlon.

Why have we chosen this race?

Starting in 1988. St. Croix was one of a few early season races where a lot of the best athletes took part.
For us it was very exotic. We used to study the photos and race reports in Triathlete and 220 magazines. We loved the fact that parts of the course had names. Like The Beast. And Hot Corner.
You could see it on TV. We had the 1989 race on VHS at home. And I could watch 1988 in the library at university. There were very few opportunities to watch triathlon on TV until Eurosport got seriously involved in the early-1990s.
The 1991 edition has a good video available on YT. And the 1991 race was also the first ever stop on the new ITU World Cup Series.

St. Croix Facts

St Croix is in the US Virgin Islands. In the Caribbean sea. The nearest big island is Puerto Rico. The population is 41,000. The island is 35 km long and 11 km wide. You drive on the left. In 1916 the island was purchased by the USA from Denmark. In 1927 the inhabitants were given US citizenship.

The island's highest point is Mount Eagle at 355 metres above sea level. There are two major towns. I’m not sure if one is the capital. Frederiksted on the western end and Christiansted on the northeast part of the island. Frederiksted is famous for its Victorian-era architecture.

Previous Races

The race was first organised in 1988. And was called The America’s Paradise Triathlon. And promoted as Beauty and the Beast.

It’s worth spending a few paragraphs to set the scene and explain how important the race was in 1988. Here’s the intro to the July 1988 Triathlete (USA) race report.

Hot Sun and hotter competition open the season in St. Croix. The whole island of St. Croix couldn’t stop talking about the America’s paradise Triathlon. Cab drivers, hospital workers, street vendors. Everyone was either going to watch the race, volunteer or participate. This was to be the biggest sporting event ever to hit the island.

And the tri-heads were talking too, mostly about the tough course, the money being offered and the early timing of this season’s first major race. Would April 10 be too early?

“Last year I didn’t race until June 1”, said Mark Allen. “So this has cut my base-building period almost two months short. I’ve had to start my speed work much earlier. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in this time of year. I think most other people are ready too.”

The incentives for the sports elite to come to St Croix were substantial. First there was the money. $10,000 for the winners, down to $750 for 10th place. And $30,000 in cash premium incentives or primes (pronounced preems). There were 7 primes for men and women for leading or posting the fastest split at different points of the course. An athlete had to finish in the top 25 to be eligible for a prime.

Then there was a new Toyota Celica (worth $16,000) and another $5000 for the triathlete with the fastest time that beat the Super Team Challenge. The combined times of swimmer Mary T Meagher, US national team cyclist Meg Gordon and 1984 Olympian runner Missy Kane. Who completed their respective legs the week before. Their combined time of 4:36 without transitions. Was the time to beat by the triathletes with transitions.

Seems like only a man could go after that. In fact. All the top 10 men beat the time. Zero women. Hanssen did 4:38. And there was more controversy about the primes at the prize giving. But I’ll go over that later.

The idea for the race came from Renny Roker, a film and television producer and actor (Hill Street Blues) who happened to see the ABC Ironman broadcast 3 years ago. He wanted a televised event like the ironman to take place in the virgin islands where he was born. He got NBC to commit to a 90 minute special and called CAT sports, the creators of the USTS to run the event.

In exchange for valuable exposure for the island, the local government agreed to repave most of the course’s roads. Before the mahogany road section would have made the worst road in Baja California look like a freeway. The new asphalt would be as smooth as glass.

Virtually all the sport’s top athletes were showing up with the exceptions of Richard Wells and Erin Baker from New Zealand. Mark Allen and Mike Pigg were the hot picks to win for the men. The rest of the big four were there too. Scott Tinley, Dave Scott and Scott Molina. Brooks Clark, Harold Robinson, Andrew MacNaughton, Paul Huddle, Biathlete King Kenny Souza, Brad Kearns, Chris Hinshaw, George Hoover, Steve Fitch, Texas whiz kid Lance Armstrong, Mac Martin, Nick Taylor and West Germany’s Wolfgang Dittrich, Jurgen Zack and Jorg Ullman. Rounded out the impressive elite field.

