TSP21: My First Wetsuit. My Favourite Wetsuit. One I’d Like To Get Hold Of. And Some History.

Check out the video above of the 1985 Nice Triathlon. From 03:40 to 06:50.
They talk about wetsuits. The main topic of this episode.

I’m back on the mic because a few weeks ago I finished my 37th consecutive triathlon season. I’m planning to do a season review soon. 

But in summary. I raced 11 times. 5 Olympic Distance races and 6 Sprint Distance races. This included 8 local events. A 2 race UK swing. And a train trip to Berlin for a race. Although My training is kinda minimalist. And my equipment is very simple. I still like to race gun to tape. This resulted in me winning my Age Group 9 times. And getting 2nd twice. 

At the first race of the year in Oberschleissheim the water was 15.2°C. That’s pretty cold. But once I got moving it was fine. However the conditions did get me thinking about wetsuits. My first one. My favourite one. The one I’d love to get hold of. And the history.

I bought my first wetsuit. A sleeveless Triathlon Pro from Total Fitness in Swindon at the end of 1989. See it below. The one with red sides. And the 2nd image is a Triathlon Pro ad from 1987. Also, take a look at those Terrapin suits. Wasn’t it great when not all wetsuits were black? 

At the bottom is a blurry photo of me wearing the tiny Triathlon Pro. Taken by my brother at the 1990 Swindon Triathlon. The image quality is not really there. As I’m in frantic motion. And he took the shot on a waterproof disposable camera. But solid positioning at the swim exit.

Images:

Tri-Athlete (UK) May 1988
Tri-Athlete (UK) May 1987
Ross at the 1990 Swindon Triathlon

1989 was my first season in the sport. I did 9 triathlons that year. 4 in a pool. And 5 open water events without a wetsuit. Including the British Junior National Championships at Holme Pierrepont. This venue has some vital UK wetsuit history. That I’ll discuss later.

I didn’t get to Total Fitness very often. So on the day I bought the Triathlon Pro, I also picked up a copy of Mark Allen’s Total Triathlete. And then walked down Swindon High Street to Our Price. And bought But Seriously by Phil Collins on cassette.

Total Fitness was owned by triathlete and fishing enthusiast Trevor Gunning. With John Lillie, the founder of 220 magazine, Trevor also formed Total Promotions. To put on events. They organised the Swindon Triathlon from 1988 onwards. In 1991 the race was absorbed into the 220 Triathlon Series. See TSP16 for loads of info about that first year of the 220 Series. A game-changer for British Triathlon at the time.

The first version of Total Fitness opened on Gorse Hill in Swindon in 1985. The one I visited for the first time at the end of 1988 was at 30 Morley Street. Which had a handy car park just opposite. The retail unit where Total Fitness was is now the Red Dragon Tattoo shop.

In May 1993 Total Fitness Swindon moved to 109/110 Commercial Road. The new shop was only 50m from the old one. So you could still use the same car park. By then they’d also opened stores in Bath and Nottingham. I was a regular at the Bath shop when I was a student. Reading magazines without buying them. And touching equipment that I couldn’t afford.

Total Fitness were also present at events. They’d set up a tent near transition. With plenty of everyday and exotic stuff. The 220 and Total Fitness crew used to travel around in an enormous Winnebago.
Was that Trevor’s or John’s? I need to find out.

The business was a big deal in the late-80s. The first triathlon shop? I’m not sure. There were a few. Especially in and around London. But definitely a must visit venue for the young ambitious triathlete back then.

I wore the Triathlon Pro wetsuit for maybe 3 seasons. Until I grew out of it. Triathlon Pro was started by British triathlete Paul Robinson. With help from established Cornwall-based wetsuit manufacturers Sola. 

They also did some cool leisure wear. Below. I had one of their t-shirts. I also mentioned Paul Robinson in TSP3. As he co-invented an aero bar called the MB bar. Named after his collaborator, Martin Burley.

Image: Tri-Athlete (UK) March - April 1988

The British Triathlon Association first officially allowed wetsuits of any kind in 1986. And they had to be sleeveless and with legs only as far as the knee. They were known as shorties. This was despite the fact that the European Triathlon Union. For their first championship races in 1985. Allowed long-john suits. These suits were sleeveless but with long legs.

Not mirroring the ETU rules was a crazy decision by the BTA. Especially as the 1986 ETU short Distance championships were due to be held in Milton Keynes. Yes. Correct. The Buckinghamshire new town was to host Europe's most important triathlon of the 1986 season. 

Milton Keynes was pretty much the UKs triathlon capital for a few years in the 80s. For the volume of triathlons organised locally, the cool facilities for training and for hosting several championship events. As the town also hosted the 1987 Le Coq Sportif Grand Prix final.

But on 22nd June 1986 the water at Willen lake was a super-chilly 13°C. And the British athletes found themselves feeling even colder than their rivals. As continental European athletes turned up with their long-john suits. While the BTA would not budge and stuck firm by their shortie rule for home athletes. Here’s a quote from the race report in French.

“The British athletes were cursing their federation. As the BTA doesn’t allow the wearing of wetsuits with full-length legs. Just a detail? Most definitely not. As going against what other national federations have agreed can only damage the recognition the sport receives in the UK; while putting their athletes at a competitive disadvantage”

But why weren’t the BTA allowing suits with full-length legs? Here’s Dave Bellingham, a triathlete since 1983 and who also held many posts in British Triathlon, writing in 220 magazine in November 1992.  

The 1986 BTS AGM was held in February at West Bromwich where the main debate of the day was wetsuits. Much of the discussion centred on whether they were fair or not. Remember, in the early days of the sport, the element of toughness remained an important tenet of the sport’s appeal.
The aspects of safety were raised and the end result was to allow wetsuits. But they were to be limited to the shape of tri-suits (i.e. shorties) to reduce buoyancy.

Note also. This decision came after the shock of the 1985 British Long Distance Championships at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham on 4th August 1985. The water had been 14°C. And of the 120 athletes that started. 50 people were hauled from the water. And less than 50 finished.  

Martin Lee told me that race organisers in the UK had started to crack in 1985 though. As he wore a shorty when representing Great Britain at the first ever ETU Short Distance Triathlon Championships at Immenstadt in Germany. And then slipped it on again the week after. At that race in Nottingham. Maybe due to extra warmth and buoyancy. He had a great race. Finishing second. I’ve also seen pictures of athletes wearing basic wetsuits at the 1985 Silver Spoon Ironman in Peterborough.

Things did change officially in 1987 however. As Dave Bellingham again wrote. About the 1987 BTA AGM at Nottingham University.

Wetsuits, helmets and drafting continued to dominate discussions. With full wetsuits now to be allowed. With a maximum thickness of 3mm. To come into line with the ETU and the USA.

I think this means sleeved suits were now allowed. Rather than long-johns. However, if not they definitely became legal in 1988.

Oddly, looking through the UK magazines from this period. I can’t see many sleeved suits. Only Triathlon Pro advertised one in 1988. Although Terrapin did run a small ad in 1987 saying their suits conformed to ETU regulations. So maybe they had a sleeved suit too. 

Regarding that ETU decision to allow sleeved suits in 1987. Below is the start line at the 1987 Short Course championships in Marseille. You can see a few sleeved suits there. Lots of Aquaman stuff. Again. Some colourful suits. Also. Robin Brew. Front centre. In a Speedo. 

Image: Tri-Athlete (FR) Juillet 1987

But in 1988 the hard-man legacy wasn’t the only rubbery concern in UK triathlon. See article from Tri-Athlete (UK) below.

There were worries that some athletes in the UK were intentionally or accidentally wearing suits that were thicker than the allowed 3mm. Sourced from the USA or Australia. That provided extra warmth and buoyancy.

It seems some race organisers were planning to take fat-measuring calipers to suits of any athletes they thought were Naughty Boys!

Image: Tri-Athlete (UK) August 1988

In 1990 the ETU, BTA and ITU all allowed 5mm suits. Check out the Terrapin ad below. I kinda remember that the law allowed 5mm bodies but still only 3mm legs and arms. But I haven’t got any hard evidence for this.  

Image: 220 (UK) March 1990

It seems France never had any wetsuit taboos. Whether that be shorties, long johns, suits with long sleeves or suits with integrated hoods. Judging by magazine images from Tri-Athlete (FR) in 1985 and 1986.

Remember the Nice 1985 video above. It’s the first coverage of that race with visible wetsuits. But what a mix of styles! It’s a really fun watch though. Make sure to watch 08:10 to 09:10.

We see Dave Scott and Charlie Graves in swimming trunks. Yves Cordier in a sleeveless long john suit. Scott Molina in a blue and hot pink suit by Pro Motion. He takes it off in the water. The neoprene looks thick and inflexible by modern standards. Then Mark Allen in a suit with long sleeves and a hood. Oddly the legs are very high-cut. Even higher than a shorty. Like Molina. He kinda struggles getting it off.

Many of the early suits you saw on the French scene in the mid to late-80s were made by Aquaman. Which Yves Cordier was probably wearing in the clip above. Aquaman, a spin-off from diving suit company Merian, started producing triathlon specific wetsuits from 1984.

After testing prototypes in 1983, the Aquaman shorty was available for the following season. Then a long-john in 1985. And long-sleeved suits with thicker neoprene and even one with an integrated hood in 1987! There’s a chance Mark Allen was wearing a prototype of that in Nice.

I’ve put a few Aquaman ads from 1986 and 1987 below. Aquaman is also still around today and super-popular on the French triathlon scene. 

Images:

Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1986
Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1987

It's also worth looking at Nice 1986 from the 3:55 mark. Below. A year on. And nearly everybody is in a wetsuit. Lots of Aquaman. And some long sleeves. Although still not allowed in ETU championship races. Countries could create their own local wetsuit rules. There are also a few shorties. And there’s Molina in the Pro Motion again. 

This brings me on to the suit I’d love to get hold of. And I check ebay regularly for one. But so far nothing. Second hand suits don’t have a very long life I guess. But surely there’s a box of new old stock somewhere in France. That suit is the Winning club branded Aquaman sleeveless suit. 

Winning Club was a membership scheme run by Offpress. Jean Claude Garot’s Brussels based company that published all the Tri-Athlete titles. 

Image: Tri-Athlete (UK) July 1988

In the July 1988 issue of Tri-Athlete (UK) you see Glenn Cook on a Winning Club ad wearing the suit. Membership of the Winning Club was £14.95.

You got worldwide multisport insurance. That was. One of the numerous advantages the biggest sports club in the world offers. You had to send in a stamped addressed envelope though to find out about other Winning Club activities and its membership benefits. 

11 Well Lane. London. SW14 7AE. This is actually the address of a pub called The Plough. Now I have a triathlon mystery I need to solve.

From 1987 you could find order forms for Winning Club branded wetsuits in Tri-Athlete (FR). Below. The price of a suit was 699FF for the sleeveless version. That's about €106 today. Although if you weren’t a Winning Club member you had to pay an extra €7.50 to join .

I thought they were super-cool. And the yellow and blue stripes defined an era of exotic start-lines. A time when we had to get our triathlon coverage and knowledge through studying photos in magazines. 

Image: Tri-Athlete (FR) May 1987

As I previously mentioned I think by the end of the 1991 season I’d grown out of my Triathlon Pro wetsuit. And this was when I bought my favourite ever suit. By a company called Hydro-Tech. 

For a few summers. Maybe 1991-1993. I worked at Perfect Performance. Perfect Performance imported and distributed triathlon products. These included Hed Wheels, Grip Shift, Sport Lace and Swans Goggles.

One of the company owners was top-British triathlete Rick Kiddle. Rick made many British teams and was one of the first triathletes from the UK to spend a winter training in San Diego. Super-nice guy too.

I bought my Hydro-Tech wetsuit from Rick. As he was sponsored by them and got me a good price. It was a sleeveless suit. But with short, blue lycra half-arms sleeves. I wore it at least until the end of 1996. 

Here’s a Hydro-Tech ad below The athlete exiting the water is Rick. Underneath is a photo of me wearing mine while leading the 1996 Dole Triathlon in France. It’s still the best suit I’ve ever owned. For look, feel and performance. The blue arms also made you easy to spot.

Images:

220 (UK) August 1991
Ross at 1996 Dole Triathlon

The USA story I don't know as fully. But it seems a bit more complicated. Here’s the 1987 USTS Baltimore. See 1:30 to 2:20 and 06:50 to 10:55.

Note that the temperature of the water in Baltimore was 23°C. The ETU did not allow wetsuit use at 23°C and above in 1987. 

It seems although rules were locked down by the BTA, ETU and CONADET in France. In the USA it was more of a choice still. And a controversial one. As the safety versus buoyancy / speed debate was still raging. 

See article below. Tri-Fed was only “recommending” that 22°C was used as the upper limit for wetsuit use. Although race organisers were allowed to adjust that 2°C plus or minus at their discretion. WTF?

Image: Triathlete (USA) April 1987

There’s an excellent article on triathlonhistory.com written by Scott Tinley. It covers early wetsuit developments in the States. Here.

It starts with Scott’s early wetsuit experimentation with O’Neil in 1982. Talks about Body Glove’s marketing move to provide free body-only suits to all competitors at the 1983 Ricoh LA Ironman. And Scott’s realisation, from seeing prototypes in Australia, that tight smooth suits with long legs and high necks were the way to go. 

Also the shift from thinking suits weren’t only good for safety and cold protection. But also buoyancy and therefore speed. And finally the emergence of Quintana Roo in 1987. When Dan Empfield was tinkering with suits purely for triathlon. Not being distracted by having to produce products for surfing or other water activities. 

I’ve got some homework to do. I want to look into the emergence of some more early-UK wetsuits brands. Like Terrapin and Snugg. The founder of Terrapin, Buddie Ford, sadly passed away a few months ago.

I’ll also collate some images of wetsuits seen on the 1980s triathlon circuit in the USA. Body Glove, O’Neil, Pro-Motion, Aleeda and QR.

For a final word on wetsuits. Listen to Frank Shorter and Jim Simpson at the 1991 St Croix Triathlon. From 06:45 until 08:20. And for loads more information about that race check out TSP20.

Links:

TSP16: The 220 Triathlon Series - Year 1
TSP3: I Bought 4 Sets Of Scott DH Handlebars
1986 Milton Keynes Report
1985 Nice Triathlon
1986 Nice Triathlon
1987 USTS Baltimore Triathlon 
Danny Boy And The Rubber Suit Brigade
TSP20: The 1991 St. Croix Triathlon

Sources:

220 (UK) November 1992
Tri-Athlete (UK) August 1988
Tri-Athlete (UK) May 1988
Tri-Athlete (FR) 1985 et 1986
Aquaman History
Tri-Athlete (UK) July 1987
Tri-Athlete (UK) February 1987

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 Highlights:

1. US-style coverage is great. With a local commentator, Jim Simpson.

2. Frank Shorter is excellent.

3. And we love the matching Hawaian shirts.

4. Baker and Wells on the beach. No tri-suits. Sew-on patches.  

5. The swim start and route. Frank says it’s straight-forward. It’s not.

6. The four male swim leaders described as Olympic swimmers.

7. Both Frank and Luke are pleased that wetsuits are not being worn.

8. The distances are good. 2/50/12. Nod to swimming.

9. To get a prime you have to finish in the top 25.

10. 10:10 Shorter in transition. Trick Bikes! Looking at Allen’s Huffy.

11. The race is a who’s who of Luke’s early-90s triathlon heroes.

12. The mount / dismount line is akind of an approximation.

13. The Hot Corner!

14. 26:10 Flashback Mike explains the beast.

15. Mackle’s University of Indiana career.

16. 36:30 Smyers leading. And does a rolling interview!

17. 38:45 Pigg into T2. Over 2 minute lead. Shirt on. Running scared.

18. 41:00 Greg talks about the Mini-Beast. On the golf course.

19. 46:10 Pigg finishes. Very cool. Crowds. Noise. Celebrating.

20. 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

Sources:

Triathlete (USA)January 1988
Triathlete (USA) March 1990
220 (UK) February 1991
220 (UK) March-April 1991
220 (UK) April 1993
220 (UK) March-April 1994

Images:

220 (UK) January 1991
220 (UK) June 1991
Triathlete (USA) August 1991
Triathlete (FR) Juin 1991

TSP19: Books To Start Your Triathlon History Journey

I think all modern triathletes should be reading about the sport’s past. Especially the eighties stuff. To understand the history of the game. And decide where we should take it. So here’s a list of 12 books to start your triathlon history journey.

Some of the books are look-backs. And some are books from the early days of the sport. That will give you a cool feel for the era. Decide what you’re more into and go and get hold of some. 

Here we go. In no particular order of favouritism or period.

Triathloning For Ordinary Mortals by Steven Jonas. 1986.

The Jonas reminds us of when preparing to complete a triathlon was a bit of an adventure. The advice within the book reflects this. There’s some fun anecdotes from Jonas’s athletic life. Like how he got into triathlon and his first event, The Mighty Hamptons in 1983. Overall, it’s just a good throw-back read in a modern triathlon world of gadgets, data and Type As.

Triathlon: The Sporting Trinity. By Aleck Hunter and Erik Kirschbaum. 1985.

The first British book about triathlon. I think.

Hunter was a newsagent from Dagenham and one of the founders of the BTA. His first triathlon was the Reading one in August 1982. That was organised by local gym owner Mike Ellis as a training race for the British athletes heading off to do the first Nice triathlon in November 1982.

Kirschbaum, from New York, was a recreational triathlete, German scholar and journalist. Who sometimes wrote for Tri-Athlete magazine. Like the Jonas, The Sporting Trinity has plenty of old school yet still very relevant training ideas. Mainly aimed at beginners. However, the highlight of this book for me is the information, photos and results about the early years of triathlon in the UK and particularly the 1984 season.

Scott Tinley's Winning Triathlon by Scott Tinley with Mike Plant. 1986.

The first of two Scott Tinley books on my list. He’d already won the Hawaii Ironman twice before its publication. But he wouldn’t win again.

This book is a mixture of training and racing tips and stories from the early days of triathlon. I really like the part about triathlon before 1978, the interview with Tom Warren, Tinley’s history of transitions, the story of Team J David and finally his hopes for the future of the sport.

The Triathlon Training And Racing Book by Sally Edwards. 1985.

Edwards was the 5th woman to finish the Hawaii Ironman, a winner of the Western States 100, author of a pile of training books, one of the founders of Tri-Fed and the former owner of the Fleet Feet chain of running shops.

In The Triathlon Training And Racing Book, Edwards conducts in-depth interviews with 10 of the best triathletes of the early-80s to find out how they got started, how they train and what drives them.

I really enjoyed the sample training weeks, the detailed background information about the athletes and learning about some lesser-known athletes like Ardis Bow, Kurt Madden and Linda Buchanan.

Dave Scott's Triathlon Training by Dave Scott with Liz Barrett. 1986.

More of a pure training manual than Tinley’s book. It’s light on anecdotes and heavy on training theory; pulling from Scott’s background in exercise physiology. It was also the first triathlon book I bought. At the end of 1988 from Foyles on Charing Cross Road in London.

There’s technique photos, intensity charts, sessions and season plans. What I read inside in 1988 drove my training for the next few years. My favourite chapter is the one on strength training. After reading it I bought some free weights and started getting my puny body into shape.

The Triathletes by Jeff Cook. 1992.

There’s not many third person narratives out there and this is the first of three on my list. It’s also great to see a book that focuses purely on women’s racing. Cook follows Paula Newby-Fraser, Kirsten Hanssen, Julie Wilson and Jan Ripple through the entire 1989 season.

Starting with the Australasian swing, onto Nice, the USTS races and eventually Kona. There’s also cameos from some of my favourite 80s athletes such as Erin Baker, Colleen Cannon, Beth Mitchell and Karen Smyers.

From a year that is mainly remembered for Mark Allen’s Avignon / Kona double. It’s refreshing to see the season, which was also my first in the sport, from a different angle.

Iron Will by Mike Plant. 1987.

Throughout the 1980s, the late Mike Plant was a triathlon journalist, photographer and race announcer. He was, of course, based out of San Diego; the triathlon capital of the world at the time.

Iron Will is essentially the story of the Hawaii Ironman from the Nautilus Triathlon days in Honolulu, to the move to Kona and ending with the 1986 race. The first Hawaii Ironman to offer prize money.

