1988 Oceanside Tri-Prix

I like a race series. It gives a narrative to the season. I’ve already looked at the Le Coq Sportif Grand Prix. And I’m deep into the process of researching and recording podcasts about the French Grand Prix and the first year of the 220 Magazine Triathlon Series.

Then I’ll look at the USTS, more 220 seasons, the first year of the Ironman World Series (1990), the start of the ITU World Cup Series (1991), the Formula One GP (1994) and the ITGP (1996). Any more?

Image: Triathlete (USA) July 1988

The first ever race series was almost certainly the United States Triathlon Series. Or USTS. I used to get very excited reading race reports whenever I could get hold of bootleg copies of Triathlete USA.

But when I spoke to Brad Kearns for the TSP3: I Bought 4 Sets Of Scott DH Handlebars he said the USTS had a couple of problems for pro athletes.

You had to do as many rounds as possible to maximise your point scoring. There were to be 10 events in 1988 before the final at Hilton Head. Missing one meant you weren’t scoring points that weekend.

Also, unless you were regularly top 3 and then getting a good end-of-season Coke Grand Prix bonus, the money wasn’t actually that good.

So here’s the 1988 Jeep Tri-Prix Tour. Events were planned for Oceanside on 28th May, New York City on 10th July, Chicago on 14th August and Sea World in Orlando on 19th November. Only Oceanside ever took place.

Maybe the fact that the first ad for the series didn’t appear in Triathlete magazine until the July issue was already a bad sign.

The idea was to rival the USTS in terms of the cache for the pros. But provide a more compact series and introduce the concept of stadium triathlon. Multi-loop courses in the swim, bike and run. And grandstands erected on course to maximise spectator experience.

The events were to be organised by agent-to-the-stars, Murphy Reinschreiber and promoted by a company called Inclyne Sports.

I don’t know much about Inclyne. But they sound dodgy. In the November 1988 issue of Triathlete magazine it was announced that Reinschreiber had “dissolved his affiliation” with Inclyne Sports.

Then in January 1989 an article was published in Triathlete going through the whole organisational and financial mess.

This included the women’s race being stopped a lap early in Oceanside. The New York City event being cancelled because of staging costs. And finally, Chicago being canned as funds from the sponsors Timex, Chrysler, Jeep and AT&T were diverted to pay the debts incurred at Oceanside.

I guess the final at Sea World in Orlando wasn’t needed.

I spoke to Murphy once. Really nice guy. And definitely a legit race organiser. He was slash is the director of the Los Angeles Marathon. Maybe I’ll try and contact him again to talk about the Tri-Prix.

Anyway. Enjoy the video above and the race report below. As Mike Pigg continues where he left off in 1987. And Paula Newby-Fraser wins the kerfuffle, back when she was a handy short-course athlete.

Images: Triathlete (USA) September 1988