For the women, Kirsten Hanssen was the odds-on favourite. Then came Sylviane and Patricia Puntous, Jan Ripple, Colleen Canon, Paula Newby-Fraser, Sarah Coope, old-timer Julie Moss and newcomer Julie Wilson.

As the athletes started arriving, they came face to face with the toughness of the 3km swim, 95 km bike and 20km run course. And everyone was talking about The Beast. About 28 miles into the bike it was a tortuous climb of nearly a mile. Pre-race publicity promised triathletes would be forced to weave back and forth to make it to the top. More than one triathlete would call home after his first pre-race ride over the course and have someone Fed-Ex a 24-13 freewheel to make the climb easier.

The races in 1988 were won by Kirsten Hannsen and Mike Pigg. Two of the most dominant performances ever. Pigg cycled over 7 minutes quicker than Allen. Hanssen finished over 13 minutes ahead of Paula Newby-Fraser.

British athlete Sarah Coope was 9th. Glenn Cook was there too. But he punctured and didn’t have a spare. There’s a picture of him in Triathlete magazine walking up The Beast pushing his bike.

A note about the primes. There were three different types. Splits. Arriving at specific points. And what we now call segments.

They were: End of swim. First athlete through the Hot Corner. The Beast Segment. First athlete through Frederiksted. An 11 mile segment between Frederiksted and Christiansted. The Buccaneer Hotel 1 mile loop. And the first athlete to get to the run turnaround.

Here’s that controversy. Also from the July 1988 race report.

“St Croix really pulled it off,” agreed champion Pigg. “It was A1 plus.”

The race did seem to bring the whole island together with positive feelings. Most people were very high on the event. Except a few pros.

At the awards ceremony that night back at the Hotel on the Cay, the grumbling started when Pigg and Hanssen kept walking back up on stage to collect yet another cash prize.

No one begrudged them their hard-earned awards. By the end of the evening they would claim the largest pay days in the history of the sport. With Pigg receiving $42,625 including the $16,000 car. And Hanssen $22,000.

But when it was announced that the primes for the 11 mile bike and one mile run time trials were invalid because of timing failures. And that the cash would go to the fastest overall bike and run splits instead. Ken Souza and a couple of others were outraged.

“You call this equitable prize distribution?” He moaned. “I specifically came here to go after the three primes. Now I find out that the rules were changed after the fact for two of them. I got reamed!”

1989 had the same big money. A similar depth of field. And the same distances. But this time Mark Allen stayed with Mike Pigg on the bike. Then he ran 4 minutes quicker. Erin Baker convincingly beat Kirsten Hanssen by 8 minutes. There was no talk of prime problems in the race report.

In 1990 there was no race. Here’s an explanation from the March 1990 issue of Triathlete (USA). The article was titled A Tale of 2 Races.

In the world of triathlon 1989 will go down in the books as a year to remember. It was a landmark year in the sports quest for the Olympics with the formation of triathlon’s first unified world governing body. The ITU. And the success of the inaugural ITU World Championships held in Avignon.

1989 was also the year that Mark Allen and Erin Baker proved unbeatable with perfect seasons.

And it will be remembered as the year that some of the sport’s highest profile races fell on hard times. The reasons for the problems at these races vary greatly. For the America’s Paradise triathlon in St. Croix's woes were financial. Including allegations of fiscal mismanagement, leading to the race’s demise for 1990. Promises of too much, to too many by the organisers brought the end to this classic event.

The article also talks about problems with the Bermuda Triathlon. Oddly there’s no mention of Hurricane Hugo. Which devastated St. Croix in September 1989. And that they explain at the start of the race video.

The Beast Is Back. Was the headline in the August 1991 issue of Triathlete (USA). Here’s the intro.

It’s not easy being a triathlete. You have to contend with heat, rain, wind, waves, dehydration, hypothermia, cows, churches. Wait, what?
Cows and churches?

At the America’s paradise Triathlon in St- Croix the elements were the easy part. It was a wandering cow and a council of Methodist churches that really made things difficult.

The methodists came within one territorial judge of shutting down the race just days before it was scheduled. And the bounding bovine came within a few feet of colliding with a promptly pedalling Pigg. Mike Pigg that is.