Growing up with the triathlon in the 1980s I craved stories from Kona. But the only way to get them was in rare import magazines. Reading Iron Will recently has filled in plenty of knowledge gaps for me.

Iron War by Matt Fitzgerald. 2011.

This is the story of the 1989 Hawaii Ironman Men’s Race. Dave Scott and Mark Allen raced side by side for nearly 8 hours before the winner was decided in the last 2 miles.

I believe Matt got little or no cooperation from Dave or Mark. And I think this makes the book stronger, as he really had to dig into the secondary sources and speak to periphery characters.

My favourite parts of the book are not the retelling of the race itself but the anecdotes from before and after. A few years ago Dave and Mark collaborated with Scott Zagarino on their own version of the story that can be found at 1989thestory.com. 

Can You Make A Living Doing That? by Brad Kearns. 1996.

Brad Kearns was a professional triathlete from 1986 until 1995. Mainly on the US circuit but also in Europe, Asia and Australasia from time to time. Can You Make A Living Doing That? has plenty of anecdotes from his 10 years of highs and lows on the tour.

From his first trip to Nice in 1986. To be the first person to use Scott DH bars in a multi-sport event in early-1987. Followed by an overall USTS win in 1991. And then the gradual unwinding of his pro-triathlon career.

It has a self-published feel, is honest and endlessly entertaining. I’ve read it a few times and my copy is even signed by Brad himself. My favourite parts are the stories of his adventures training out of LA and Auburn rather than the popular spots like Boulder and San Diego.

Triathlon: A Personal History by Scott Tinley. 1998.

For me this is the most complete triathlon history book out there. Either in print or in electronic format.

Why? Because it’s a big book, with loads of photos and Tinley has been in the sport since nearly the beginning. He’s also a natural story-teller and has all the right connections to put together this type of reference text.

Read it cover to cover or dip in and out of your favourite eras. I really like the stories of the early San Diego scene.

25 Years Of The Ironman Triathlon World Championship by Bob Babbitt. 2003.

This is a big, hardback coffee table style book. Babbitt combines with other writers. That includes Mike plant, author of Iron Will. And essentially goes through the history of the race year by year.

Some of the write ups originally appeared in Competitor Magazine. Owned by Babbitt and photographer Lois Schwartz. Blog post here. The photos are incredible and there’s also plenty of tangential stories. Like the history of the Timex Ironman watch. That I looked at in TSP6.

Mark Allen's Total Triathlete by Mark Allen with Bob Babbitt. 1988.

This is the second triathlon book that I ever bought. I got it at the specialist triathlon shop Total Fitness in Swindon in the Autumn of 1989. I also bought a Tri-Pro short sleeved wetsuit.

Most importantly, that day I picked up the new Phil Collins album But Seriously on cassette, in Our Price on Swindon High Street. This album was the soundtrack to my first few readings of the book. TMI maybe.

It’s a quick, easy read with chapters on Allen´s early life, how he got into triathlon and some memorable races. Then the book tells the story of The Grip's 1987 season. This book was a huge influence on me as a young triathlete. I’ve probably read it about 20 times.

For some reason I like to buy books in 3s. Whether online or in a brick and mortar shop. I always seem to come away with three books. So here’s some recommendations of trilogies to buy from books on the list:

I’d say your starter bundle should be Iron Will, Total Triathlete and Iron War. To be read in that order. Will, Total, War.

Then make sure you get hold of the early training books. The Dave Scott, then Scott Tinley’s Winning Triathlon and finally The Sporting Trinity. Again. Tackle them in that order.

Links:

The Amateurs by David Halberstam
Assault on Lake Casitas by Brad-Alan Lewis
True Blue by Dan Topolski with Patrick Robinson
A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein
The Green Road Home by Michael Bamberger
The Greatest Game Ever Played by Mark Frost
Brad Kearns
Competitor Magazine
TSP6: The Timey Ironman Watch

TSP18: My 1980s Tri Bike

In the last 18 months I’ve put together a 1980s tri bike. It was a fun project. I really enjoyed sourcing the bits and learning more about the group-sets of the day. I’m going to race it a few times in 2024. 

The aesthetics are based on Mike Pigg’s 1987 Basso and Guerciotti bikes. Below. 1987 was the first season of aerobars. With the Scott DH bar, on Mike’s bike, being the first aerobar to be manufactured in quantity and then become popular with triathletes. TSP3 is about them.

Images:
Sports Illustrated: Triumph For Pigg Power
Mark Allen’s Total Triathlete

Back then athletes were still figuring out how to optimise their set-up around these bars. But the bikes of the time were great. Skinny steel tubes. Downtube shifters. A rear disc with a front spoked wheel. Mid-rail saddle positions and straight-through 7 speed blocks. 

So let’s look closer at my component choices. The frame is a 1987 Peugeot Tourmalet. Most of my own triathlon experience is in France. And I’m pretty obsessed with the 80s scene there. So I wanted a bike that French triathletes of the day might have ridden.

The Scott DH handlebars are made by Nitto in Japan. Probably from 1988. The stem is also a 100mm Nitto. The brake levers are Shimano 600 Ultegra from 1987 and the downtube shifter is Shimano 105 from 1986. 

The cranks are also Shimano 600 Ultegra with the tricolour logo and the chainring is a new narrow-wide one from Wolf Tooth. The pedals are modern too. Shimano Ultegra with the 4mm of extra spindle length.

The rear derailleur is another piece of 105. And the rear wheel is a Spengle disc. Made in Austria. I’ve been told by the Time Trial Collector that it's from 1991 or 1992. Not quite the late-80s vibe maybe. But an upgrade you could imagine being made by an athlete back then. 

The cassette is a straight through 7 speed 12-18. Although I’ve blocked off the 18 due to wheel rub. And the tyres are new Continental GP5000s. 

The saddle is a re-release version of the Selle Italia Turbo. A popular choice in the late-80s. The seatpost is a complicated situation. Peugeot have used many diameters for their road bikes. This is a rare 24mm. 

The brake callipers are Weinmann 570 Alphas. They were specced on a lot of bikes back then. The front wheel is just an old one I had in the workshop. In early-2024 I’m going to build a Mavic MA2 rim onto a Shimano 105 hub.

In August I got out onto my local airstrip to make a YouTube video. Above. I wanted to film the bike before making a couple of big changes. To make the bike much more of a daily rider. 

It doesn’t mean that I won’t take it back to a full-80s look in the future. Or put together another one. Maybe based around a Raleigh Triathlon, a Raleigh Quadra or a Dave Russell frame. 

Let me know in the comments below what you were riding in the 1980s. And if you still have a working 1980s tri-bike these days.

Links:

TSP3: I Bought 4 Sets Of Scott DH Handlebars
Time Trial Collector

TSP17 : Some Munich Triathlon History

In TSP16 I did a bit of triathlon history from near where I grew up in the UK. And then elaborated about the first year of the 220 Triathlon Series. A game-changer for the UK triathlon scene at the time.

As I’m visiting the UK next week. I am going to try to do a Slough Triathlon History Jogging Tour. And record some audio clips on location.

I’ll visit the former location of Dave Russell’s shop in Chalvey. The flats where our local pro-triathlete of the 1980s used to keep his Kestrel 4000 on the balcony. The Copthorne Hotel. Where the Windsor triathlon used to have the Saturday registration and expo. WH Smith on Slough High Street. Where I bought my first ever copy of Tri-Athlete UK. The July 1988 issue. And Agar’s Plough fields. Where the Windsor triathlon run course went the first year it was held in the town centre. In 1995.

Why don’t you try and dig up some triathlon history in your local area? Easy if you live in San Diego, St Croix or Swindon. But maybe tougher from other towns. Let me know if you need any help with your research.

But today’s post is about some triathlon history from my current hometown. Munich. In Germany. Below is a short video on the subject that I made last summer at the Regattastrecke in Oberschleißheim.

The facility was built for the rowing and flat water canoeing events at the 1972 Olympic Games. And it’s still in use for those sports today. It’s a super place to visit for some Olympic history. The boat sheds and grandstands at the Regattastrecke really look like they are stuck in 1972. 

However the tarmac on the rectangular nearly-5km circuit around the lake was brand new for 2023. This makes the venue an ideal and popular venue for local triathlons. Like Dorney or Holme Pierrepont in the UK. The circuit is safe and fast. Some people find 8 laps in an Olympic Distance race boring. But I really like it. The water is also super clean and clear.

I’ve done quite a few events here. And I’ll probably do 2 or 3 more in 2024. There’s even a triathlon stage race every May. Competitors have to do a super-sprint triathlon on Thursday. It’s a German bank holiday. An Olympic Distance race on Saturday. And a half-Ironman on Sunday.

But probably the best field ever assembled here was for a round of the European Golden Cup Circuit on the 23rd July 1989. Golden Cup was a brand of swimwear created by the lingerie company Triumph International. The European Golden Cup Triathlon Circuit started in 1988. Taking over from where the Le Coq Sportif series left off. 

The Le Coq had 16 rounds in 1986 and 8 in 1987. There was loads of great racing involving athletes like Sarah Springman, Rob Barel, Sarah Coope, Yogi Hoffman, Karel Blondeel, Erin Baker, Glenn Cook and Lieve Paulus. I’ve got future blog posts or podcast episodes planned about the Le Coq.

In 1989 the European Golden Cup Circuit had 4 rounds. Munich was the 4th and took place 2 weeks before the first ITU World Short Course Championships that were held in Avignon, France. 

So Munich really was the final tune-up opportunity for athletes heading to Avignon. Earlier rounds of the Golden Cup Circuit had taken place in Geel in Belgium, Nuenen in the Netherlands and Zell am See in Austria. 

Of note in Munich was the fact that some members of the Australian team for Avignon were taking part. They were on a 3 race European preparation tour. They’d already raced in Macon in France on the 9th July. Where Louise Bonham got second in the women’s race. And Greg Welch and Brad Bevan finished 1st and 3rd in the men’s event. 

The week after they raced in Coucouron, also in France. Welch won again. With Nick Croft in 5th and Spot Anderson in 9th. Brad Bevan had a mechanical this time. And Simon Lessing finished third in what must have been one of his very first races for Salon Triathlon at 18 years old. The Coucouron race report is below.

Images: Tri-Athlete (FR) Septembre 1989

Another 18 year old, Miles Stewart, eventually Australia’s first finisher in Avignon in 4th place, wasn’t in France or Munich with the team. 

Miles was one of my favourite athletes in the late-80s. We are about the same age. I think he’s a year older than me. And it was exciting seeing the results he got so young. And reading about his training with his dad, Col.

Of course. Miles won the 1991 World Short Course Championships on the Gold Coast. In a 4 then 3 person sprint to the line. Harold Robinson was dropped with 400 to go. With Rick Wells and Mike Pigg hanging on to the hot pace until the last 50m. In fact, Rick and Mike shared the silver medal.

Miles was training and racing in the USA in 1989. And did USTS Chicago on 9th July. Where he finished 10th. USTS New England the following weekend. Which he won. And then USTS Houston on 23rd July. Which I don’t have a result for. But here’s a good profile below.

Images: Triathlete (USA) October 1989

The podiums in Munich on 23rd July 1989 were as follows. For the women: 1st Louise Bonham. 2nd Thea Sybsema. And 3rd  Mandy Dean For the men. 1st Rob Barel. 2nd Greg Welch. And 3rd Mark Koks. 

I got these results and the following information from the race report below. It was written by Ian Sweet. The magazine’s international correspondant. And published in the September 1989 issue of 220. 

Images: 220 (UK) September 1989

The race started at 14:00 and the conditions were hot and humid. The water was 18°C. The Olympic Distance race consisted of a U-Shaped swim, an 8 lap bike ride around the lake and 2 lap run. Again. Around the lake.

Mandy Dean came out of the water 2:00 ahead of Sybesma and 3:00 ahead of Bonham. She wasn’t caught on the bike either. But a miscounting of laps meant that she had to do a u-turn. Allowing Bonham and Sybesma to catch her in transition. Louise Bonham then proved to be the quicker runner.

In the men’s race Nick Croft and Brad Bevan led the swim. With Rob Barel and Spot Anderson coming out about 20 seconds later. Phil Gable, Jurgen Zack and Greg Welch were about a minute behind.

By the 7th lap on the bike Bevan and Croft had been joined by Barel, Zack, Henning Wackerhage and Welch. Then onto the run Welch and Barel got away from the others. While Mark Koks and Pim Van den Bos were running fast and making up ground. The finish would be a sprint. And although Welch went first with 200m to go. Barel came around him in the last 50.

So. How did the protagonists from Munich do two weeks later in Avignon? Rob Barel finished 5th with Brad Bevan just behind in 6th. Spot Anderson also had a strong race in 9th. Then Pim Van dem Bos in 15th, Jurgen Zack 19th, Nick Croft 21st, Mark Koks 28th and Greg Welch 38th.

The women who competed in Munich were pretty close together in Avignon. Louise Bonham finished 10th. Thea Sybsema 11th and Mandy Dean 19th. Check out my 3 hour trainer edition edit of the Avignon race below.

Until 1992, I think, there was also a team competition at the World Championships. Based on Cross Country points with the first 3 athletes from each country to score. In 1989 the Australian men finished 2nd behind the USA and the women were 6th. They should totally bring it back. Would add some narrative to the boring draft-legal races.

All individual and team Avignon results are here.

In the spring I’m definitely going to get out and do some more Munich triathlon history. By visiting the Olympic Park and taking a trip down to Allgau. To find out about one of Germany’s oldest triathlons.

Links:

TSP16: The 220 Triathlon series - Year 1
1991 World Short Course Championships Blog Post
TSP3: I Bought 4 Sets Of Scott DH Handlebars
1989 Avignon Results

TSP16: The 220 Triathlon Series - Year 1

On the 23rd July 2022 myself and my brother Luke took on the original Windsor Triathlon course. I took my Zoom H1 along and recorded some stuff. I thought I’d lost the audio from that day. But I found it on an old SD card. And decided to write a podcast episode around it. 

An episode not only about that first Windsor race on 23rd June 1991. But also about the first year of the 220 Triathlon Series. Which brought a new narrative and professionalism to the British triathlon calendar.

The Windsor Triathlon was a big deal for us as teenage tri-nerds. Because it brought a big race and top athletes to within 5 km of our house. If you’ve done the Windsor triathlon recently. The course is now quite different to the one used in 1991. More about that later.

The last Le Coq Sportif that became the Carlsberg Grand Prix Series took place in 1989. I covered it in TSP4. And the shorter 1990 series. Proposed by the BTA. And published in British Triathlon Scene. Never happened.

So in 1991 the team at 220 launched their own 5 race triathlon series. It would last 5 years. Add a new narrative to the British triathlon season. And provide plenty of content to fill the pages of the magazine.

The series would make sure that we continued to get a live triathlon on TV once a year. After the demise of Triathlete magazine’s Southport then Portsmouth. Heineken then Donnay race in 1991. The Bath Triathlon in September 1992 became the BBCs televised triathlon until 1995.

Plenty of solid international athletes would also visit the UK to race the 220 triathlon series. These included Carol Montgomery, Rob Barel, Suzanne Neilsen, Greg Welch, Ute Shaefer, Ben Bright, Bianca Van Woesik, Hamish Carter, Alison Hamilton, Chippy Slater and Eimert van den Bosch.

The series also made sure that the top British triathletes of the day raced in the UK at least a couple of times a year. This gave young, up and coming athletes a performance standard to aim for. One of them was me. 

In an interview published in the January 1991 issue of 220, the magazine’s founder and editor, John Lillie, spoke of the aims of the race series:

The aim is to promote the growth of triathlon in this country. To have good races that are up on a pedestal where athletes are well looked after, which are safe, well organised and with good prizes. In every respect they will be first class and other race promoters can use them as a yardstick for them to follow. We want to be the leaders of putting on good races with standards which others will both have to and want to follow.

John Lunt. Race director of the Windsor Triathlon added:  We feel there is a need in this country for a proper professionally run race series. We have had a Grand Prix in the past but there wasn’t one in 1990. And we feel there is a need for it. Five top class races where top athletes can race in the UK and not have to go abroad. All the other budding athletes will see this and want to race on a regular basis against our best.

Similar thoughts from Trevor Gunning. Who was the Swindon Triathlon race director and owner of the triathlon shop Total Fitness: 

The group has been formed really to put the profile of our sport on the highest level. To give it a professional attitude and to give five good events that we know athletes will get full value for money. It’s hopefully going to attract bigger sponsors into the sport and get the media coverage it needs. These factors should mean that we will then see a positive growth to the sport in this country.

In 1989 and 1990 there had been some badly slash dangerously organised races. As explained by Gordon Reilly in 220 in January 1991: 1991 will be the year when Police Forces throughout the country will be making their closest scrutiny of our sport to date. We must ALL cooperate in an effort to ensure that all of our races are sanctioned, safe and run strictly to the book. If we don’t we may not have a 1992 season to look forward to.

To keep order on the road, the organisers were also recruiting and training a team of motorcycle-based officials. Who would move from event to event creating consistent rule enforcement and safety standards. Here’s the ad that was also published in the January 1991 issue of 220.

Wanted: Motor Cyclists. 220 would like to organise a team of Draftbusters. In order to assist the BTA to uphold the rules of racing we need six to eight motorcyclists and six to eight officials to ride on the back.

If you are a motorcyclist and could come to between one and seven races in 1991 please give us a call. If you are able to volunteer to ride on the back of a motorcycle and become a draft-buster please give us a call. We would prefer permanent teams of motorcycle / draftbuster.

A suitable day will be arranged as a training day to receive instruction by way of video, still photography and discussion. A uniform system will be evolved for the control of the cycling section of a triathlon. Expenses will be met. Please drop us a line to 220. PO BOX 613 Swindon SN14TA.

Although various calendars were proposed, races took place in Swindon, Windsor, Ironbridge, Bath and Ardres, in France. 3 out of these 5. Windsor, Ironbridge and Bath. Were brand new events on the calendar. Scoring races for the overall series were all Olympic Distance. You had to be a BTA member to enter those and do at least 3 to get an end of season ranking.

But four out of five venues also had a Sprint Distance event to attract newcomers. 220 used the term ProMo. Which they borrowed from the French triathlon term for beginners races. Promotion.

The 3rd race in the series at Ironbridge didn’t have a Promo. As they hosted the second 220 Marathon Triathlon on the same day as the Olympic Distance race. Here’s a blog post I wrote about that.

Images: 220 (UK) February 1991. 220 (UK) January 1991.

The entry fee for each race was £25 for the Olympic Distance and £12.50 for the Promo. And you could enter all 5 races using just one entry form.

£25 was apparently considered pretty expensive for an Olympic Distance race at the time. And 220 received plenty of letters of complaint. 

The first race in the series took place in Swindon on 26th May 1991. The venue was the Cotswold Water Park. About 25 km from Swindon. The following year the race venue would move to Coate Water Park closer to town.

The Swindon Triathlon was in its 4th year and by now had become the UK’s traditional season opener. As the report in the July 1991 issue of 220 stated: Swindon is where the first plunge into open water reminds us that there is more to swimming than lane ropes and chlorine. The first open water event of the year and for many the first important race of the season. A race to establish your standing, a race that reveals how effective the winter’s training has been and equally important how the opposition has fared during the off-season.

In 1990 Swindon was my first Olympic Distance race ever. Here’s a blog post about that. I’m not sure why I didn’t enter in 1991. But I did take my Skoda down the M4 to spectate. And what a brilliant race I saw!

Images: 220 (UK) July 1991

220 had promised £3000 prize money at every race in the series. The race report said this amount was, moderate by international standards but marking an initiative by the organisers to try to keep our talent at home, was just enough to be attractive. 

This was maybe shown by the participation of Glenn Cook and Sarah Coope. Who traditionally would open their seasons in Europe. 

Despite the £25 entry fee. The race was oversubscribed. And wave starts were used again. Something the Swindon organisers pioneered in 1989.

The races were won by Sarah Coope and Spencer Smith. This was Smith’s first big senior win. Later in the 1991 season he also won the European Youth Championships in Losheim and the British Olympic Distance Championships in Wakefield. I was there too. But beating Glenn Cook and Robin Brew at Swindon. Showing how good he was at all three sports. Was a big deal. 