Pigg was screaming downhill from The Beast. The hill, not the cow.
In pursuit of Rob “Beef” Mackle. When he spotted Bessie. The cow was ambling across the course without a care in the world. Except maybe the annoying rope that hung around her neck and that was now strung across the bike course about aerobar high.

“The cow looked like it was tied up but it just started walking out into the road,” Pigg said. “I barely missed it. It was close enough to make me nervous.” Nervous enough to chuck his water bottle at poor bessie. “I hit it and water went everywhere. I think ESPN got it on tape.”

Pigg escaped his clash with the Bovine Beast. But Greg Welch, the next cyclist to come down the other side of the mountain, was not happy with what he saw. “That cow was bucking and rampaging all over the road,” said Welch. “I thought oh no. This could be trouble. But I slowed down and prepared to speed up if the cow came after me.” Was Welch worried?
“I should have taken a spare pair of undies.”

Flashing back to pre-race festivities we find Tom Cooney our intrepid race director going to territorial court two days before the race. Cooney was there to fight an injunction against the race brought by a group of representatives from nine methodist churches. Their beef? That scheduled road closures would interfere with residents' rights to worship freely.

In response race organisers offered to shuttle churchgoers to their services. No dice. The churches answered that the restraining order was meant to be permanent. Saying that services have been held for nearly 2000 years to commemorate Christ's morning resurrection. And they weren’t about to let triathlon interfere ever again.

In a letter to the St Croix Avis, Fredrikstad resident Sigrid E Olsen put the thoughts of a lot of race fans into words. “How unfortunate that many of the ministers have chosen to rail against the timing of the triathlon instead of rejoicing in the positive energy it brings to athletes and non-athletes alike on this island. I’m sure that God in his infinite wisdom would gladly forgive a delay in a structured worship service in exchange for even one day filled with island wide feelings of goodwill and the spirit of peaceful competition.”

Amen Sigfrid! The judge must have agreed because he threw out the church's restraining order.

So the race was held on 5th May 1991. But this edition was slightly different as the race was part of the brand new ITU World Cup Series.

So. What Was The ITU World Cup?

The ITU held their first one day World Championship at Avignon in August 1989. Then the 1990 Worlds took place in Disneyland in Florida.

And a duathlon World Championship was also added in 1990. In 1994 the Long Distance Worlds would start. However, Les Macdonald, the ITU president’s, ultimate goal was to get triathlon into the Olympics.

On the World Triathlon website there’s an article from 2011 to celebrate 20 years of the ITU World Cup Series.

The World Cup series proved to be a huge step forward for triathlon’s inclusion into the Olympic Games. “The IOC needed evidence about the global popularity of the sport beyond one annual World Championships,” said McDonald, President of ITU from 1989 to 2008. “They also recommended that a series of international competitions would enable the ITU to demonstrate the athletic competency of our athletes through consistent head-to-head competition. Our first Honorary President, Gunnar Ericsson and his good friend IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, encouraged me to establish a World Cup series with events on each continent.”

In 1991 there were 11 races in 8 countries. Events were held in: St. Croix. St. Andres, Columbia. Portaferry, Ireland. Vancouver. Toronto. Embrun. Beijing. Texas Hill Country (Also on YT). Paris. Las Vegas. Ixtapa, Mexico.

I think 5 were established events on the professional world calendar. St. Croix, Vancouver, Embrun, Texas and Paris.

Jean-Claude Garot. The owner of Triathlete magazine. Had put in a bid to organise the series. But couldn’t raise a financial bond in time. So the ITU took on the series themselves.

The ITU World Cup has changed its name twice since 1991. To the WTS in 2009 And the WTCS in 2020. Note. From 1991 Until 2008 the ITU held a one day World Championships alongside the one day World Championships. And the World Championship race was never part of the World Cup. So you’d have a World champion. And an ITU World Cup Series champion.

Let’s jump to the race video from ESPN.