In Swindon Smith wore the Evans-Cannondale kit. Link in the show-notes to a blog post that includes press releases about the formation of the team. The cover of the July issue of 220 featured Spencer wearing the team’s InSport kit with Nike, GripShift and Gatorade sew-on patches. 

Like riding from your rack and helmet covers, cloth patches are something I miss in triathlon. I’m going to sew a few on my kit for next season.

Windsor was race two in the series. Four weeks after Swindon. The event was organised by John Lunt, who was already putting on the Tuffman out of Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Kingston. where he worked. John went on to found Human Race Events and be the race director for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and 2012 Olympic Games triathlons.

Windsor, as you now know, was my local race and my favourite for many years. In 1991 the race was based at the Windsor Leisure Centre. With the transition area and finish line in their garden. 

Images: 220 (UK) August 1991

The swim started about 100m downstream from transition. You’d then swim 800m upstream, turn around near the racecourse and swim 700m downstream back to the Leisure Centre. An honest effort for sure. I used to love it. 

The bike course was rolling on a single lap taking in Fifield, Hawthorn Hill, Winkfield, The Drift Road and The Windsor Great Park.

I guess the biggest difference compared with the modern course is the run.

Between 1991 and 1994 we crossed the river and turned left to run to the Brocas in Eton. After this first turnaround point you’d stay riverside but run all the way to a 2nd turnaround on Dorney Common. Before retracing your route back to the Leisure Centre. A T-Shape of tarmac, gravel and grass. With two opportunities to stare down your competitors.

In Windsor, Sarah Coope and Spencer Smith won again. Smith was fastest in all 3 sports. And Alison Hamilton proved that she’s a new name to keep an eye on with two second places in two races. Glenn Cook was there again. In 2nd place this time. He was 3rd in Swindon. And Ken Maclaren, in 3rd, had maybe his best race since winning the Swindon Grand Prix in 1989.

Matthew Belfield. Like Smith, still a junior. Had Actually crossed the line in 3rd place. But later owned-up to being one of a group of athletes who missed the start and dived into the Thames about 100m into the course.

As well as a scenic race course, the competitors got a free post-race BBQ and a neat long-sleeved t-shirt. I’m pretty sure Luke still has his. 

When the entry forms for the 220 Triathlon Series first appeared in the February issue of 220. A venue for round 3 on July 20th was left blank.

But a third race eventually happened in Ironbridge on 6th July 1991. The Olympic Distance series race took place while the competitors in the ironman distance marathon triathlon were out on the bike course.

I wasn’t at Ironbridge in 1991. But the middle distance event that started in 1992 became a big goal for a few years. I even made the podium once.

Sarah Coope and Alison Hamilton finished 1st and 2nd again. And Spencer Smith punctured. Allowing Richard Hobson to win.

Robin Brew, who I spoke about a lot in TSP9. Got another 2nd place. Like in Swindon. Robin was into his second year of being sponsored by Fresh Brew tea. Luke and I chatted a bit about this in TSP14.

Images: 220 (UK) August 1991

On to round 4 in Bath on the 18th August 1991. Bath had an established early-season triathlon before 1991. With a 400m pool swim in the 33.33m pool, a 40km bike out of town and a 10km run mainly along the canal. With the finish next to the swimming pool on the Recreation Ground.

But the 220 race was full Olympic Distance. With the swim in the Avon, a pretty hilly bike course and the run entirely up at the university. From 1992. When live TV arrived. The run was down in the town.

Melissa Watson, 3rd at Swindon and Windsor, won the women’s race. Just one week after winning the National Short Course Championships in Wakefield. 

Watson was clearly in hot form. But the report also points out that Sarah Coope was not racing because she was in full Hawaii Ironman training mode. Spoiler alert. She did pretty well on The Big Island in 1991.

In the men’s race, Smith, Cook and Brew podiumed again. Third win for Smudger. But look at the gaps. Super close racing. Just like in Swindon. Where Smith was 15 seconds ahead of Brew. And 37 ahead of Cook. Here in Bath. Spencer crossed the line just 28 seconds ahead of Cook.

The race report also praised the cooperation received from the local police force. Remember one of the stated goals of the series was getting triathlon in the UK back on good terms with the officers in blue.

Images: 220 (UK) October 1991

Round 4 was supposed to take place in Bournemouth. But a mysterious poster appeared in the September issue of 220. See it in the show-notes. Accompanied by a jokey but important article in the news section of the magazine announced a change of plans.

5 race series. The last in the series has now moved to France. Following a deal with sealink we can take our competitors, at no extra cost, to Ardres near Calais for the final. As Spencer smith has won three out of the first four we are considering offering quadruple points to the winner, just to make the last race a little more interesting. 

And here’s an excerpt from John Lillie’s blog written in 2013

Well, not exactly Bournemouth; we had so much antipathy from the local police force that rather than give up we talked to a French triathlon club in Ardres in northern France. They got us some sponsorship from the SeaLink ferry company and entry into their triathlon.

Our Bournemouth competitors were told to turn up at Dover on Saturday with their toothbrushes and passports and we would take them to France and include some spartan accommodation for the price of their original £25 entry fee. We took our 220 transition racking and some English draftbusters to make them feel at home. We all joined together with the Ardes Tri Club event and had a très joli time. 

I wanted to get over to Ardres for the race on 22nd September 1991. And I’d just started university. And was busy with freshers week and stuff.

But it seems the event made a big impression with the athletes and the 220 staff. Here’s John Lillie again. This time writing in his editorial in 220 in November. There’s a hint of stereotyping here. But don’t cancel me. Or John. But it draws a graphic contrast between the challenges faced by UK race organisers that are maybe not so much of a problem in France.

Salut! Ardres - you can even say it with a French accent. Ardres. Just for the crack we took 140 or so series competitors for the last of our races. There is something about a French race. Maybe the smell. Garlic. Gauloise cigarettes. Stale vin rouge. A touch of drains.  And the sweet treacle smell of sugar beet pulp coming in from the surrounding fields.

Maybe it’s the laid back lack of authoritarianism - So you want to close the roads all day? For a triathlon? OK. Or mais oui. And would you like the local sports hall and the brass band and the mayor and the chief executive of the region to come along? And how about a sit down pasta party with free wine? And a six page preview in the local paper.

It’s all quite normal, no problem. We won’t quite start on time and maybe we’ll have 2 waves or peut-etre one. But we’ll get there eventually. The local industry will support us because it's good for the community. 

Aucun problème, pas du tout.

Ardres was a Sprint Distance race and Alison Hamilton and Glenn Cook were the winners. 220 said that Cook has near-hero-status in France after his 2nd place at Avignon in 1989. He’d also done a 5 hour ride the day before. As part of his own Hawaii Ironman training. Spoiler alert. He didn’t do that great in Kona. Here’s the results.

Vincent Bavay was the first French male athlete in 5th place. Vincent was one of France’s future triathlon hopes in the late-80s and early-90s.

Images: 220 (UK) September 1991. 220 (UK) November / December 1991.

The overall series Rankings were also published in the November issue of 220. Your score was worked out as a percentage of the race winner's time. So it paid to place well but also to go gun to tape as fast as possible.

Sarah Coope and Spencer Smith both won three events in the series and therefore secured the overall wins. In the women’s rankings Alison Hamilton was 2nd and Meilissa Watson was 3rd. Glenn Cook in 2nd and Robin Brew in 3rd. Podiumed alongside Smith. As I only did 2 events I didn’t get an end of series ranking. But I will in 1992!

Previously. In the October issue. An article was published looking forward to 1992 and some possible changes to the series. There’d be a Saturday symposium covering training, bike mechanics, nutrition and other subjects. With UK and foreign athletes and experts invited to speak. 

With an expo organised. And a pasta party. Offering quality food in convivial surroundings. Perhaps also a junior series and corporate and club team scoring. Then improved prize giving ceremonies. Finally negotiations were already underway for some TV coverage.

Images: 220 (UK) November / December 1991

The 220 Triathlon Series continued in a similar form until 1995. And was my main racing objective and the events that I used to gauge improvement. Initially against age-group rivals. But then against the very best. 

I’ll look at the following years in blog posts or podcast episodes soon. Some of the races continued beyond the life of the series. Bath until 1996. Ironbridge until maybe 1999. With windsor still going today.

220 offered their 1991 series of races to the British Triathlon Association as the official BTA Grand Prix Series. But they didn’t accept. In 1992 the BTA brought a GP back. But by then most of the nation’s top triathletes were already focused on the 220 Series.

I’m not sure you can see the legacy of the series in the British triathlon scene today. So much has changed. I don’t there’s a series that links UK elite and amateur triathletes in the same way anymore. Let me know if I’m wrong. Racing the same course. With the same rules. And importantly the same goal. To see your ranking printed in the magazine every month. 

Lets finish with another reading from John Lillie’s 2013 blog posts.

What were we doing in 1991? Too much is the answer! We organised a five race triathlon series and put up the entry fees to an astounding twenty five pounds. For that, competitors had food and drink, a good quality T-shirt, transition area security, motorbike bike draftbusting, speedy registration, accurate and fast tab timing system and anything else we could think of, plus the chance to win £3,000 in prize money at each race.

I not sure if people just read these posts. Without listening to the audio. But if you don’t listen, you definitely need to learn about tabs on table.

This was a timekeeping method developed by 220. At race registration you were given a black wristband made from the female-side of velcro. Stuck to the band were 3 white pieces of male-vecro with your race number on.

You tear-off one tab at the end of the swim, exiting T2 and at the finish line. To be slammed onto a table covered in a towel. Volunteers would then re-organise the tabs on the towel in the order the athletes passed that point. Which would eventually tally with timekeeper data. It was epic.

Links:

TSP4: The Le Coq Sportif Grand Prix
1991 Ironbridge Marathon Triathlon
USTS Entry Forms in 1984 and 1985
Swindon 1990
Evans - Cannondale
TSP9: The First British Triathlon Shown On TV
TSP14: The 1992 Nice Triathlon
John Lillie’s Blog. Early 220.
1991 Hawaii Ironman Results

Sources:

220 (UK) October 1991

The Windsor Tapes

I'm writing a podcast about the first year of the 220 Triathlon Series. It took place in the UK in 1991. I'll put the full episode out next Friday.

But here’s some raw audio I recorded with Luke when we recreated the 1991 Windsor Triathlon. That was the 2nd race in the 220 Series. After Swindon.

The Windsor Triathlon was a big deal for us as teneage tri-nerds. Because it brought a big race and top athletes to within 5km of our house.

And the 220 series brought a new narrative and professionalism to the British triathlon calendar. After the GP ended in 1989.

Leave a comment below if you were there!

TSP15: The 1986 Triathlon International de Paris

I’m not going to break the 4th wall and talk about modern triathlon very often. But I am still a very active racer. Prioritising short and low-key events near Munich. Although last year I also did a few triathlon-themed road trips. To Hamburg, Berlin and a two-race swing to the UK.

I also like to watch triathlon broadcasts with my kids. PTO. Super League. WTCS. And Ironman. So of course. A couple of weeks ago I was pretty psyched to see what happened at the Olympic Test Event in Paris. 

However, to be honest, I do think Olympic qualifying is too long and complicated. Especially for the fans. So eventually I kind of lose interest. Especially when I know that some places are won and lost via internal politics rather than just gun to taping.

Triathloning isn’t new to downtown Paris. The first Paris Triathlon took place on 13th september 1986. And the Triathlon Hauts de Seine at Isle de Puteaux was earlier in the 1986 season. Mark Allen ended up doing that race a few times. Blog posts about that coming soon.  

There were also ITU World Cup races in 1991 and 1996. And a few French Grand Prix events. I’ll cover all of those triathlons in the future.

The 1st Triathlon International de Paris was announced in the July 1986 issue of Tri-Athlete. The race was to be organised by CONADET, the French triathlon federation, and an events company called Sport-Leader. They also had a big, big sponsor onboard. Edouard LeClerc supermarkets.

The French triathlon scene was buzzing at the time. The federation boasted 4000 members, 130 clubs and 120 races. Up from about 75 in 1985.

There was also a new and exciting way of crowning the French champions at the end of the season. I’ll talk about that in an upcoming podcast about the French Grand Prix. Spoiler alert. It was super-complicated.

The Le Coq Sportif-Arena series, that was the de-facto French championship in 1985, had now gone European-wide. Even though French towns hosted 10 out of the 14 rounds. This meant that plenty of solid foreign athletes were starting to race in France. More on this in future posts.

The Paris organisers were expecting more entries than they could give places to. So to qualify you had to finish in the top 3 of any Olympic Distance race before 14th September. Women had to win one.

The September issue of Tri-Athlete confirmed that the telelvision channel TF1 would cover the start and finish. And there would be a waiting list published in case there were any drop-outs.

All athletes received a tri-suit the day before the race. This had to be worn during event! To make sure race sponsors would appear on every athlete. In case competitors cut or folded their race numbers.

The press pack had maps of the course. Below. The swim went downstream from the Pont de la Concorde to the Pont Iena. Level with the Eiffel Tower. The 2023 Olympic Test-Event course did loops kind of in the middle of this.

In 1986 there were no loops on the bike either. The course went out of town, to Versailles and back on some pretty rolling roads. The run was also a one-lapper. Staying next the river. And the finish was outside the Trocadero Palace. Across La Seine from the Eiffel Tower.

Images: Tri-Athlete (FR) Octobre 1986

There was no big report in Tri-Athlete (FR). Just an image of the start and the results. Above. The women’s winner was Irma Zwartkruis from the Netherlands. With Chantal Malherbe from France in second.

Men’s winner Serge Lecrique was one of the top French triathletes of the late-80s and early-90s. He sadly died in a motorbike accident in 1996.

2nd place Gregoire Millet was the British Triathlon Performance Director for a time. And Georges Belaubre in 3rd was kind of the French Dave Scott.

Axel Koenders led the bike ride before losing most of his advantage due to a puncture. He was riding a standard low-pro with drop bars and a disc wheel. Even though he was already known for experimenting with some extreme frame-fairings. More on that in a later blog post.

Image: Triathlete (USA) February 1987

The February 1987 issue of Triathlete (USA) did run a report though. Above. It was written by Erik Kirschbaum. Co-author, with Aleck Hunter, of one of the best triathlon books ever. Triathlon: The Sporting Trinity. Below.

Let’s finish with a pollution take. As it’s topical. From Georges Belaubre at the end of the race video above. “I was a bit scared about the water in La Seine. But I found that it wasn’t worse than the Le Rhone (in Lyon for La Coupe de France the week before). In Paris La Seine is not that dirty. Further downstream in Rouen its probably dirtier. But in Paris its OK. We’ll see. I hope I won’t be in bed sick tomorrow!”

Links:

Triathlon: The Sporting Trinity by Aleck Hunter and Erik Kirschbaum
1986 Triathlon International de Paris Press Pack

Sources:

Tri-Athlete (FR) Mai 1987
Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1985
Tri-Athlete (FR) Mai 1986
Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1986
Tri-Athlete (FR) July 1986
Tri-Athlete (FR) Septembre 1986
Tri-Athlete (FR) Juillet 1992
Triathlete (USA) February 1987
ITU Triathlon World Cup

TSP14: The 1992 Nice Triathlon

The video above is from the TF1 coverage of the 1992 Nice Triathlon. And this podcast episode and blog post is going to be the first of hopefully a three part series that will look at the Summer of 1992.

1992 was the first year that I raced in France on a family holiday. And from buying Triathlete magazines in French. Which I couldn't read at the time. I started to get interested in the triathlon scene over there.

The idea for this series comes from a video recently posted by Ben Bright. It’s a must-watch for anybody interested in triathlon history. Here it is.

Following Bright’s career in France from 1992 onward was one of the inspirations for me to figure out how to move to France and find a French triathlon club to race for. I spoke about my French ambitions in TSP10.

So we are going to look at Nice which took place on 14th June, Grenoble from the 28th June and Ironbridge which was organised on the 18th July. Ben Bright did all three. So the logical conclusion to the series would be to try and contact him to ask if he would agree to come on the podcast. To take us through those 5 crazy weeks in 1992.

In Nice, Bright led the race with Yves Cordier for half of the bike leg. Before exploding spectacularly on the run. Grenoble was the first time a triathlon had climbed Alpe d’Huez. And Ironbridge was incredible. I was there. As 17 year old Bright cycled away from Britain’s best.

Image: Triathlete (FR) Juillet 1992

The 1992 edition of Nice was a classic. Definitely in my top 5 editions of the race. My others are 1985, 1990, 1993 and 1995.

I’ve already blogged about the 1995 and 1993 Nice races. So today let's look a bit more at the event’s 1982 origins. There are lots of stories out there. But the one I really like is from Mark Allen’s blog post: The Epic History of Triathlon in Nice. Below.

The idea was conceived  by International Management Group. IMG hopped on the wave of triathlon’s stardom status and brought that sparkle to Europe.

They wanted to stage a world-class triathlon on the Mediterranean. The race would also be aired on television in the US on CBS, which was a direct competitor of ABC where IRONMAN had its home at the time. So it appeared that they also wanted to be a direct competitor of IRONMAN!

The location for the inaugural Nice Triathlon was going to be the famed Principality of Monaco. Unfortunately, just two months before it was to take place, Princess Grace of Monaco died in a horrific car crash.

Monaco in mourning put a moratorium on holding any kind of celebratory sporting events like the triathlon for one year. IMG needed to immediately find a new home for its race. As only history can now see as a fortuitous twist of tragic events, the race was shifted a short distance west along the Mediterranean Sea to Nice.

The swim would be in the iconic blue waters at the base of Nice. The cycling leg would scale the Maritime Alps through tiny villages where it seemed time stood still. And then the run would start and finish on the Promenade des Anglais, a street as famous as any boulevard in the world.

The distances that very first year were awkwardly in favor of the runners. The swim was 1,500m. The cycling leg was 100km. But then the run would be a full marathon. The athletes knew it was run heavy, but didn’t complain a whole lot because we were going to be racing a world-class triathlon in Europe, in Nice, on the Cote d’Azur!

Why was that mix of distances selected? Perhaps the organizers felt anything less than a marathon for the final leg wouldn’t be grueling enough to match IRONMAN”s distances and challenges. Safe to say, if that was their intentions, they succeeded!

Of the 55 athletes that competed in 1982 were 20 British triathletes. In fact, Danny Nightingale was the first European finisher in 9th place. He’d won Modern Pentathlon Team Gold at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. And Mick Flaherty was first out of the swim. Mick would go on to lead swims on the UK triathlon scene throughout the 1980s.

The British Nice party was led by Mike Ellis. Also a former modern pentathlete and RAF PE instructor. To help athletes train for the race Mike organised a triathlon in Reading in September of 1982.

After Nice, the British competitors were very excited about the future of the sport. This included Dagenham newsagent Aleck Hunter. Who, with Mike Ellis founded the British Triathlon Association on 11th December 1982 at a meeting held at Mike’s gym, the Mall Health Club in Reading.

In 1983 the swim and bike were increased to 3 km and 120 km. But the run was reduced to 32 km at the request of the American pros. Who wanted semi-fresh legs for the upcoming Ironman in Hawaii.

There was a fairly big change in 1988 as the swim was lengthened to 4 km. And that is how it was in 1992. 4 km/120 Km/32 km.

So now let’s look closer at the course that was used in 1992.

Image: Triathlete (USA) October 1987

In 1992 the swim course was on a big clockwise loop. And the water was 19°C. In 1987 (see map above) they used an anti-clockwise loop.

Once on the bike you have 15 flat km along the coast to St Laurent du Var. Then inland a few kilometres before heading through a kind of industrial estate to start climbing on the M2209 road. You pass through Gattieres and then Carros. Where you join the M1 towards Le Broc.

At Le Broc you’ve done 30km and climbed 450m. At an average gradient of 3-5%. From Le Broc it’s rolling terrain before the big descent into Roquesteron. Where you cross the bridge over the River Esteron. You are at an altitude of 350m. And at about the halfway point of your ride. 

The next famous part of the course is Gilette. Which is the cobbled, perched village that you see on the helicopter shots. Roquesteron to Gillete is about 20 km. 12 of those are rolling. And around 8 are climbing. Again at 3-5%. In Gilette you are back up at 450m above sea level.

From Gilette the descent to the valley floor is about 10km long and brings you down to about 100m above sea level. All you then have left is the flat slash slightly descending 30km next to the Var River and back to the coast. To repeat the first 10km back to Ruhl Plage in central Nice. 

Finally the run course is completely flat and mainly unshaded. 16 km out. Around some cones at La Plage de la Siesta and back. To finish you have to go up a little green-carpeted ramp. Which also serves as the transition area entrance and exit. 

Images: Triathlete (FR) Juillet 1992

Now to get a real feel for how the Nice race unfolded on 14th June 1992. Let’s dive into the magazines. I have race reports from the UK’s 220 and Triathlete France. The report in French (above) was written by Max Malaurent. Who went on to start TED Mag. I spoke about it in TSP5.

Here’s a translation:

We believed, truly believed. Until the end. Until the end of the promenade. That the child from this very coast was going to do the impossible. And beat Mark allen. On his favourite terrain. The place where he first showed his talent with his first of eight wins in 1982.

The dream started to take shape with the very first pedal strokes. At the time check on La Cote de Broc near the 30km point, Cordier, racing for Monaco, passed through in the lead. And Cordier was accompanied by a young athlete, Ben Bright, racing for Macon. Who rode hard, seemingly without a care for the occasion or the distance.

There were significant gaps to the favourites. 1:50 over Wolfgang Dittrich. 5:00  to Rob Barel, Nick Croft and Mike Pigg. And astonishingly, 7:00 to 8 time winner Mark Allen. Kind of unexpected, especially as all these guys had come out of the water pretty close together. And traditionally being in the lead on the bike at Nice is Dittrich’s job.

Some of Mark’s gap to the lead could be explained by a bad swim due to the effects of a broken clavicle earlier in the year. But more astonishing was that he didn’t look great on the bike either. Here’s a quote:

I was swimming with Pigg and Barel. But they were going too quickly for me. Even if we came out together. I’d used way too much energy in the adventure. Then at the start of the bike I had really sore legs. No force. No power. That’s when I started thinking. It’s over. What will happen if I finish 10th or 15th? After the race. With all the friends that had travelled to see me race. I was convinced that I couldn't win.

With a seven minute lead over Allen, Cordier could maybe start thinking that this was the one. The day when his breakaway would stick. And he might win. Or at least go very, very close. Here’s Yves:

When I learnt of the time gaps I didn’t start dreaming of any extraordinary outcomes. Au contraire. I listened to my body, focused on my pedalling technique, my position on the bike and the trajectories through the corners. I was never pushing my limits and overall I felt very good.

So good in fact that after Roquesteron. The halfway point. And still in the company of Bright. The advantage had grown. 4:25 to Pigg, 4:46 to Dittrich, 5:30 to Barel and … more than 9 minutes to Allen. 

The dream was still alive. But Cordier, who used to race for Nice, knows the local terrain very, very well and understands that the hardest is also yet to come. Here’s Yves again:

Usually it’s between Roquesteron and Gillette that I lose a good chunk of my lead. The rest of my day therefore depends on how I handle this 30km section.

But maybe having Ben Bright with him this year was good news. In previous editions Cordier had spent the first 60km alone. Trying to catch Dittrich. That he usually did near Roquesteron. To then lead the race while the others worked behind, let's say in coalition. 

But today the regrouping of the favourites didn’t happen. The pursuit was a loyal slash legal one. And having the young Bright with him provided maybe more of a psychological than physical assistance. Even though they kept a legal drafting distance, constantly surveyed by race officials, they each took their turn at the front. Maybe more to try and break the other than cooperate. But whatever. A group of 2 is better than being alone. 

But the Australien, maybe still a bit young and inexperienced for such a distance, started to lose touch on the climb to Pierrefeu. After losing 50 or so metres to Cordier. Bright managed to get back on. But on the 4th time the elastic broke. The beautiful pedalling style was gone. And by T2 Ben Bright was 11 minutes behind Cordier.  Before being taken off the run course and straight to hospital. Should he even have been allowed to take these risks by starting to race such a long race?

So, unlike previous years, Cordier had not lost any of his lead in the second half of the bike. But Mark Allen also hadn’t lost any more time and was looking much better in the last 30 km. Here’s what he said:

When I hit the last climb, the last descent and then the flat bit into town. I thought. Maybe. May-Be. With a 10 minute deficit I could finish 2nd or 3rd. Behind Yves and Rob.

When Mark arrived in transition the countdown started. What had his mid-course slump cost him? 9 minutes. But at least it was only 9 minutes. Cordier knew now that it was going to be close. Very close. But between these two. Pigg was at 5 minutes and Barel and Dittrich at a little over 6.

I did some quick calculations said Yves Cordier. If Allen ran as fast as he usually does. Around 1:54 for the 32km. I needed to do at least 2:03 to take it. It was possible. But I was really hoping that Mark wasn’t going to find that normal form.

The first time check at 5km gave Yves some hope. The American had only pulled back 10 seconds per km. Strong running. But continuing at the same rate wouldn’t be enough. But for the 3 times ironman champion these kms were maybe just a warm-up after 4 hours of semi-lethargie digesting the day's starter that was a little too generous. Mark:

Even during the most difficult moments I always tried to stay positive. I never had negative thoughts. I know from experience that the triathlon is  a long day. Even after the bike I was still convinced that Yves or Rob would win. But after a few kms of running I felt that my legs were getting better and better. And I started to think that I could win again. But that would depend on how Rob and Yves performed in the last few km.

Around the time that you’d usually take a sieste. The runners reached the turn-around point. Yves wasn’t wearing the habitual mask of a man who’d seen his lead disappear. He said: I was holding back in the first half. To give it everything from 16 km to the finish.

Because at halfway the situation was a favourable one for our leader. Barel had only gained 1:25 and although Allen had taken 3 minutes. He still had another 6 to find. Even the most timid of gamblers still had money on Yves.

But had the bookies poorly assessed the running qualities of the triathlete from San Diego. Up to the turning-point he’d only been in 5th gear. Now was the time to hit the turbo. 3 km later he’s with Barel and 4:50 behind Cordier. And there’s still 13km to go. The maths still says that it's Cordier’s race. But his challenger keeps accelerating. And as soon as he sees him, Allen’s cadence quickens.

As soon as I could see the troop of cyclists that had gathered around Yves. I knew victory was possible. But I was scared that I might not be able to pass as the group was so big. Or that someone might stop me from passing.

With less than 3 km to go, the odds were still in favour of the Frenchman. As his 1 minute lead should be enough. Right? Yet. Just inside the final km, the guy who’d animated the race for most of the day is struck down where he stands.

It was like in a nightmare, said Yves. Mark passed me at an incredible speed. I hardly had the time to notice. Actually, I really didn’t think he was that close. And it was right at the time I was getting ready to run the most important km of my life. The last 3km of Nice in 9:30. Unheard of.

But Mark also had plenty of compliments for Yves.

I went by him as fast as I could. Because I’d never run with Yves at the end of a race and I feared what he might be able to do in a sprint. This is the best race of my life, because it was the hardest. Even harder than Hawaii in 1989, when I beat Dave Scott for the first time. 

Unfortunately, Triathlete gave the women's race only 2 paragraphs. After 5 pages of covering the men. Here’s the translation.

It looked like Paula didn’t really push herself and yet nobody it seemed was capable of stopping her winning. To balance out her 4 wins in Hawaii, Newby- Fraser now has 4 victories on the Cote d’Azur. She had the fastest bike and run times and she finished nearly 20 minutes ahead of Donna Peters in 2nd. Sylviane Puntous was 3rd.

The return of the Puntous sisters to triathlon was marked by a new tactic. Not spending most of the race together. Patricia was only 6th.

The French women, even more than the men, were saving themselves for the national short course championships in Toulouse. This was a shame as the Mouthon twins could have shaken up the ageing peloton.

Images: 220 (UK) August 1992

Now Let's look at what was in 220. Above. The race report was written by their foreign foreign correspondent and Eurosport commentator Ian Sweet. The opening was great. Here it is: 

Have you ever been so sure of yourself that the outcome of whatever you are doing or watching is a foregone conclusion? I was at this year’s Nice triathlon, the 11th running of this premier sporting event. I had already written the article and was mentally filing the copy to my editor.
”The Sun Prince from Nice, Yves Cordier, wins on home soil and blows away 8 time champion Mark Allen...”

We also got some facts. There were 1300 athletes on the start line. And the race started at 8 AM. Mark Allen had spent a month out of the pool after his broken collar bone and also got stuck in the big ring on the bike. 

Sweet also said that everybody knew it was only a matter of time before Bright would crack. And Ben commented later that the climbs were great. But the stressful descents meant he never recovered.

It was again noted that Paula Newby-Fraser won her fourth and final Nice title pretty easily. Even doing a radio interview for while running! 

220 also highlighted Robin Brew’s 14th place. The best British male result for a few years. This time Brew did much better on the descents. Referring to 1987, Brew’s first serious season in triathlon, when he punctured and crashed hard on the descent into Roquesteron. 

There were a total of 49 British athletes on the start line in 1992. Back then, with only one Kona qualifying race in Europe. Ironman Europe in Roth.  Nice was the big international event that British athletes aimed for and measured themselves over.

The British entrants included one of my age group heroes at the time, Harry Webb, who was 3rd over-40. Welsh athlete Bill Pegler had actually won that title in 1987. Webb used to make his own bike frames and advertised his wheel-building services in the back of 220. Below.

Image: 220 (UK) October 1992

For some extra reading. Mark Allen has a blog post on his website titled The Ultimate Pass: Nice 1992. 1992 was Mark Allen’s 9th win in Nice. He didn’t race there in 1987 and 1988. Preferring to focus all his energy on Hawaii in an attempt to finally win. Spoiler alert. He didn’t.

Cordier’s 2nd was France’s highest ever male placing. Isabelle Mouthon had also finished 2nd in 1991. France’s first podium finish was by Herve Niquet. Who finished 3rd in 1987.

Note that Yves Cordier raced a middle distance event in Arcachon two weeks before Nice. Possibly leaving him a little fatigued. We’ll definitely be talking more about the volume of racing that French athletes were doing back then when we get more into stuff about Avignon. 

Images: Triathlete (FR) Hors Serie. The Best Of 1992.

So what happened in Toulouse at those French Short Course Championships the week after Nice? That the Mouthon sisters were saving themselves for. It was only France’s second one day championship race. From 1985 onwards French Championships had been decided after a season-long points chase. 

Isabelle Mouthon won. Anne-Marie Rouchon was 2nd. And Beatrice Mouthon was 3rd. Philippe Methion, who would go on to finish 4th at Nice in 1995, won the men’s race. Anne-Marie Rouchon was also a long-distance athlete. With probably her best performance being her win at the 1993 European Long Distance Championships in Embrun. Here’s a race report from TED Mag.

Yves Cordier is now the race director of Ironman France in Nice. The race was relinquished by IMG in 1994. And then managed by the French Triathlon Federation until 2003. In 2004 the race was taken over by Ironman. And the distances changed to 3.8 km/180 km/42 km.

Links:

1992 Triathlon de Nice
Nice Triathlon 1992 - Ben Bright
TSP10: Thinking Of France
Nice 1993
1995 Nice Triathlon
TSP5: UK Triathlon Magazines 1986-1990
The Epic History of triathlon in France, France by Mark Allen
Nice Videos: 1985. 1990. 1992. 1993. 1995.
Scott Tinley’s Winning Triathlon by Scott Tinley. With Mike Plant.
The Ultimate Pass: Nice 1992 by Mark Allen
TED (FR) Octobre 1993

Sources:

TED (FR) Août-Septembre 1992
220 (UK) September 1992
Triathlon: The Sporting Trinity by Aleck Hunter and Erik Kirschbaum
Tri-Athlete (FR) Octobre 1987
Triathlon International de Nice on Wikipedia
Tri-Athlete (UK) Nov-Dec 1987
Triathlete (FR) Aout 1992

TSP13: Tri-Athlete Magazine Postcards

Image: Tri-Athlete (FR) Janvier-Fevrier 1989

I picked these postcards up in 2021 on ebay. From an anonymous person formerly involved in triathlon media and imports. He also helped me with TSP5: UK Triathlon Magazines 1986-1990. You could order them from Tri-Athlete for 20 French Francs. That was about 2 British Pounds. 

I’d previously owned a set. And although the order form I’ve posted is from Tri-Athlete France. I ordered mine via a 1989 copy of Tri-Athlete UK.

The postcards depict mainly triathlons in France. Nice, Avignon, Sallanches, Nantes and Lyon. As well as 2 photos from the 1988 European Middle Distance Championships in Stein, The Netherlands.

The images really capture the triathlon aesthetics of the day. France is IMO the best country in the world to be a triathlete. And is still a unique place to go and race. You have to do it one day. But make sure you get off the beaten track. To races still organised by clubs and small towns. 

Image: 1988 Nice Triathlon by Thierry Deketelaere.

The first postcard (above) shows athletes walking through an aid station at the 1988 Nice Triathlon. Most have made a full costume change from bike to run. And it looks like a pretty hot day on the Promenade Des Anglais. 

We can see a Nike vest in the teal and charcoal colourway. And I’m not a sunglasses expert. But are those Oakley Factory Pilots on number 703?

Image: 1988 Nice Triathlon by Thierry Deketelaere.

Postcard 2 (above) is pre-race in Nice 1988. In the super-long transition. I’ve got a Nice special episode coming out soon. With my brother as co-host. We talk a lot about that famously unfair Nice transition area. 

Postcard 3 (below) shows athletes jumping in the water in Stein for the 1988 European Middle Distance Championships. The athlete in the foreground is wearing a sleeveless blue, mauve and yellow Aquaman wetsuit. When did wetsuits all become black? Terrible idea in my opinion. 

Aquaman started producing triathlon specific suits in 1984. Sleeved suits were allowed by the European Triathlon Union starting in 1987. And you can see some in the photo. Personally. I still prefer sleeveless.

Image: 1988 ETU Middle Distance Championships in Stein by Renato Cudicio.

Image: 1988 ETU Middle Distance Championships in Stein by Renato Cudicio.

Postcard 4 (above) also shows an image from Stein. We’re looking through a rainbow created by the swim-exit shower spray. I think. You don’t really see these over-head shower gantries at races anymore.

Postcard 5 (below) shows Georges Belaubre at the 1986 Coupe de France in Lyon. This was the first edition of La Coupe. 

La Coupe de France was the final counting race in the season-long French Championship points chase. In 1986 and 1987 you raced purely as an individual. But from 1988 onwards team elements were introduced. 

For 1980s British football fans. The French Championship was the Division One title. While La Coupe de France was the FA Cup. They were kind of connected via the points system but also important stand-alone events. Worth winning by the ambitious French triathlete of the day.

The race took place on 7th September 1986. Over the B distance. Which was something like 2km/75km/18km. Georges was probably the best French male triathlete in the early and mid-1980s. 

There’s lots to unpack in the photo. The non-protective helmet. The handlebar-mounted water bottle cage. The Nike Poissy kit. The bib-style number. And. Of course. George’s descending technique. 

Georges actually won the race in Lyon. At age 43. With Yves Cordier 2nd and Laurent Boquillet 3rd. 4th was Rodolphe Von Berg. The dad of current long distance pro triathlete Rudy Von Berg.

5th was Glenn Davies from New Zealand. An athlete I know nothing about. But Tri-Athlete magazine describes him as gentil. Kind.

Image: 1986 Coupe de France Cat B in Lyon by Thierry Deketelaere.

Image:

1986 Triathlon International du Mont Blanc in Sallanches by Renato Cudicio.

Postcard 6 (above) shows a cool running and diving start in the town of Sallanches at the 1986 Triathlon International du Mont Blanc. You can see plenty of mountains in the background. The distances were 1500/46/13.9 And the course was hilly. I wonder what the temperature of the water was?

Postcard 7 (below) shows a swimmer running to transition and a cyclist exiting transition at the 1986 Avignon Triathlon. The shot is taken from a temporary bridge erected over the course. Check out the race report that I’ve linked to below. The bridge is seemingly dangerously overloaded with journalists and spectators.

Image: 1986 Avignon Triathlon by Thierry Deketelaere.

Postcard 8 (below) has another image from Nice in 1988. Of an athlete shading their eyes and looking down the beach. Maybe assessing his tactics for the impending fast and physical swim start.

Image: 1988 Nice Triathlon by Thierry Deketelaere.

Image: 1988 Nice Triathlon by Thierry Deketelaere.

Postcard 9 (above) is another Nice 1988 photo. This time it’s a pre-drone aerial shot. Of two cyclists riding. Yes, riding. Out of transition. 

The photo on postcard 10 (below) is taken at the 2nd Coupe de France race of 1986. This time in Nantes. Two weeks after Lyon and over the A distance. Which was 1000m/40km/12km. And. The race was won by …. Georges Belaubre.

I don’t know who the athlete on the postcard is. But he looks pretty fatigued. As he kind of stumbles forward just after getting a sponge. 

He’s wearing the classic Le Coq Sportif tri-suit of the day. In the grey with yellow sides colourway. There were plenty of other designs. Erin Baker wore the pink with blue sides during her 1986 European campaign.

Le Coq was the dominant triathlon textile brand of the mid-1980s. In 1986 and 1987 they even sponsored a European race series called Le Circuit International Arena - Le Coq Sportif. Again more on that in future

Image: 1986 Coupe de France Cat A in Nantes by Nutan.

Links:

TSP5: UK Triathlon Magazines 1986-1990.

Sources:

History of Aquaman westuits.

TSP12: Tinley Lace Locks

Recently I bought my first pair of running shoes in maybe 4 years. The Asics Evo Ride 3. They’re great. Cushioned. Yes. But more importantly light. As I miss the old super-light racing flats of the 80s. 

Like the Reebok London. As worn by Steve Jones when he broke the marathon world record at the 1984 Chicago Marathon. And the Nike Air Mariah. As worn by Glenn Cook in Avignon in 1989. 

Images:
Triathlete (USA) May 1988
Athletics Weekly (UK) 17th November 1984

To make my Asics Evo Ride 3s even better for triathlon I put on one of my pairs of Tinley lace locks. I got my first pair of Tinley lace locks from Total Fitness in Swindon at the end of 1988.

Now I’ve got two pairs. Below. The yellow pair were a present from my brother a few years ago. And I bought the orange ones on eBay recently.

Having these dangling from your Londons or Mariahs in the 1980s would certainly distinguish you as a triathlete with some class.

Images: My two pairs of Tinley lace locks.

Scott Tinley started Tinley Performance Wear with Jim Riley and two other partners in 1984. This was six months after the closing of Team J David. 

Riley already owned a clothing company, Perfection, and Tinley had just quit his job marketing and distributing sports shoes with Sole International. With this skill set combo the company did well.

They made race wear, casual stuff and eventually wetsuits. Every triathlete from San Diego to Slough via Swindon owned something from the collection. I definitely had a vest and maybe some running shorts.

Images:
220 UK) Nov-Dec 1991. Photo credit. Sally or John Lillie.
Triathlete (USA) March 1987

Above is the classic Tinley look from 1987. White cropped vest with solid coloured side bars and a patterned chest bar. 

Paired with wide-side trunks, patterned the same as the vest. Scott also has 2 sew on sponsor patches for Raleigh and Bud Light. I was a big sew on patch fan. Something else I need to bring back to triathlon.

Part of Tinley Performance Wear’s marketing tactics involved erecting a huge inflatable Scott at races. The company was sold to Reebok in 1992.

Links:
1987 USTS Hilton Head Triathlon
Steve Jones Interview
1984 Chicago Marathon
1989 World Short Course Championships in Avignon
Team J David
1988 USTS Chicago Triathlon

Sources:

Tinley Bio https://scotttinley.com/bio/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-06-01-sp-9034-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-04-sp-2853-story.html

TSP11: Upset in Australia. Part 1.

The video above is the 1987 Nice Triathlon. Won by Kirsten Hanssen and Rick Wells. The race was held on 25th October and was the last important international race of the triathlon year. 

The 1987 season had been a long one for Hanssen and Wells. Both had been active on the USTS circuit. Hanssen actually won the final in Hilton Head and the overall Coke Grand Prix. And both had peaked mid-season for the $100,000 race in Bermuda. Where Hanssen won and Wells got 4th. 