Our 20 Highlights:

US-style coverage is great. With a local commentator, Jim Simpson.
Frank Shorter is excellent.
And we love the matching Hawaian shirts.
Baker and Wells on the beach. No tri-suits. Sew-on patches.
The swim start and route. Frank says it’s straight-forward. It’s not.
The four male swim leaders described as Olympic swimmers.
Both Frank and Luke are pleased that wetsuits are not being worn.
The distances are good. 2/50/12. Nod to swimming.
To get a prime you have to finish in the top 25.
10:10 Shorter in transition. Trick Bikes! Looking at Allen’s Huffy.
The race is a who’s who of Luke’s early-90s triathlon heroes.
The mount / dismount line is akind of an approximation.
The Hot Corner!
26:10 Flashback Mike explains the beast.
Mackle’s University of Indiana career.
36:30 Smyers leading. And does a rolling interview!
38:45 Pigg into T2. Over 2 minute lead. Shirt on. Running scared.
41:00 Greg talks about the Mini-Beast. On the golf course.
46:10 Pigg finishes. Very cool. Crowds. Noise. Celebrating.
Disc wheel writing. And J-Discs:

Conclusion

The 1991 World Cup was won by Karen Smyers and Leandro Macedo. From race 2 of the 1994 series the ITU World Cup was draft-legal. But it was still with full length aerobars and disc wheels. At least for the rest of the season.

St Croix never appeared again as a World Cup. But there was an event on neighbouring island Saint Thomas in 1993.

However, the triathlon in St. Croix still exists. From 1992-2000 the distances were kept as 2/50/12. From 2001-2005 the race was an independently organised Half-Ironman. From 2006-2017 the event was Ironman-branded 70.3. Now it’s an indie Half-Ironman distance again.

Did the top athletes in 1991 continue to do the ITU World Cup?

Mike Pigg was 28 years old in 1991 and did 5 more World Cup races in his career. Greg Welch was 27 and did lots more. Mark Allen was 33 at the time and only raced two more ITU World Cup events. Both in in 1991. Winning in Embrun. And a DNF in Texas.

Carol Montgomery was 26 and did lots more. Karen Smyers too. She was 29 in 1991. Paula Newby-Fraser. Also 29. Never did another World Cup.

However the Triathlon Pro Tour started in 1993. This series aimed to re-group classic non-draft events. And provide a traditional alternative to the ITU World Cup. Mike Pigg was very active in these events.

There were 10 races in the series in 1993. Including Ironbridge in the UK. Some others were: St Croix, Chicago, Nice, The Triathlon World Cup on The Gold Coast and Cleveland.

In 1994 there were 12 events. Bath was the UK event this time. Like Ironbridge, another 220 race. Those TPT seasons definitely need some blog posts and maybe a podcast episode of their own in the future.

Here’s a quote from an interview with Mike Pigg on the World Triathlon website. Done 20 Years after the 1991 St. Croix. Outlining maybe that he wasn’t ever really going to focus on the World Cup Series.

What did it mean to you to win that first World Cup then, and now? It was a big deal. Not so much because of the first World Cup but because of how much prize money there was to be had, because of the new location of St. Croix and all of the professional triathletes that gathered at one place.

Of course, from the moment the ITU World Cup Series went draft-legal. From race two in 1994. A new generation of specialised athletes developed. With Sydney Olympic Games Triathlon as the ultimate goal for most of them.

The overall World Cup winners from 1995 to 1999 were: Emma Carney / Brad Beven. Emma Carney / Miles Stewart. Emma Carney / Chris McCormack. Michellie Jones / Hamish Carter. Lorretta Harrop / Andrew Johns.

Links:

TSP14
1991 St Croix Triathlon on YouTube
Triathlete (USA) July 1988. 1988 St.Croix Triathlon race report.
Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1988. 1988 St.Croix Triathlon race report.
Tri-Athlete (UK) June 1988. 1988 St.Croix Triathlon race report.
Triathlete (USA) August 1989. 1989 St.Croix Triathlon race report.
Tri-Athlete (FR) June 1989. 1989 St.Croix Triathlon race report.
220 (UK) June 1989. 1989 St.Croix Triathlon race report.
Celebrating 20 Years Of ITU World Cup History
20 Years Of ITU World Cups With Mike Pigg
German Wikipedia: St. Croix Triathlon
1991 Texas Hill Country Triathlon
Ross’s J-Disc Blog Post