But Hanssen and Wells’ seasons actually started in January. At 30:50 mark in the video, when Craig Masback says that Wells was the short distance world champion he was referring to the self-titled World Sprint Championships that took place in Perth, Australia on 17th January 1987.

TSP3 was about the emergence of aerobars in the spring of 1987. Well those Unofficial World Sprint Championships were the last internationally significant triathlon without aerobars.

Images: Triathlete (USA) November 1986

But before we get into Perth let’s start our story by jumping ahead to 31st March 1989 with the formation of The International Triathlon Union at meetings held in Avignon, France.

Finally, after previous failed attempts to form a world governing body, the main triathlon centres of Europe, the USA, Australasia and Japan came together to defeat their common enemy.

That was The International Modern Pentathlon Union. A body that had offered to govern triathlon and give the sport its best chance of eventually being accepted into the Olympic Games.

But there were also rumours that the UIPM wanted to change the format of triathlon completely. Maybe into a points-based event, like the Modern Pentathlon, with three individual time trials.

During these meetings Les Macdonald became the first president of the ITU. Les was British born, held a Canadian passport and spoke French. He was also passionate about moving triathlon forward as a highly organised global sport and eventually getting it into the Olympics.

It was also decided that the first official World Short-Course Championships organised under this new world governing body would take place in Avignon on 6th August 1989. Those races were won by Erin Baker and Mark Allen. The ITU then launched a World Cup Series in 1991 and organised the first World Long Distance Championships in Nice in 1994.

As I mentioned earlier, before the formation of the ITU in 1989 there were several other attempts to form a world governing body. At a conference in Amsterdam on the 14th and 15th November 1987 the Triathlon Fédération International or the TFI was created. And the city of Kelowna in Canada was awarded their first world championships.

But after these meetings and during subsequent meetings in Vancouver on 30th January 1988 there was a falling out between the representatives from the USA and the Europeans. Due to the system of voting on decisions. There was also no consensus on what to do about Japan’s potential membership. As they showed up to Amsterdam with two rival federations.

Member countries of the ETU refused to attend the Kelowna race. And so it was scrapped as an official World Championship. The race went ahead, however and is also out there on YouTube.

Now. Before all these political kerfuffles happened. As well as Perth there were already two other races being proclaimed as world championships. 

The first Nice International Triathlon took place on 20th November 1982 and was billed by the organisers IMG and the broadcaster NBC as the World Triathlon Championships. Then in reaction, the Hawaii Ironman and their broadcaster ABC also decided to use the designation in October 1982. 

Already for the February 1982 race they’d put the words World Triathlon on their publicity poster and the winners’ trophies.

The second Hawaii Ironman of 1982 took place 6 weeks before Nice on 9th October. In later years, Nice would do the switcheroo and schedule their event a couple of weeks before Hawaii. In an attempt to either get the pros at their freshest or force them to make a choice between the two races.

So. Before 1989. If you offered enough prize money and most of the best athletes in the world showed up. Then why not call your race a World Championship. There was nobody with any authority to tell you not to.

Unlike Nice, which offered big money from the first year, Hawaii didn’t pay out until 1986. But they obviously believed their place in history was enough to keep attracting the fastest racers.

Later in the 1990s the ITU did start to try and shut down races unofficially using the word “world” for their event. The most publicised one was the World Cup on the Gold coast.

Images:
Triathlete (USA) May 1987
Tri-Athlete (FR) Mars-Avril 1987

Although the organisers of the Perth race in 1987 named it the World Sprint Distance Championships, the distances were actually what we now call Olympic or Standard Distance.

A race report, appeared in the May 1987 issue of Triathlete (USA) and the June 1987 issue of Tri-Athlete (FR). It was written by the then editor Terry Mulgannon. You can see both above with links to the magazine issues where I found them. And. If you listen to the podcast audio at the top of the page you can hear me reading the English version.

Links:

1987 Nice Triathlon
TSP3: I Bought Four Sets Of Scott DH Handlebars
1987 USTS Hilton Head Triathlon
1987 Bermuda Triathlon
1989 ITU World Championships in Avignon
1988 Kelowna Triathlon

Sources:

Carl Thomas Interview on Innervoice
FFTRI Triathlon History Portal
Ironman Posters
25 Years of the Ironman World Championships by Bob Babbitt
Iron Will by Mike Plant
Triathlete (USA) June 1988
Triathlete (USA) November 1988
Triathlete (USA) December 1987

TSP10: Thinking Of France

At the moment I’m working on a podcast episode about the French Grand Prix Series. It’s history, the current format and some memories from my first year racing it in 1996. For GT Vesoul 70. 

I should have it done in a few weeks. But it’s taking longer than expected as I really want to get the details right about the wacky points system that they used in the mid and late-1980s.

But to get you ready, today I’m covering some back story about how I got interested in the French triathlon scene. Essentially by reading two articles published in Tri-Athlete (UK) in 1988. 

But once this interest was sparked and I started to know a bit about how triathlon worked in France, starting in 1992 my parents would build summer holidays around French racing experiences.

We’d send away to the French Triathlon Federation in Paris to get hold of a paper race calendar. Use the key on the first page to work out the distances and the importance of the race. And then we’d spread out a paper map of France to locate the regions and towns.

My mum knew enough French to be able to call the race organisers to get entry forms for me and my brother. Then there’d be a few weeks of waiting as stamped-addressed envelopes and money-orders were exchanged. We’d often travel to the race venues still not really knowing if our entries had made it. But things always seemed to work out.

For some nostalgia, here’s a 1993 calendar. Note that for people into the Kona qualifying process. In 1993 there were only 20 venues world-wide to qualify for the Hawaii Ironman. And only 2 of those were in Europe.
Roth and Lanzarote.

Images: Tri-Athlete (UK) August 1988

The first article that got my attention was from Glenn Cook’s regular column, Cook’s Watch, published in Tri-Athlete (UK) in the August 1988.

I was only 16 but my triathlon plan was to pass my driving test and get a car to travel the country following the Le Coq Sportif Grand Prix circuit. Eventually getting good enough to win small prize purses to fund my racing.

However, Glenn Cook wrote that to make more serious money back then you had to race regularly on the continent. Cook’s Watch explained that he had perfected the logistics of this.

Leaving near midnight on Thursday from his Devonshire home, he’d fly from Heathrow into Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands or France. He’d check out the race course on Saturday and race on Sunday. After collecting his cheque for winning or placing he’d make his way home on Monday.

I never really did any of this. Preferring to eventually move full-time to France. However, it did open my eyes to future racing opportunities outside of Swindon, Wakefield, Southend and Milton Keynes.

Images: Tri-Athlete (UK) October/November 1988

The second article was written by Carolyn Beardsley and published in the October / November 1988 issue of Tri-Athlete. The article is above. But read the whole thing in the podcast audio at the top of the page.

The piece tells the story of her experience racing for a French club. Carolyn describes the club structure at Poissy Triathlon that provided kit, camps, accommodation, expenses and coaching. And a beautifully complicated method of classifying races and determining your national ranking.

Importantly, she also discussed the prize money that was available and ways to get some by avoiding the top athletes.

Carolyn’s contact at Poissy was Kevin O’Neil. I’m pretty sure Kevin was the first British athlete to get deep into the French triathlon scene. From about 1984 onwards. I’d love to chat to him, and Carolyn Beardsley, about making contact with clubs and racing in France in the mid-80s.

I couldn’t speak French at the time and realistically had to get some A-Levels and maybe a degree. But finding a club in France, getting paid and avoiding classic employment was already on the docket.

Links:

1988 Nice Triathlon
1993 French Triathlon Calendar

TSP9: The First British Triathlon Shown On TV

The video above is the Grandstand highlights of The Heineken Southport Triathlon that took place on 18th June 1989. It was shown on the Saturday after the race. And was the first British Triathlon shown on TV. 220 called the race, “a truly historic day in British Triathlon.”

Although I’d read plenty of triathlon magazines, watching the Southport race was the first time I’d actually seen top athletes in motion. I also managed to record it using the family Betamax. And made sure to push out the tab on the underside of the cassette so nobody could record over it.

Most weekends after that would involve getting home from my Saturday job at Thompson’s Garage, watching the tape and then heading out on my bike to recreate the race in Burnham Beeches or Windsor Great Park.

Image: Tri-Athlete (UK) June 1988

Already the year before, in 1988, the Southport race was a big deal. In their August 1988 race report Tri-Athlete (UK) said that the event, “put triathlon on a plane not previously attained in the UK.”

High praise considering the 1986 European Short Course Championships had been held in Milton Keynes and a round of the 1987 Le Coq Sportif European Cup had taken place in Canterbury.

The 1988 Southport event was sponsored by Warburtons Bakery and was called The Warburton’s Big Bread Triathlon. A member of the Warburton family, Jonathan, was a triathlete. Which almost certainly helped drive the sponsorship decision. £6000 of total prize money was on offer. The largest ever UK purse at the time. English and French race reports are below.

Images:
Tri-Athlete (UK) August 1988
Tri-Athlete (FR) Aout 1988

The race was promoted by the team behind Winning and Tri-Athlete magazines. Winning was a colourful publication focusing on the European Pro cycling scene. And Tri-Athlete (UK) was a spin-off from the original California based Triathlete magazine, which was now owned by Jean Claude Garot’s company, OffPress, based in Brussels.

The women’s race in 1988 was won by Sarah Springman. This victory came just a week after she won her first European Short Course title in Venice. Adding to her two individual gold medals at the Ironman distance and five individual silver medals won since the ETU championships began in 1985.

Springman was one of the first British triathletes, having taken part in the UK’s first national Short Course triathlon championships at Kirton’s Farm near Reading on 5th June 1983, the first National Long Course Championships at Kielder Water later that summer and then the 2nd Nice International Triathlon at the end of the 1983 season.

As well as having an elite triathlon career that extended into the mid-1990s, Springman also served as the President of British Triathlon and the Vice-President of the International Triathlon Union. 

As a young triathlete in the late-80s and early-90s I was a big fan of Sarah. Because although she raced internationally, she could also be spotted regularly at UK races. 

The men’s race was won by Robin Brew, riding without the aid of aerobars. He explained why in the September issue of Tri-Athlete: “I’m not too happy on them. I’ve tried them out, but I just don’t feel comfortable. Maybe I’ll work on that.” Robin swam in the 1984 LA Olympics and then in 1985 won the made-for-TV British and International Superstars competitions. 

The International Superstars event took place in Cyprus and the field of 12 athletes also included Mark Allen. In his book Total Triathlete, Allen explains that, although he finished 5th overall, he found many of the events pretty challenging, especially the polo. In his best event, the 800m run, he finished second to... Robin Brew.

By 1986 Brew was dabbling in triathlon and in 1987 had started to get some solid domestic and European results. These included winning the British Grand Prix Final in Milton keynes and finishing second in the final of the 1987 Le Coq Sportif European Cup that took place in Barcelona.

Image: Tri-Athlet (DE) August 1988

In the August 1988 issue of the German language Tri-Athlete Magazine I found this mini race report (above) written in the style of a telegram sent from Tri-Athlete UK editor Chip Rimmer to the offices of Tri-Athlete Germany. Here’s a translation:

Big Bread Tri was a great show. Stop. Qualification race for Stein (Euro MD Champs). Stop. Even bookmakers on site. Stop. Cook and Springman favourites. Stop. Coope injured. Stop. But hello Robin Brew! Stop. As expected. Best swimmer. Stop. Also crazy on the bike. Stop. Behind Cook and Bondeel in tandem. Stop. Hard course. Stop. 1:15 lead into transition. Stop. Half way on the run now only 55 seconds. Stop. But Brew does it. Stop. Blondel second. Stop. In the last 200 metres. Stop. Springman without competition. Stop. Take care. Stop. Regards. Chip Rimmer. 

But now let’s get back to that 1989 race that was on Grandstand. The August 1989 issue of 220 and the June 1989 issue of British Triathlon Scene both had in-depth race reports. These magazines had debuted earlier in the year and were only available from race venues or specialist triathlon shops.

Image: Tri-Athlete (FR) Mai 1989

Although I was making occasional visits to Total Fitness in Swindon, I also lived just down the road from Dave Russell Cycles. Dave was building bikes for lots of triathletes back then and his shop also stocked triathlon-exotica such as aerobars, lace locks, tri-suits and magazines.

Although the front of the Southport race looked amazing to me on television. And there were strong British performances from Carlsberg Grand Prix regulars. The event had its problems. Both magazines didn’t hesitate to point out the good points and the bad points.

Images: 220 (UK) August 1989

220 (above) praised the national TV coverage, the hype created around the participation of Mark Allen, the decent prize-purse, the large number of spectators helped by the San Diego-style weather and the free beer. 

But 220 was also worried that, “If the TV coverage of the Heineken event shows the bunches, and any senior police officer is watching, we can kiss goodbye to the sport ever being allowed to grow.”

Image: British Triathlon Scene (UK) June 1989

British Triathlon Scene ran their full back-page as a picture of a draft-pack. They also suggested that the drafting packs were as big as 50 riders and this severely impacted the races of some of the top British women. 

Although I’ve watched the Grandstand coverage many times, I really think you should get on your turbo trainer and spin along as Mandy Dean leads from gun to tape and Mark Allen dominates from early in the bike.

This was the only time that Mark Allen raced in the UK. Southport was 7 weeks before Allen’s victory at the first ITU World Short Course Championships in Avignon and 16 weeks before his first win in Kona.

Between coming to Europe for the Nice Triathlon on 28th May and racing Southport on 18th June, Allen flew back to the states to qualify for the US team for Avignon at the President’s Triathlon in Dallas on 11th June.

Mandy Dean was part of a group of South African triathletes that came to Europe to race in the late-80s. I’ve linked to an article about her on Athlete Natural in the show-notes. This group of South Africans also included Simon Lessing. Who, at 18 years old. Finished 6th at Southport.

Other fun parts from the video for me include: 

Bob Wilson’s wacky explanation of what a triathlon is
Sarah Springman fixing her brake cable at 2:50
Lots of sleeveless wetsuits near the front from 5:55 onwards
Glenn Cooks Quintana Roo with tiny wheels at 7:38
Mandy Dean riding from her rack like we used to do at 8:18.
Mark Allen overtaking a tandem at 11:15.
Patrick Barnes probably doing the best flying-mount of the day at 12:12.
Phil Liggett calling the Big Four the Top 4 at 13:08.
Mark Allen’s super-smooth running style at 13:35
Julie Moss’s sock-racers at 15:50
Jon Ashby finishing 2nd at 20:30. I was still racing him in the mid-90s.

The June 1989 issue of British Triathlon Scene also stated that, “Heineken were pleased with their investment and look likely to sponsor again in 1990, but admitted improvements need to be made by both the organisers and themselves for the future.”

In fact, Heineken did continue their sponsorship for another year. And the race was moved to Portsmouth. With live BBC coverage this time. 

In 1991 tennis brand Donnay took over from Heineken and the Tri-Athlete Magazine / Winning organisation produced the last edition of the race. Again, with live BBC coverage. More on that in a future episode.

I’ve also got the Tri-Athlete (FR) race report (below) written by bi-lingual Karin Zeitvogel. I’m sure the same report ran in Tri-Athlete (UK)

Images: Tri-Athlete (FR) Aout 1989

Look. The 1989 Southport Triathlon on Grandstand wasn’t the first glimpse of triathlon on British TV. But I’m pretty certain it was the first coverage of an actual race from gun to tape. Albeit in highlights form. 

So what had been shown before?

In 1984 a magazine programme on Channel 4 called Wheels, Wings and Water, hosted by Olympic swimmer David Wilkie, showed a triathlon in Milton Keynes. But I think it was an invitation only event and put on just for TV purposes.  Some of the leading British athletes at the time were involved, including Sarah Springman, Peter Moysey and Martin Dyer. 

I couldn’t find anything about the Wheels, Wings and Water triathlon online or in my archives. But here’s a clip introducing the show. And thanks to Martin Lee, an excellent triathlete in the 1980s, for telling me about it. 

In 1983 and 1984 there was also coverage of the Fosters Quadrathlon. Here’s a clip from a video I found on YouTube. It's an edit of the TV coverage and a home video made by Mick and Danny Mannion, who took part in the event.  You really need to watch it. It was quite the adventure.

And who knows. Maybe some of the ABC Hawaii Ironman coverage was shown on British screens. The American broadcasters first filmed the race in 1981. Here’s the first of six clip from the race.  

Links:

BBC Grandstand Coverage of the 1989 Southport Triathlon
TSP5: UK Triathlon Magazines 1986-1990
Athlete Natural. Mandy Dean.
1983 Fosters Quadrathlon
1981 Hawaii Ironman

Sources:

Tri-Athlete (UK) September 1988.
Triathlon: The Complete Guide To Multi-Sport Success by Karin Zeitvogel with Sarah Springman.
Sarah Springman’s Results at World Triathlon
Superstars on Wikipedia
220 (UK) November 1992
Mark Allen’s Total Triathlete by Mark Allen with Bob Babbitt
Tri-Athlete (UK) Nov-Dec 1987
1989thestory.com
Wings, Wheels, Water Video

TSP8: The 1994 France Iron Tour With Scott Molina

Image: Inside Triathlon (USA) December 1994

In the podcast audio above I speak to Scott Molina about the 1994 France Iron Tour. I haven’t done a full transcript yet though. At the top of the show Scott explains how a triathlon stage race, especially one with longer and mountainous stages, totally suited him as an athlete.

Scott was a professional triathlete from the early-80s until the mid-90s. He had 104 victories from 265 starts. This included the 1988 Hawaii Ironman champion. But he also won 4 overall USTS titles, the Zofingen duathlon and the Embrun ironman in 1991. And stood on the Nice podium four times. 

A book came out in 2021 called Slot. It was published by the French triathlon magazine TriMag. There’s a chapter in there called On a retrouve le Big Four. Or We found the Big Four. Where they chat with Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Scott Tinley and Scott Molina. 

Here’s something about Scott from the article that I really like. “How could a guy so relaxed and nonchalant knock the other three down so often.”

And that’s what I discovered when I got up at 04:30 AM on a Monday to call Scott at his place in Christchurch, New Zealand. That is somebody super-relaxed but generous with his time and memories to help me explain today’s piece of triathlon history.

If you haven’t listened then TSP7 was about the Trophee SNCF, which was a 2 day test event  organised in 1993 as a kind of proof of concept for sponsors, the federation, the athletes; and the towns that might consider hosting a stage of a future France Iron Tour.

The triathlon press presented the organisational problems but also the successes. I went through all of that in episode 7. But the overriding hope was that the race would be back (and longer)in 1994.

Well spoiler alert. It was.

The event was initially rumoured to have eight stages in ten days. This was published in TED magazine and mentioned by Rob Barel on the Eurosport coverage. But at the end of August 1994 eleven teams of six men toed the line in Vichy for four stages over five days. With, like in 1993, the final stage finishing at the top of Alpe d’Huez.

The French semi-pro clubs were again in attendance. These included Poissy, Andrezieux Boutheon and St. Quentin. Who also had Rob Barel onboard.

International teams were also formed and provided with a local naming sponsor. Peugeot-Sachs were pretty much the German national team with future Hawaii Ironman winner Thomas Hellriegel, Rainer Muller, Ralf Eggert, Holger Lorenz, Roland Knoll and Arnd Schomburg.

Point-P was basically the Aix En Provence Grand Prix team but with Rick Wells, Stephen Foster and Canadian Frank Clarke added for the Iron Tour. 

The Rider team was mainly Belgians. Buckler were South Africans. And Alpe d’Huez had 4 Australians. Ben Bright, Luke Beaver, Brett Ricchini and Andrew Johns. And co-founder of Kiwami clothing brand Craig Watson from New Zealand. And a Frenchman. Sylvain Dafflon.

All teams had matching uniforms that included a race kit and a tracksuit. Peugeot also provided every team with an 806 people carrier to get the athletes from stage to stage.

Scott’s team was called France Info. In my opinion they had the best kit. A well designed combination of black, white and yellow. And although he had taken 1993 off, in 1994 Scott was fit and having one of his most enjoyable seasons ever.

In Vichy he was joined by Wes Hobson, Andrew Carlson, Jimmy Riccitello, Mike Pigg and Simon Lessing. A super-team if you will. But no. That surely wasn’t allowed. But it was agreed that 5 out of the 6 athletes on a team had to be from the same country. France Info had 5 Americans and Simon Lessing, a Brit racing with a French licence. 

So Stage 1 was on Wednesday 31st August in Vichy. Vichy is now famous for the Ironman event held there. But back in 1994 it was already an established triathlon town. The stage was to be a Sprint Distance Team Time Trial. With teams being set-off a minute apart.

The Triathlon Team Time Trial was invented in France. And the first one was organised in 1992. Scott had never done one before.

So the France Info guys knew that it was crucial to have serious team harmony and get a good start to the week. As this first hour of racing could make or break your tour.

Andrew Carlson and Simon Lessing set the pace on the swim and created a draft for the other four. Carlson rolled over and did some backstroke from time to time to check everybody was on their feet. 

On the bike they were determined to work hard, have the best team cohesion and use this leg to put serious time on other teams.

The team's time would be taken when their fifth athlete crossed the line after the run. So dropping a slower runner or somebody who had played a team role on the swim and bike was OK. The run leg in Vichy was also where Scott learned of a new tactic from Simon Lessing. A push on the lower back.

The result of stage one was: 1st France Info. 2nd St Quentin about 1 minute 30 seconds behind. And then Alpe D’Huez in third, nearly 2 minutes back. The best start possible for Scott’s team.

Stage 2, on Thursday 1st September, was in Lyon. A two hour drive away, that the teams did after the Vichy stage. The race took place within the Grand Parc Miribel Jonage. Which is an enormous suburban lake complex on a kind of island formed by the Rhone River.

At a pre-race athletes meeting there was some debate as to whether the race should be draft-legal. As it would be hard to stay separated on the flat bike course set up on the internal park roads.

At this time, the concept of drafting in triathlons was completely new. The ITU had only introduced it in Round 2 of their World Cup series in Osaka, Japan in June 1994. And if we count the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg and the Bordeaux Indoor event, the planet had only seen maybe seven high-level draft legal triathlons. 

Drafting was also still a super-controversial topic. It was not something that the top athletes of the day wanted or trained for. But Scott and the France Info boys were positive and ready for it.

After leading the swim. Simon Lessing and Ben Bright got away on the bike. Eventually gaining about 2 minutes on a chase pack. This pack was mainly driven by Mike Pigg but it also contained Molina, future 2000 Olympian Stephane Bignet, future 2004 Olympian Stephane Poulat and probably the best triathlon-swimmer in France at the time, Laurent Jeanselme.

On the run, Simon Lessing easily pulled away from Ben Bright to win by 1 minute 44 seconds. Scott had an excellent run on the mixed terrain course to finish third. 3 minutes 22 seconds behind Lessing.

So running some rough numbers after stage 2. The overall standings were: 1st Simon Lessing. 2nd Scott Molina at 3 minutes 22 seconds. And 3rd equal. Ben Bright and Mike Pigg. 3 minutes 28 seconds in arrears. This was already a huge lead for Simon Lessing after just two days. Highlighting the dominance he had at the short-course game back then.

Stage 3 took place the next day, Friday 2nd September, in Grenoble. Remember that Grenoble was the site of the 1993 France Iron Tour test-event that I talked about in TSP7. It was another 2 hour drive from Lyon to Grenoble. That again the teams did after the previous stage. The trip also included a stop at McDonalds for the France Info team.

This stage was an evening Sprint Distance event with the race due to start at 7PM. As it was on a Friday night the organisers hoped that plenty of spectators would be out to follow the downtown swim and two-lap run.

It was also in Grenoble that everybody would get their first taste of the mountains. With the entirety of the bike course being pretty much just the 9km climb and descent of the Col de Vence.

Like in 1993 the swim was in the Isere river. The water temperature was about 9°c. But the cold wasn’t the only difficulty. The fast running river meant that missing the exit ladders was a real possibility.

If you want you can also go back and look at the 1993 Eurosport coverage that I linked to in TSP7 to get an idea of the river conditions. 

The bike course was already hard with the long climb but the weather was also cold and wet. Scott was pleased when the race was over.

Mike Pigg, Simon Lessing and Frank Clark broke away on the climb. Pigg attacked on the slippery descent but Lessing lost nothing at all. Clarke got dropped from the lead trio and even experienced descenders like Scott and Jimmy Riccitello lost a minute or so.

Of course, Simon Lessing pulled away on the run to win his third stage in three days. Mike Pigg was second and Frank Clarke held on for third. Although out of the top 5, Scott was pleased to outkick Rob Barel.

Notable on this day was Patrick Girard’s 4th place. After getting 9th with the fastest run the day before. He was now, heading into the last stage, clearly the best French athlete on GeeCee.

Not many people could beat Simon Lessing and Mark Allen in the early-90s. But Girard, relatively unknown internationally, had done both. 

He outsprinted Lessing at the 1991 Coupe de France in Sete before ticking the Allen box at the 1992 Haut de Seine triathlon. That unfortunately became a duathlon on the day due to poor water quality.

Images: 220 (UK) October 1994

Saturday 3rd September was a rest day. After stage 3 yesterday, John Lillie, reporting for 220 magazine (above) wrote, “The only person not to look tired and haggard was Simon Lessing who was obviously living on the buzz of wearing the race leader's jersey.”

Grenoble to the ski town of Vaujany, where the last stage was due to start, was only about an hour's drive. Once there, Scott checked out the first climb. Which went from Lake Vaujany back to the village centre, had a massage and generally got ready for the final and probably hardest stage.

So. Stage 4 took place on Sunday 4th September and was an Olympic distance individual time-trial with a twist. Existing time gaps from the first 3 stages would be used to determine the day’s swim set-off times. 

Therefore the first athlete across the line after the run at the top of Alpe D’Huez would be the winner. Spectators and TV viewers would know what overall positions the athletes were in and hopefully athlete engagement would be maintained until the end.

So Simon Lessing dived into the not-warm water 4 minutes 19 seconds ahead of Mike Pigg. Followed by Ben Bright. And then Scott Molina. Still truckin’ in 4th. Surely Lessing couldn’t be caught. He was hoping to win four stages out of four while Pigg would be pushing gun to tape and hoping that Lessing would crack slightly on the final 12km from Bourg d’Oisans to Alpe D’Huez.

Climbing on the bike was a strength of Scott’s and so was running at altitude. The stage 4 run leg would be at 1860m and Scott had plenty of experience running hard at these altitudes on the trails near his home in Boulder, Colorado. He was definitely hoping to push for the podium. 

But on the descent from Vaujany to the valley Scott hit a stone in the road and had a skidding blow out losing 6 minutes waiting for Mavic car. Below.

Images: 220 (UK) October 1994

So let's look at the overall results of this historic first proper triathlon stage race. Well. Simon Lessing won all the stages and therefore also the general classification. In fact, after the Vaujany swim his lead increased from 4:19 to 6 minutes. Mike Pigg had the consolation of pulling back a minute or more on the bike but Simon still won stage 4 on time. 

The overall win was worth $15,000 and a Peugeot 306 car.

Mike Pigg was second overall 4:54 behind. Frank Clarke, the now proven climber, started 6th on the last day but had moved up to 3rd by the finish. 9:58 behind the winner. Then we had Ben Bright at 12 minutes. Another Australian Stephen Foster at 14:20. And the Germans Roland Knoll and Ralph Eggert at 14:49 and 14:54.

After not an ideal last day, but with the fastest run at Alpe d’Huez, Scott Molina got 8th overall.  Jimmy Riccitello was 9th and Patrick Girard was proudly the first French Athlete and fastest overall runner in 10th.

Of course, France Info secured the team win. 2nd was Point-P, Peugeot Sachs was third. Poissy was the first 100% French club team in 4th and the Belgium Rider Team was 5th. In fact, it was the team aspect that Scott really enjoyed. In what was, up until then, a very individual sport. 

It needs to be noted that the main organisers, Carole Gally and Carole Bertrand, had made big improvements since the 1993 test-event. 

Here’s John Lillie writing again in 220 magazine.

“It was a huge step forward for triathlon. No one previously has attempted such an undertaking and apart from some small problems, the whole race worked well. The athletes enjoyed the camaraderie of team racing and the spectators and television viewers got a good look at the sport of triathlon over a period of several days.”

Images: Triathlete (USA) December 1994

Scott kept a diary during his trip that was published in the December 1994 issue of Triathlete. Above. I love how it ends.

“On the trip home I started to envisage a two-week tour with more than a few longer stages interspersed. It’s not hard to get pumped up about that. Congrats to the organisation that pulled it all together. Please keep me on your mailing list.”

Unfortunately, Scott didn’t get to go back. He decided to end his long and successful professional career during the 1995 season. However, like me, he thinks it would be great to see the format come back. With a special request for longer stages. Because as the France Iron Tour continued into 1995 and onwards most days became sprint races.

Images: Triathlete (FR) Octobre 1994

I hope this has enabled you to get a feel for an event that inspired me as a young, ambitious triathlete. An event that doesn’t exist anymore. At least not as four or more days with the world's best athletes attending.

I’m as obsessed with the France Iron Tour now as I was back then. And in 2024 I’m even thinking of heading down to South Eastern France to recreate the whole race from Vichy to Alpe d’Huez.

I’m also definitely going to look at the 1995 France Iron Tour soon. And then 1996 and maybe 1997. In 1996 there was a mainly-British team taking part, sponsored by Haribo. A story for another day.

Links:

Slot: La Legende Du Triathlon
TSP7: The 1993 France Iron Tour Test-Event 
1993 Trophee SNCF

Sources:

TED (FR) Mars 1993
Slowtwitch. Interview with Scott Molina.

TSP7: The 1993 France Iron Tour Test-Event

Now I’m sure plenty of you are fans of the Tour de France. For the gripping three weeks of racing. Or. Like me, more for the scenery, history and parallel stories. Well there also used to be a triathlon stage race modelled on cycling’s Tour de France. It was unique. Some experimental race formats were used. And many top athletes of the day attended.

The video above is Eurosport’s 1993 coverage of the Trophee SNCF, with Ian Sweet explaining the two-stage Test-Event that would become a triathlon stage race called the France Iron Tour.

The France Iron Tour was then organised from 1994 until 1998. And a few times in the 2000s. At least that's all I have paper or internet evidence of. Jonathon and Alistair Brownlee even raced for their French club, Sartrouville, in 2010. After the 1994 event Mike Pigg was quoted in the December issue of Inside Triathlon Magazine as saying:

“This is the best thing that has happened to the sport in 10 years. You have to be there everyday, and as I got stronger everyday the rest of the field got stronger. It was awesome”

By far the best Iron Tour available on YouTube is the 1996 edition. There was a team of British athletes taking part, sponsored by Haribo. And I got to race Stage Five as part of a Franche Comte Region composite-team. 

I’m going to go through the event year by year from 1994 to 1997. But today I’m covering the 1993 version. That was organised as a kind of proof of concept for sponsors, municipalities, the federation and the athletes.

Image: Triathlete (FR) Juin 1993

The event consisted of a Sprint Distance Team Time Trial on Saturday 26th June in downtown Grenoble. And then a Middle Distance race on Sunday 27th June with the finish at the top of Alpe d’Huez.

The first triathlon that went up Alpe d’Huez took place the year before and was called the TIGRE or Triathlon International de Grenoble. The race was created by Carole Gally, who was also behind the Iron Tour.

Nor was the 1993 Grenoble event the first Triathlon TTT. The world’s first took place in Mimizan in July 1992. It was again a test-event for La Coupe de France that would be held at the same venue in October 1992.

Images: Triathlete (FR) Aout 1993

After the two day Trophee SNCF a race report was published in the August 1993 issue of Tri-Athlete. Above. I’ve done a quick translation. Day 1:

It was a good try but not a total success. The potential format of the Iron Tour had a few problems due to the novelty of the race. These issues will need to be fixed in the future.

It was one o’clock when the first team threw itself into the swirling water of the Isere River. The competitors, who had been told the water was 12 degrees, discovered that the rough water was not much over 9 degrees.

A serious difference in conditions that numbed many athletes and added to the main difficulty of the day. Staying together as a team.

All 11 teams seemed to have a strategy to stay in formation and protect their best runners. Even though they were more used to racing individually.

Most of the athletes got to the bike to run transition without too much trouble. But the difficulties started with the bike. 

Despite their skills as cyclists not every triathlete knows how to ride as a team. A few days before the race some athletes were not even aware that they would need to ride together. 

Finally, only the teams that had plenty of experience riding as a peloton managed to stay together during the bike leg. 

Poissy was easily the best at this. Patrick Girard explained that their plan to “stay together and save the legs of their best runners” was well carried out. So well in fact that the group was clocked at over 60 km/hr on some of the straight sections of the course.

Amongst the others. Except St Quentin, who were slowed by Rob Barel’s puncture, and Caisse d’Epargne, who posted the best bike split, there was total panic.

Some athletes who lost time in the swim never caught their teammates and other groups broke up. The harmony hoped for was replaced by a shambles. Leaving spectators unable to understand the racing. 

And it didn’t get any better on the run. The fact that only 3 athletes out of 6 in each team would count for the team’s time must have completely derailed the plans to stay together. So the race just looked like a normal individual sprint triathlon that we’re used to seeing.

Athletes crossed the line one by one. Not in groups. Sometimes with a 3 or 4 minute gap between the first and last members of a team. The only exception was Poissy who again played the team game to the end as all 6 of their athletes finished within a minute of each other.

Was there a lack of experience racing as a team or does the race format and rules need to be changed? This was the question being asked by the officials and the athletes themselves. But was the solution simply what Jacques Laparade, president of the French Triathlon Federation, explains:

The organisers should have trusted the rules put in place by the federation so that everything runs smoothly. The rule put in place for Mimizan worked perfectly and should have been used here.

This is a problem that the organisers absolutely need to fix if they want to have a team time trial in future editions of the Iron Tour. 

Now here’s a note from me about what Jacques Laparade was talking about. At the La Coupe de France Team Time Trial in October 1992 the teams finish time was taken after the 3rd athlete of five crossed the line. 

This incentivised teams to make sure that at least three athletes stayed together on the run and worked and looked like a team.

However, in Grenoble in 1993 the decision was taken to work out a mathematical average time of the first three athletes across the line in each team. Therefore encouraging the stronger runners to run on ahead.

Which for the spectacle of this exciting new team format. Looked rubbish.

And now here’s Day 2 from the same article:

Rob Barel, with the effects of the Nice Triathlon still in his legs, couldn’t hold off Mike Pigg in this high quality race. 

Note from me here. Nice was two weeks earlier. Over 4km/120km/32km. And Barel finished 3rd behind Mark Allen and Simon Lessing.

After the Team Time Trial, Ben Bright, the young Australian, spoke about five names as possible favourites. Himself, Mike Pigg, Rob Barel, Nick Croft and Jean-Luc Capogna. He wasn’t wrong because these were the five athletes that chased each other up the climb.

From the start of the swim Bright and Croft got themselves to the front and stayed there. They came out of the lake with a 30 second lead on Pigg, Capogna and Barel. But quickly Jean-Luc Capogna, pushing a huge gear, caught up to and eventually dropped Bright. Rob Barel and Mike Pigg were just about hanging on.

Behind these four a group of about 15 athletes was getting organised. Ignoring the no-drafting rule and chasing as hard as possible. This lasted until the bottom of the climb. When the 21 mythical corners caused the groups to explode and the rule of everybody for themselves took over. 

Tired from his earlier efforts, Jean-Luc Capogna left the front of the race to Mike Pigg at the bottom of the climb. Pigg stayed in front until the top, pushing 39*23 or even 39*21 from time to time.

Rob Barel racked his bike a minute behind the American. But this time gap was quickly reduced like melting snow in the sun. And although Barel overtook Pigg he couldn’t completely drop him.

The two men know each other well but running a half marathon at altitude after having ridden one of the hardest climbs in France is a perilous exercise. And Rob Barel paid for it as Mike Pigg, with a last effort, came back past him to steal the victory.

In the Tri-Athlete article there was also this side-bar. Where the magazine started to envisage a longer event in the future.

France Iron Tour. Myth or reality? Even if we ignore the organisational errors that we saw. Is a france iron tour actually possible? Finding venues, getting the media interested and attracting sponsors is not easy. 

But the main problem is maybe finding athletes willing to take part in a potentially 10 day event. Will they be motivated to give it their best shot? Or is it too hard to race well everyday? The organisers need to think carefully about this before going ahead with the project.

Images: TED Septembre 1993

The September issue of Triathlon et Duathlon. Or TED Magazine. Above. Was a bit more positive about the team time trial fiasco. Saying that the athletes didn’t really have enough time to prepare for it.

The Tour de France of Triple Effort is a sea snake that has been emerging from the deep since triathlon has been triathlon. We’d love that in 1994 Carole Gally, helped by her technical consultant Jean-Luc Capogna, can finally give us a triathlon tour de france worthy of its name.

They finished by asking some other questions about the hoped for 1994 race that, they said, weren’t really answered in the post-race press conference.

1. When will the plans for the 1994 race be made public?

2. What are the conditions for entry into the event? I guess they are referring not only to entry fees but also the composition of teams.

3. Which towns will welcome the race? And what’s the motivation for a town to apply to host a stage? 

4. How will the athletes be looked after? Hotels. Transfers etc.

5. Will the race be open to amateur athletes? And / or female athletes.

6. What will the prizes be? Referring to prize money and leaders jerseys,

7. How will the race be publicised and / or televised?

8. How many stages will there be? Will there be rest days?

9. And finally … with the ITU, ETU, TPT and Ironman circuits. Will this event not just be another thing to slot into the calendar?

Now 1993 and 1994 really was a golden age of triathlon for me. I was getting stronger and my results were getting better. I was winning local stuff and featuring a bit nationally. I was also starting to think about moving to France after I’d finished my degree at the Univ. of Brighton.

In the summer of 1992 I found myself in France on a family holiday with entries into two Grand Prix events. Bujaleuf on the 1st August and Chervais Cubas on the 8th August. I didn’t race the second weekend as I didn’t fancy the cold, wet, technical bike course.

But at Bujaleuf I got a taste of the French scene and the Grand Prix circuit up close. I saw the matching team bikes racked up and the loud club kits covered in sponsors. And then racing in the afternoon on closed roads, through villages packed with spectators.

I also listened to well-known but also the journeyman pros talking English in transition. Overhearing conversations about joining teams, racing every week, sometimes twice a week. Epic travel stories to get from event to event and racing hard for cheques made out in French francs.

I knew then that I wanted to do something similar. But more on that in later episodes.  So did the France Iron Tour happen in 1994? Check out Episode 8 of The Streak Podcast. Which is out right now. To find out. 

Links:

1993 France Iron Tour Test-Event
2010 France Iron Tour. Stage 2. Stage 3.
1996 France Iron Tour
1992 Triathlon International de Grenoble

Sources:

Inside Triathlon December 1994
220 (UK) August 1992
TED (FR) Mars 1993
TED (FR) Aout / Septembre 1992
TED (FR) Novembre / Decembre 1992
TED (FR) Juillet 1993

TSP6: The Timex Triathlon Watch

Today we’re exploring the history of a device that was super-important to me way back in 1988. When I started training for my first triathlon. That is the Timex Triathlon watch.

I remember buying my first Timex Triathlon from Argos in Slough. It was maybe in 1985 or 1986. When I was still just a runner. 

When it came out it really was a technological leap forward. You could store lap times and the buttons were easy to see and press. Features you only previously got on classic hand-held stopwatches.

Here’s a quote from the Timex Website:

In 1984, we took the clock off the finish line, and put it on your wrist to create the world’s first sports watch. TIMEX® IRONMAN® became your coach, your motivation and a symbol of your dedication. Together, we’ve crossed nearly every finish line in the world. 

The original Timex Triathlon was released in 1984. After development work by Timex’s in-house designers and input from the ironman organisers, writer’s from Runner’s World magazine and serious athletes. These apparently included Mary Decker-Slaney and Alberto Salazar.

In 1984 Timex was already a sponsor of the Hawaii Ironman and they hoped that this new digital product would improve their lacklustre sales.

Timex’s product manager for digital launches, Mario Sabatini, even flew to Kona in October 1984 to get a feel for the market. He took 1500 Timex Triathlon watches with him to sell to athletes. The watches were priced at $34.95 And he sold them all.

In 1986 Timex acquired the rights to use the word Ironman and launched the Timex Ironman watch alongside the Timex Triathlon. 

The Ironman had a different colour-scheme to the Triathlon. Black and yellow rather than black and red. The Ironman logo was added and the water-resistant rating was increased from 50m to 100m. 

When British surf brand Animal released their velcro-fastening after-market straps in 1987, my mum started sewing fake ones to go on your Timex. 

My brother would then sell them Spiv-style out of his school blazer. He also offered a bespoke size and colourway service.

If the 1984 partnership between Timex and Ironman gave Timex a boost, the roles were reversed in 1986. 

By 1985 the top professional triathletes were preferring Nice rather than the Hawaii Ironman. Nice had offered prize money since its inception in 1982 and Hawaii still refused to.

Nice was often held a couple of weeks before Kona and few athletes wanted to put out two huge efforts so close together. 1985 even saw a kind of boycott of the Hawaii Ironman by many of the pro-athletes.

But in 1986 the Timex Ironman watch had become the best-selling watch in the USA and was earning royalties for Ironman. On top of that an anonymous donor put up $100,000 to be used as prize money if the organisers so wished. 

This monetary offer was accepted. “... pushing the race out of its cosy family aura and into the big time.” wrote Timothy Carlson in the September 2003 issue of Inside Triathlon Magazine.

We now know that this anonymous donor was Steve Drogin from La Jolla, CA. Drogin was a real estate developer, philanthropist and serious scuba diver. He also had a house in Kona. 

For more information on those 1985 and 1986 Kona races I urge you to read Ironwill by Mike Plant. There’s a link to it in the show-notes.

Of course. Nowadays. Not many triathletes use just a simple digital watch. GPS has taken over. I appreciate some aspects of the technology and I have a simple Garmin device and a Strava account.

But I’m not hung up about it. I don’t upload half the stuff I do or obsess over the data. So I think I’m going to start logging my near-daily exercise on paper again. And try to get hold of a Timex. Does Argos still exist?

Links:
Animal watch straps.
Ironwill by Mike Plant
Timex commercials used in audio version. Intro. Outro.

Sources:

Coolest Vintage
Wikipedia: Timex Ironman
25 Years of the Ironman Triathlon World Championships by Bob Babbitt
Inside Triathlon Magazine: September 2003
TriHistory.com: A Straight 40 To Go
Times Ticking: I Am Ironman

Images:

Triathlon (USA) January/February 1986
Triathlete (USA) November 1986
Triathlete (USA) January 1987
Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1987
Triathlete (USA) August 1988
Triathlete (USA) October 1989

TSP5: UK Triathlon Magazines 1986-1990

Over the last couple of years I’ve been buying up vintage triathlon magazines on eBay. Some of them I’d previously owned. But they hadn’t survived multiple international house moves and a few loft purges.

I’m a big fan of magazines. Because I like to have nice paper objects in my hands. I still buy French and German triathlon publications. And I’m thinking of starting my own A5 triathlon zine in 2023.

Away from triathlon, I subscribe to The Golfer’s Journal, Like The Wind, Walden and Bicycle Quarterly. They’re all attractive magazines focusing on longer-form storytelling. Rather than being driven by advertisements, how-to articles and equipment reviews.

I started collecting Tri-Athlete UK in July 1988. Then early editions of 220 Magazine and British Triathlon Scene. On a family holiday to Florida in 1989 I even picked up a few copies of the US version of Triathlete.

To understand the landscape of magazines serving the UK triathlon scene in the 1980s we need to first look at the emergence of two titles in the USA.

In February 1983 the team from Swim Swim Magazine launched Triathlon Magazine out of Santa Monica. The year before they had tested the concept by printing one issue of a magazine they called Swim Bike Run.

Then in May 1983, Bill Katovsky launched Tri-Athlete Magazine (spelt TRI hyphen athlete) out of San Francisco. An investor in Katovsky’s project was Belgian Jean-Claude Garot. He was the publisher of Winning Magazine, a glossy, photo filled monthly magazine focused on European professional cycling. Before long, Garot had bought the Tri-Athlete operation from Katovsky.

Both magazines were fueled by the huge growth in the US race scene and the public awareness of the sport that happened the year before.

The Hawaii Ironman had two memorable editions in 1982. The February race had the TV-famous crawl-off between Julie Moss and Kathleen McCartney. Then the October event saw a comeback win for Dave Scott, ahead of the defending Scott Tinley, as he edged the course record towards 9 hours.

Another factor was the launch of the United States Triathlon Series. Knowing that not all athletes wanted to complete an Ironman, Carl Thomas and Jim Curl launched a series of 5 short-course events in 1982.

The series was due to expand to 11 events in 1983, providing plenty of stories for Triathlon and Tri-Athlete to write.

By 1985 triathlon was also growing rapidly in Europe. The European Triathlon Union had just been formed and the first European Championships were about to be held. Immenstadt in Germany would host the short-course and Almere in The Netherlands the long-course.

But Jean-Claude Garot was particularly interested in what was happening in France. The Nice triathlon was already on its 4th edition and France had a thriving club scene. Their Grand Prix was also about to be re-launched, after a few organisational snafus during the 1984 season.

Image: Tri-Athlete (FR) Juin 1985

So in June 1985 the team at Tri-Athlete debuted a stand-alone French language title to cover the French and Belgian scenes. Issue 1 above. It ran for 35 years and closed at the end of 2020.

Back in the US, despite the growth of triathlon, it was decided that advertising revenue couldn’t support two magazines. So in July 1986 Triathlon and Tri-Athlete merged to create Triathlete (without a hyphen).

Post-merger, production tasks were shared between the two teams before Jean-Claude Garot bought the magazine out-right in 1988.

Although French speakers had a stand-alone version of Triathlete being produced out of Garot’s Brussels office; Triathletes in the UK had to go through two intermediate steps before getting theirs.

Image: Triathlete (UK) February 1987. Last blue edition.

The first move in January 1986 was an eight page, blue paper, UK edition inserted into the middle of the US edition. Importantly, Tri-Athlete could now be found in newsagents such as Menzies and WH Smith. From 1983 until 1985 it was only available in the UK to subscribers.

The last of these blue editions is above.

Then in May 1987 the blue insert was replaced by a colour version but still bundled with the US edition of Triathlete. Below.

Image: Tri-Athlete (UK) May 1987. First colour edition.

Finally, at the end of 1987 Tri-Athlete UK became a 52 page stand-alone magazine. With a German version being launched in January 1988.

Although the US, German, UK and French magazines each had a different editorial team; stories and images were often shared. Note also that the hyphen in Tri-Athlete was still being used in Europe.

Images:
220 (UK) April 1989. Issue 2.
British Triathlon Scene (UK) April 1989. Issue 2.

In March 1989 Tri-Athlete finally had some rivals in the UK. This is when British Triathlon Scene and 220 Magazine were launched. Issue 2 of both magazines are above. British Triathlon Scene closed sometime in 1990. But 220 is still around in 2023. The founder, John Lillie, sold it in 1997.

Here’s a passage from John Lillie’s blog about the beginnings of 220.

In 1988 I came back from Ironman Hawaii with my Total Fitness Tri Club mates Trevor Gunning and Kevin Ferris, satisfied that we had all finished the race, got our medals and T-shirts and had a remarkable experience on the Big Island. I'd go so far to say that we were buzzing!

A month later Tri-Athlete Magazine came out. I read the Hawaii race report with a big smile on my face and then turned to the results page. Nothing. Despite a good turn out of Brits not one was mentioned. I was incensed. 

You'd better start your own magazine, someone half joked to me. It was only a half joke because I was a serial starter of businesses and at the time one was quite profitable. So I had the wherewithal to do it. So I did.

In 1989 Jean-Claude Garot’s publishing company, Offpress, had financial problems. And in early-1990 Tri-Athlete UK disappeared from shops. 

Image: Triathlete (UK) May 1990. The UK Comeback Issue.

But a few months later, in May 1990, the US version of the magazine with the UK cover-mount came back. Above.

Probably seizing the opportunity presented by the disappearance of British Triathlon Scene and the semi-demise of Tri-Athlete; in May 1990 Running Magazine launched a triathlon supplement called Triathlon. Below.

Image: Triathlon (UK) May 1990. Running Magazine supplement.

Several articles in the first issue were written by Karin Zeitvogel. Karin previously worked at Tri-Athlete with Jean-Claude Garot and persuaded the editor of Running, Nick Troop, to let her launch Triathlon. 

Karin also owned the specialist Triathlon shop Wholly Fit in London. I recently had an informative exchange with her on Twitter. It’s not easy finding people who remember and want to chat about triathlon in the 1980s.

I was a big fan of Running Magazine. I thought that they did a great job of covering elite road racing, both in the UK and abroad. But the spin-off quarterly title Triathlon only made it to maybe half a dozen issues before Running Magazine was absorbed into the US title Runner’s World in 1993.

So 220 Magazine definitely won the battle of the late-80s slash early-90s triathlon magazines. I think their low-budget, quirky approach appealed more to the UK triathletes interests and humour.

They covered the big races and the small races. They even organised their own  races so that they had more to write about.

I’ve got pretty much the whole collection from 1989 until 1997. Except the first issue and a few crucial ones I’d love to own. Like October 1991 and September 1992. Every time I flick through a few vintage copies I’m reminded of how good the magazine was back then.

I often like to give myself some homework at the end of an episode. So this time it's to find out more about Tri News which was the British Triathlon Association’s member’s magazine. It was launched A5 photocopied zine-style in January 1983. And Endurance Sports magazine. That. When it came out in the spring of 1985 Was promoted as: 

The only specialist magazine in the UK covering the needs of the long distance swimmer, cyclist, runner and canoeist.

I’m also a big fan of Francophone triathlon magazines such as Tri-Athlete and TED. So I’ll definitely dig into the history of them in the future. 

Links:

1987 Nice Triathlon
Early220 by John Lillie

Sources:

TriHistory: The Birth of Triathlete Magazine. An Insider’s Story
Triathlete (USA) May 2008. Looking Back.
Triathlete (USA): A Look Back At 40 Years Of Triathlete Magazine
Harald Johnson: 36 Years Ago Today.

TSP4: The Le Coq Sportif Grand Prix

The video below is the 1990 Nice Triathlon. In 1989 they moved the race to June so it didn’t clash with Hawaii in October. Nice 1990 was also the 2nd triathlon that I ever saw on TV after the Heineken Southport Triathlon in 1989. There’s a podcast about Southport coming soon. 

My mum had a friend who had the new cable TV installed. We’d give her a pack of VHS tapes and she’d fill them with rare triathlon, cycling or athletics coverage for me and my brother. 

TSP2 is called The Speed And The Sweat. It was about my first triathlon and deciding at the end of the 1989 season that even though I was only 16 and doing my GCSEs, I wanted to become a professional triathlete. 

In 1989 there were no academies at universities, national team performance pathways or World Cup circuit. So the only way to do it back then was as a privateer. Living off prize money, savings, small sponsorships and your parents. Hopefully wintering in San Diego and racing as often as possible. This might include hooking up with a French or German club.

I read a lot of golf books and love the history of the game. Especially the stories from the early days on the PGA Tour. When players were actually on tour. Driving from event to event without going home. 

I actually imagined triathlon developing along the golf model. Allowing the journeyman pro to make a respectable living. There would be multiple circuits like the US, European and Asian Tours in golf. Entry would be via a Q-School and athletes would have to race at all distances while attempting to be on peak form for “the majors”.

The golf thing obviously never happened. However, starting in 1985 the Grand Prix Series provided regular national standard racing and some pocket money for UK-based pros.

Names like: Peter Moysey, Cathy Bow, Mark Marabini, Sarah Springman, Bernie Shrosbree, Sally Ikin, Tracey Harris, Vicky Lescombe, Richard Hobson, Doris Trueman, Rick Kiddle, Pippa Cribb and Mike Harris.

By 1986 the Grand Prix was sponsored by Le Coq Sportif. The French sports apparel brand had brought out a one-piece tri-suit and a range of triathlon separates. They were also sponsoring a triathlon team and the European Cup circuit. In 1987 European Cup even included a UK race in Canterbury.

Images:

Tri-Athlete (UK) July 1988
Tri-Athlete (UK) August 1988
Tri-Athlete (UK) September 1988
Tri-Athlete (UK) October / November 1988

In 1988 I started buying triathlon magazines to follow the GP series. There were 10 events that season. So basically one race a fortnight. The venues were Swindon, Barry Island, Otley, Ripon, Milton Keynes, Redbridge, Keswick, Wakefield, Leicester and Bedford. 

The Swindon race was organised by John Lillie and Trevor Gunning. Trevor was the owner of the specialist triathlon shop, Total Fitness in Swindon. And John would start 220 Magazine the following year. Together they would also launch the 220 Race Series in 1991.

To get a final Grand Prix ranking in 1988, athletes had to complete at least five events. The overall winners, Cathy Bow and Mark Mararbini, pocketed £750 as an end of series bonus.

Highlights of the year included the overall high standard and close racing in both the women’s and men’s competitions. Even though Britain's two reigning European champions, Glenn Cook and Sarah Coope, focused their seasons around races out of the UK. 

Similarly, the use of a 4 lap circuit and an evening start in Otley that drew plenty of spectators and a brass band was also a high point. It was suggested that this format could possibly be used to attract TV coverage much like the Kellog’s City Centre Cycling. 

New levels were also set in terms of participation as at least half of the events in the Grand Prix Series had more than 350 competitors. The races at Ripon and Barry Island even had around 500.

Low points of the 1988 season included misdirections of top competitors at a couple of events and several short swims.

Although not part of the Grand Prix Series, The Warburton’s Big Bread Triathlon in Southport was probably the most high profile event of the season. Tri-Athlete magazine said that it put triathlon on a plane not previously attained in the UK.

The Big Bread took place the day after the Otley Grand Prix, yet still attracted an international field and plenty of Grand Prix regulars. Sarah Springman and Robin Brew were the winners.

Images:

British Triathlon Scene (UK) May 1989
220 (UK) June 1989

For the 1989 season the series was renamed the Carlsberg Grand Prix. Bernie Shrosbree had a personal sponsorship with them and brokered the deal that saw the beer company sponsoring the whole series. 

There were 13 events that year. In Swindon, Staffordshire Moorlands, Southampton, Blackpool, Ripon, Tallington Lakes, Dover, Wakefield, Milton Keynes, Rushden, Hunstanton and Emberton Park.

I also had club-mates at Berkshire Tri Squad who were driving up and down the country to do as many Grand Prix races as possible. Finding cheap B&Bs or camping at lake complexes and beach towns. 

They wore fluorescent clothing, rode Dave Russell Bikes and had the new Scott DH aerodynamic handlebars. As far as I was concerned they were living the late-80s triathlete lifestyle that I aspired to.

The coordination of the series was taken on by prolific Bedfordshire race organiser Bill Steel, who even put on six of the thirteen events himself. Most races had between 200 and 400 competitors.

Again, only your best five results counted for the overall standings. Both Vicky Lescombe and Bernie Shrosbree managed to win 5 races and hence the overall Grand Prix and the $1000 prize-purse.

Highlights of the season included the overall great weather, which was the driest summer since 1959, and the strong support from Carlsberg that included free beer at every race. 

Images: 
220 (UK) June 1989
British Triathlon Scene (UK) June 1989
220 (UK) August 1989
220 (UK) September 1989
220 (UK) November 1989
220 (UK) December 1989
British Triathlon Scene (UK) December 1989 / January 1990

Round 1 in Swindon saw the use of wave starts that reduced incidents of drafting. However, when the idea was used for Round Two at Staffordshire Moorlands an elite wave was not included. This caused confusion for spectators and a mathematical kerfuffle for the organisers.

The low point of the 1989 season was definitely the Hunstanton race that was ruined by high seas and insufficient safety craft. Only 75 triathletes toeing the line for the final race in Emberton Park was also disappointing.

Again like in 1988 the most high profile race was a non-GP one. And again it was the race in Southport. Now sponsored by Heineken. It was on the same day as the Southampton Grand Prix. 

In the spring of 1990 I passed my driving test and bought my first car. A Skoda Estelle. The engine was at the back which left a bike-shaped space under the bonnet. I was building my skills as a triathlete and was planning to do a mediocre job with my A-Levels to take on the Grand Prix.

The BTA announced a new series at their AGM that was planned to be just five events over seven weeks in mid-Summer. With venues to be selected from Swindon, Staffordshire Moorlands, Alderney in the Channel Islands, Blackpool, Otley, Dover, Redbridge and Torbay.

The dates chosen would avoid clashes with major championships and the best athletes would have to consistently turn-up, as the races would also be used for national team selection. 

Unfortunately, 1989 proved to be the last year of the Grand Prix. As the proposed 1990 series didn’t actually go ahead.

So instead of taking the Skoda on tour I refocused on different goals. More about those in a future episode.

Links:

1990 Nice Triathlon

Sources:

Triathlon: Technique, Training and Competition By Martin Engelhardt and Alexandra Kremer
Running Magazine (UK) May 1987
Tri-Athlete (UK) May 1987
Tri-Athlete (UK) November / December 1987

TSP3: I Bought 4 Sets Of Scott DH Handlebars

Check out the video above from the 14:00 mark. It’s the United States Triathlon Series Miami race that took place on 3rd May 1987. And sets the scene for what we are going to talk about today. A piece of triathlon equipment that changed the sport 35 years ago and is still with us in transition areas today. That is the aero-bar or the tri-bar.

I like to go on ebay and look for vintage-triathlon items. Mainly magazines but also equipment. Stuff like J-Discs, Hed disc wheels, Seat Shifters, Tinley clothing and even bikes. Like a Dave Scott Centurion, a Peugeot Triathlon or one of the Raleighs. Like a Triathlon or a Quadra.

For quite a while I was looking for a pair of Scott DH handlebars. You know the one piece bar that dips down to a kind drop bar before rising back up to allow the classic tri-bar hand position. 

The clamp width was 26mm to fit the quill stems of the day and the elbow pads were semi-soft moulded rubber that you had to slide down the whole length of the bar to be positioned next to the stem.

For me, these bars define the aesthetics of the era when I first got involved in triathlon. I saw a pair for sale in late-2020 in the UK. I hesitated at the price and by the time I’d decided to buy them they’d been scooped up by another triathlon uber-nerd.

Images: My 4 set of Scott DH handlebars

But then early in 2021 sets started popping up on the German and US ebay sites at good prices. So I bought 4 sets.

I’m not sure how this happened. But each set I saw looked in better condition than the one I’d just bought. So now I’ve got €400 worth of bent-aluminium triathlon history in my workshop.

The Scott DH wasn’t the first ever aerobar. In 1984 Speedplay pedals founder Richard Byrne made a lay-down handlebar for Race Across America competitor Jim Eliot. Then in 1986 Pete Penseyres won the 5000 km event on another homemade but improved set. 

But neither of these bars were patented or manufactured in large quantities. The Scott DH bar was. It was also definitely the first bar to achieve popularity in triathlon.

The concept was developed by Boone Lennon, who was a national team ski coach based in Sun Valley, Idaho. He’d experimented a lot with the aerodynamics of skiing and knew the best way to cut through air. 

In 1986 he made a wooden prototype of the DH or downhill handlebar and gave it to contacts he had at Scott USA, also based in Sun Valley. Scott USA eventually became Scott Sports, the bike company now based in Switzerland.

Scott USA was founded by Ed Scott in 1958 to make aluminium ski poles. In the 1970s they branched out into motocross accessories. When they got their hands on Lennon’s prototype they weren’t at all involved in cycling.

An engineer at Scott USA called Charlie French bent the first pair of aluminium DH bars in his workshop and then used them himself to win his age-group at the 1986 Hawaii Ironman. See video below.

A patent was filed in January 1987 and existing handlebar companies Nitto and 3T were chosen to manufacture the bars for Scott. The June 1987 issue of Triathlete Magazine says that the bars retailed for $40 - $60.

Image: Triathlete (USA) June 1987.

The Race Across America crowd challenged the patent but it was considered that their bar was made for comfort on long rides. Boone Lennon’s bar was designed specifically for aerodynamics and speed.

With Charlie French’s interest in triathlon and his proof of concept ride in Kona, the bars would no doubt eventually hit the triathlon market. But the story of how it happened is still an iconic and interesting one.

In the winter 1986 and 1987 ambitious pro-triathlete Brad Kearns had just made a break-through in the sport by winning the first two races in the three race Desert Princess Biathlon series that was organised in Palm Springs, California. The distances were 10km run, 60km bike, 10km run. 

With the young triathlon-spin-off activity of Biathlon, or Duathlon as we call it now, still being very much US-centric. The Desert Princess Series was considered the de facto world championships of the sport.

Images: Triathlete (USA) June 1987

Here’s what Triathlete magazine had to say in June 1987 when setting the scene before the third race in the series.

The first two events, held in November and January, set the stage for a dramatic championship. An unknown triathlete from Woodland Hills, California, Brad Kearns, blew away the entire field of seasoned pro triathletes, including Scott Molina, at both races. His second victory over the group was by an impressive five minutes.

After the race, Molina was unruffled by this new young challenger, inquiring if the 21 year old Kearns could swim. (The answer is yes, but that’s another story.) The biathlon had been a novelty for “The Terminator,” a kind of off-season fun race and potential paycheck.

After the second race (he dropped from the first) and a sound beating of more than six minutes, Molina declared with a bit more fire in his voice, “If this guy wins again, he’ll be pukin’ at the finish line.” No more easy wins for the new kid on the block.”

The first two events, held in November and January, set the stage for a dramatic championship. An unknown triathlete from Woodland Hills, California, Brad Kearns, blew away the entire field of seasoned pro triathletes, including Scott Molina, at both races. His second victory over the group was by an impressive five minutes.

After the race, Molina was unruffled by this new young challenger, inquiring if the 21 year old Kearns could swim. (The answer is yes, but that’s another story. The biathlon had been a novelty for “The Terminator,” a kind of off-season fun race and potential paycheck. After the second race (he dropped from the first) and a sound beating of more than six minutes, Molina declared with a bit more fire in his voice, “If this guy wins again, he’ll be pukin’ at the finish line.”

No more easy wins for the new kid on the block.

I got in touch with Brad to talk about Desert Princess. And he was more than happy to chat about the old days. Here he is discussing the significance of those first two race wins and the reaction of Bob Babbitt, the publisher of Competitor Magazine.

So if you’re aware this was a three race series. And at the first two races I had the two best races of my life. I destroyed the field and it was a complete shock to me and everyone else. With Bob Babbitt calling it the greatest upset in the history of multi-sport. Which I might think is valid.

It was Scott Molina, the number one triathlete and winner of the triathlete of the year award and Kenny Souza, who had never lost a duathlon ever.

Those two guys were finally pitted for a showdown and I toasted them twice in a row. In the second race my victory margin was over five minutes.

So I was way out there. And everyone was trying to figure out how’s this guy going to get taken down in February?

But in the final race in the Desert Princess Duathlon Series on 28th February 1987 Brad was about to make history as the first professional triathlete to use a pair of aero-bars in a multi-sport event.

Here’s how he found out about them and then how he got hold of a pair of Scott DHs. And also how much experience he’d had on the bars before racing with them. Note also another Race Across America connection. 

I trained with Johnny G, who was the legendary creator of spinning, fitness celebrity and RAAM finisher. So he was the one who introduced me to these bars. And he bugged me for probably a month straight.

Everytime we went out training he said, “You’ve got to get a pair of these. It’s the greatest invention in the last 100 years of cycling.” He was prone to hyperbole and I was like, “Yeah, yeah whatever.”

So finally I was given the number of Boone Lennon and I called him up and he showed me the picture of the comparison of the bicycle rider and the ski racer in the tuck holding the handlebar. It was in the original flyer. 

It was such a profound, incredible image where you’re like, holy crap, we’re slicing through the wind. Well skiers do it. And Franz Klammer stood up on the bump and got straight back into the tuck.

So that convinced me and so Boone sent me a pair. By the time I got them on my bike it was Friday and the race was Saturday. So I had a six mile bicycle ride through the neighbourhood as my preparation before I went into the racks and did the World Championships.

I thought the sight of this secret weapon would have turned heads in transition before the race. But according to Brad, apparently not.

Well I had a blanket over my bike before the race. It was just to be funny as I think the only person who knew anything was Andrew MacNaughton, my training partner.

The race was won by easily the best biathlete of the 1980s, Kenny Souza, with Glenn Cook in second and Scott Molina third. Brad finished 4th. Holding his position from T2 after being down in 28th place after the first run. As you probably can’t race with a blanket over your bike, other competitors must have taken notice by now. 

I got off the bike in 4th. So I passed a bunch of guys on the bike. So there were a lot of people that got to see me ride away from them in this aero position. What did they think beforehand in the racks? Probably nobody noticed. Didn’t even notice my blanket joke. But afterwards there was plenty of attention. Molina was the first one to come over to my condo with a beer in hand after the race. And my bike was sitting there. And he was like, “What the hell are these?” And I explained just as Boone Lennon had explained to me with the ski racer and the tuck.

For the full condo story you need to read Brad Kearns’ book, Can You Make A Living Doing That? It’s a fun retelling of the ups and downs of his ten plus years on the professional triathlon circuit.

Just like Brad, Scott Molina was equally generous with his time and knowledge to help me get this podcast up and running. Even though Brad covered his bars with a blanket. Did Scott know the bars were out there? And an aerodynamic revolution was about to take place? 

I don't remember if I actually knew if they existed but if I did I would have thought, what a ridiculous thing! We had no appreciation whatsoever about what was going to happen with the aerodynamics of those bars.

But during the race he got to see them close up and post race discussing the results with Kenny Souza the advantage they offered was obvious. 

Yeah. He went past me like a rocket. I honestly didn’t appreciate it at the time. Until afterwards when I saw all the bike splits and Kenny and I got to talking and that's when I realised, okay this guy has smashed us to bits with these things. And so you know we were on the phone the next day.

So the aero-bars were out there. But they still hadn’t been used by a professional triathlete in a triathlon and they still hadn’t won anything. But on 11th April 1987 that was about to change.

Images: Triathlete (USA) August 1987

The 5th Crawfishman Triathlon took place in Mandeville, Louisiana six weeks after the third Desert Princess race. In August 1987 Triathlete magazine published a report on the Crawfishman race.

Mike Pigg, last year’s co-defending champion, was the pre-race favourite, but Andrew MacNaughton, a native of Montreal, Canada, who now resides in Canoga Park, California, “topped the charts” to surprise Pigg by beating him in his strongest event - the bike. While Pigg was out of the water a minute ahead of him, MacNaughton used the super-strange, super-aerodynamic new Scott DH handlebars to great advantage, speeding to a 1:43:47 bike split - a full five minutes faster than Pigg’s 1:48:52.

Coming out of relative obscurity to race in the Crawfishman, MacNaughton passed Pigg for good at the 22 mile mark of the 45 mile bike. With Pigg still close on his tail at the second turnaround on the T-shaped bike course, MacNaughton blasted through a headwind to arrive at the bike/run transition with a four minute lead. Glenn Cook, one of England’s top triathletes, who had led for a part of the bike, broke a spoke in his front wheel and dropped out before the run.

MacNaughton ran a 1:14:49 half marathon, and Pigg’s one minute faster run wasn’t enough to close the cycling gap. “I was surprised Pigg didn’t run me down,” said MacNaughton. So was Pigg. After the race, he began to wonder if he’d been slipping. “Maybe I’ve lost some of my hunger,” he reflected. Later, he decided that the radical new aerodynamic handlebars used by MacNaughton had a lot to do with his loss.

Within a week he had a pair of his own.

Here’s what Brad had to say about his training partner, Andrew MacNaughton, and the importance of that bike-dominant win at Crawfishman.

Andrew and I were training partners from the very beginning. And he was so inspired by my victories because he considered himself to be as good or a better athlete than I was. And here I was getting all this attention. And he was just some guy who got 11th or 9th in the Desert Princess Series. 

He was coming along, but boy, when he came out there in April he was in incredible shape and he had a set of bars. None other than Mike pigg got smoked from the turnaround back into the wind. Andrew put several minutes on Pigg on the bike. 

So after the race Pigg, crossed the line, approached Andrew and said, “Where did you get those bars?” Before he said congratulations on your great victory!

Especially knock off the guy who is the biking sensation of the sport. Because we’re coming off 1986 where I think Pigg literally blew up the sport. Previous to that it was a bunch of skinny guys who were great runners. They could also swim and bike. And they would get off the bike and see who could drop the fastest 10km. 

And now here was this guy who was riding so fast he was jogging in. Running an unimpressive 35:06 10 km. But it didn’t matter because he had a 4 minute lead off the bike. So everybody had to recalibrate from top to bottom to realise this thing is a time trial and you better get some quads on you and be able to put out some watts. But it wasn’t like that before.

At the St. Anthony’s Triathlon in Tampa Bay on 26th April 1987 Mike Pigg had his pair of Scott DH. He won the race with The Terminator himself, Scott Molina, also racing on the bars for the first time, finishing in second. Scott explained to me that his bars came via his wheel sponsor, Steve Hed, who always seemed to be up to date with anything involving aerodynamics. 

On the same day as Tampa Bay, Andrew MacNaughton was at it again, winning Race 1 in the LA Triathlon Series. With Brad finishing in 6th.

Images: Triathlete (USA) August 1987

The week after Tampa Bay and Los Angeles the circuit headed to Miami, for the opening race of the 5th edition of the United States Triathlon Series or USTS. Mike Pigg was the defending series champion and Scott Molina had won the final USTS race of the 1986 season at Hilton Head.

The Miami video is at the top of this page. And I’m guessing here. But this is probably the first time that aerobars were seen on TV. As well as seeing Mike Pigg effortlessly cut through the field and Scott Molina run strong to finish second, you can also see that plenty of pro-athletes, including Kirsten Hanssen and Harold Robinson, are not on aerobars yet. 

Some were riding low-profile bikes that wouldn’t easily adapt to the hands forward position and some simply couldn’t get hold of a set. Brad again.

You know, I'd bring my bike to the race and I'd be taking it to the parking lot and people would come up to me with cash offers right there on the spot. “I’ll give you $500 for those bars, I’ll give you $250 for those bars.” And I declined every time as I didn’t think that was right with Scott sponsoring me and all that. I don’t think he could keep up at all with the production when they first came out. Everybody wanted a pair.

Towards the end of my Zoom call with Brad, I held one of my sets of Scott DH up to the camera. A silver Nitto production model from 1987 or 1988.  Brad instantly noticed the difference between mine and what he was on in 1987. Also explaining the low availability of the early bars.

Yeah. They were hand made. The ones you showed me from 87, I think those must be production. Because mine were clearly asymmetrical from the right side to the left side. So that's a beautiful pair right there. But whatever Boone did with the blow-torch, that's what I had. Yeah. A special pair.

Due to the initial scarcity of the bars and the clear time advantage offered to those that had them, the governing body of the sport in the USA, Tri-Fed, was definitely worried about an uneven playing field being created. In September 1987, Triathlete published the article No More High-Tech Bikes that rumoured Tri-Fed were considering rules that could see technologies with limited availability, like Scott DH bars, being banned. As well as a maximum bike price allowed in triathlons. 

Although I’m pretty sure these rule changes never happened.

Images: Triathlete (USA) September 1987.

In 1988 Profile for Speed, now called Profile Design, released their first one-piece aerobar. It was called the Aero 1 and offered a similar hand position but with a shallower drop-bar area. Another patent battle saw Profile settle out of court to produce their bars under licence from Scott.

Smaller brands also tried to get involved in the aerobar game but Scott USA was intent on defending their patent and closed down potential rivals. 

Syntace and a few others also licensed Scott’s idea in the 1990s. Otherwise we had to wait until 2006 and the patent to expire before more companies could create their versions of aerobars.

For the 1989 season both Scott USA and Profile for Speed had clip-on models. The Scott ones were famously used by Greg Lemond in the 1989 Tour de France. And the Profile Aero 2s were the first aerobars I ever owned, having bought them on a family holiday to Florida in July 1989.

Looking through the triathlon press from 1987, 1988 and 1989 you can see that many triathletes who started out on Scott DHs eventually moved to Profile Aero 1s. In 1987 athletes didn’t have the choice, but in 1988 and 1989 Profile probably had the better sponsorship packages for pros and slicker supply lines to sell to age-groupers. 

And although Scott released the Extreme and 100k one-piece bars, and their clip-on models remained popular, by 1990 the DHs had pretty much disappeared from the sharp end of races.

So the bars travelled from Sun Valley in Idaho, took a quick trip over to Kona, then to Palm Springs for the Desert Princess biathlon, down to Louisiana for the Crawfishman and then all over the USTS circuit. 

But what about the UK? How did the bars first get there?

Images: Cycling Weekly (UK) 21st January 1988

I got my lead on this part of the story, the first person to use Scott DH bars in the UK, from an article in the 21st January 1988 issue of Cycling Weekly. The piece is titled Go Faster With New Radical Aero Bars.

This season has seen a radical re-appraisal. When Aussie Phil Gable arrived at the Jordan’s race with his bike extended by what seemed to be a good six inches at the front with the Scott DH handlebars, people looked… and laughed. Two hours later, when Phil had cruised past a top-class field even without the benefit of cycling shoes or toe-clips (forgotten), people looked again. The laughter was noticeable by its absence.

I managed to track down Phil Gable in Australia. Like Brad and Scott, Phil was equally generous with his time. We ended up exchanging plenty of emails and spending an hour or more chatting about the backstory to the bars.

By 1987, Phil was an ambitious triathlete already in his 5th year of racing. So at the end of January he headed to Fremantle in Western Australia to take part in the self-titled World Sprint Triathlon Championships. The race was a big deal. With the biggest ever prize purse in the sport. And pretty much all the best triathletes in attendance. I mentioned it in Episode 1 and I’ve got a full podcast about the event planned for the future.

Phil finished 20th in Fremantle, after coming off the bike in 6th and in the main pack. But the performance gave him the idea that he could compete well out of Australia. In some of the biggest races on the international calendar. So sometime in the spring, he quit his physiotherapy job in Adelaide on a Friday and by Monday was on a plane to San Diego. 

To live the late-1980s triathlon dream. To do The Tuesday Run and The Wednesday Ride. To race the USTS Series. And to maybe hang out with people who held a similar interest in a new and fledgling sport.

In San Diego, he ended up lodging with local journeyman pro-triathlete and bike shop owner, Mark Montgomery. It was on a training ride with Mark one day, when a pair of cyclists bolted past them. 

Phil and Mark chased and caught up to the two cyclists, basically just to find out how they were going so fast and why they looked so slick and stream-lined. The answer was that they were both bent over on Scott DHs. It was Boone Lennon and Andrew MacNaughton

Mark and I were cycling one day on Highway 101. Don’t know why. Might have been coming back from a Tuesday morning ride or something. I have no idea why we were on highway 101. And these two guys literally just barrelled past us and we kind of stared at each other and said, “what was that?” 

It was quite funny at the time. So we thought let's catch up to them. Which was lucky at the time because I think they were going slower than normal. Anyway we caught up to them and they were just two really nice guys having a chat. Boone was really quite talkative and Mark is really talkative. 

And I guess we exchanged phone numbers or whatever. Had a quick talk about what was happening, what they were. Tried to get our heads together on what we were looking at. And pretty much parted on our own ways.

Mark was owning a bike shop at the time and he was particularly interested in getting the bars in as a sale item.

In only a couple of weeks I was about to head off east to go to Houston USTS and a few other events. So I had the bars forwarded to me at a friend's place in Santa Clara. I picked them up there and put them on. And then caught the plane from Santa Clara to Houston. I’m pretty sure I used them in Houston. I can't actually remember.

Phil raced three times in the USA, including Wildflower and USTS Houston. But deciding that pursuing the USTS was not for him, he headed to Europe with his new handlebars bolted onto his lo-pro Berretto and plans to follow the Aussie tradition of a working holiday in the old country – but maybe with a few Triathlons thrown-in.

He’d met Glenn Cook and Sarah Coope during his travels and Sarah had given him the phone number and address of a friend of hers in France. So his ultimate destination was Paris. To look up Sarah’s friend, Kevin O’Neil, a British pioneer on the French triathlon circuit. And hopefully to negotiate a place on Kevin’s team, Poissy Triathlon.

But before making his way to Paris, Phil stopped in the UK to stay with an old university friend in Manchester. While in the North East, he debuted the bars discreetly at a couple of Manchester Wheelers midweek time-trials and at the Mansfield Triathlon on the 40k bike that followed the pool swim!

But it was after his win ahead of a surprised Mike Harris at the Round 2 of the Le Coq Sportif Grand Prix hosted by the Jordan’s Triathlon in Bedford, that the triathletes took notice. He also won Round 3 at Barry Island.

Jordans was my first exposure to the UK big time. Yeah. The gun went off and then I never saw anybody. Except I met what I gathered was Mike Harris at the end. Who was saying, “What are those things on the front of the bike? And the other thing he was asking was, “how come you guys dont ride with bike shoes.”

That’s right. Phil had forgotten his cycling shoes and did the bike ride in his running shoes. He eventually found them in his van after the race.

Phil’s trip to France also ended up being a successful one. He got that place at Poissy and became the first Australian to race regularly on the French circuit. I think that’s also a story for a future episode.

Image: Tri-Athlete (UK) April 1988

Back in the UK. Sometime in 1987 bicycle component distributors Freewheel supplied their sponsored athletes Mike Harris and Sarah Springman. Then in the March and April 1988 issue of Tri-Athlete UK the bars were officially announced to the UK triathlon public.

You’ve seen them in pictures, you’ve seen them at the events, now you can finally try them for yourself. The Scott DH (downhill) handlebars have arrived on our shores and are set to sell like hot cakes.

Official vendors were named as Bert Harkins Racing in Berkhamsted, RJ Chicken in Dunstable and Caratti Sport in Bath. The retail price was £48.

So. What am I going to do with my bars? At the moment just look at them and think about the good old days. But then to start to build a period correct 1987 or 1988 triathlon bike to use at a few local races.

My brother will also take one set. He’s a big handlebar geek and has several other vintage models in his garage. I’ll record an episode with him soon so he can take us through his tri-bar collection. 

Interestingly he has some MB Bars. Another one piece handlebar from the 1980s. The shape retains the full drop bar characteristics before the aluminium rises up and forward about 15 cm apart parallel to the stem.

I recently chatted on Facebook with the bars’ inventor. I really want to record something with him. There’s a great back-story there. Including being beaten to a large manufacturing contract by Scott and the possibility that both the MBs and DHs were being developed separately but at the same time on different sides of the Atlantic.

Glenn Cook also posted on his Instagram account in February 2021 that he had the first pair of Scott DH bars in Europe. In fact, he was racing them even before Phil Gable triggered the Cycling Weekly article by getting aero at The Jordan’s Triathlon on 21st June 1987.

I haven’t been able to contact Glenn for confirmation but I believe he first used them at the Avignon Triathlon on 7th June. Below. Where he finished 2nd to Mark Allen. There’s also a picture of Phil Gable. I couldn’t find one from Jordan’s. So instead it’s a picture taken 5 weeks later at the Canterbury Triathlon. 

Images:

Tri-Athlete (FR) Juillet 1987
Tri-Athlete (FR) Septembre 1987

Like Phil Gable’s bars, Glenn’s pair of Scott DHs were sourced in California on a training camp in the spring of 1987. And although Glenn opened his 1987 European season at Les Mureaux near Paris on 8th May and also raced the European Short Course Championships in Marseille 31st May. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t use the DHs at these races. At least, it’s not mentioned in the race reports.

Check out the 14:45 mark in the video below. It’s the USTS Championship race at Hilton Head that took place on 27th September 1987. They're still talking about Scott DH bars!

Thanks again to Brad Kearns, Scott Molina and Phil Gable for your enthusiasm for the project.

Links:

1987 USTS Miami
Story of Innovation - Charley French
Can You Make A Living Doing That by Brad Kearns
1987 USTS Hilton Head

Sources:

Triathlete: Was the first aerobar really not the first?
Slowtwitch: Profile Design A Coherent Strategy For Aerobars
Simon Ward Podcast with Mike Harris
Scott Sports History Page