Financial doping in Irish triathlon

Many triathletes of all levels buy expensive gear.  At any triathlon held in Ireland a spectator will witness triathletes of all shapes, sizes and abilities on time trial bikes with disc wheels. The power of some triathletes to outspend their competitors is a simple fact of life. Many of the faster triathletes shake their heads at what those well down the field will pay for gear. And why should they not get the best gear if they can afford it, it’s not harming anyone. It is their money.

This year I took part in races where I consider something different to be taking place – triathletes were racing on bikes which were not bought with their own money. That is, some of the faster triathletes are now being sponsored and form part of teams. In one of the best known races of the season, The Lost Sheep, the field featured top cyclists from the ASEA team and triathletes from Base to Race: all on sponsored top end TT bikes with disc wheels. Of the top five finishers only Mariusz Olejniczak of Naas Tri Club, who supplied his own bike, was not from these teams.

There is an issue here. If one top end Irish triathlete is competing on an entry level time trial bike with no disc wheel because he is not sponsored by a team, then there is no level playing field. This is not the same as one person being better off financially than another (as discussed above). This is triathletes being given access to gear which they most likely could not afford if they were not sponsored. Few people can afford the truly top end bikes and discs. These triathletes turned up to race having been, what could be described as financially doped by their teams who issued them each with gear they would not otherwise have.

For those who thinking I am over-egging the pudding and think these guys would buy their own top end bike and disc anyway, let’s look at Kevin Thornton’s blog (http://kttriathlete.com/). He writes: “Now triathlon bikes are expensive and I’m not earning enough to buy more than an entry level rip off. I’ve got myself an awesome Argon18 E118 though … how’s that then?" [Answer: sponsored bike].

But what would things be like if such financial doping by teams on the bike leg did not occur? Well, this year, for the first time, a number of draft legal Category 1 triathlons were held in Ireland. These races required competitors to shelve their TT bikes and disc wheels and to use a normal road bike. As a result, there was no outright domination of the bike leg by a small number of incredibly well resourced triathletes and/or cyclists. Those on the podium were still sponsored triathletes, but the sponsored bike gear factor had been removed. Category 1 will be mostly draft legal in 2016 and this is welcome as it will draw a line under the team sponsored arms race in time trial bikes and gear which exists in non-draft legal events.

One way to address this situation would be to make it a requirement that each triathlete who makes it to the podium must prove that he or she, and not a team or sponsor, owns all of the gear he or she is using. In other words, an A1 cyclist cannot just turn up on their team or otherwise sponsored rig and race on it. The bike being used must be the property of the triathlete. Every other triathlete in the race field had to buy their gear, why should those who will most likely post the best times anyhow, not have to? This would do away with team issue bikes turning up at triathlon events.

To put this into context, imagine that in your local annual triathlon, you are usually competitive against a number of other triathletes who you know by name. Then one of them is selected to join a sponsored team and the others are not. When the annual race comes around, the sponsored triathlete is now riding an Argon or Basso TT bike with a top end disc wheel. Is this fair?

For all those racing at Kevin’s level before he received his new bike from Base to Race, this must seem very unfair. It is.  For those who watched this year as members of Team Asea parachuted their team issue TT bikes and disc wheels to a number of triathlons, it must seem very unfair indeed.

At the very least, the results at these races should include reference to the bike used to achieve the times listed. Perhaps next year there could be two categories of non-Cat 1 triathlon races: a sponsored (and therefore semi-pro or pro) race and then a non-sponsored (and therefore amateur) race within each triathlon event. This way amateur and self-resourcing triathletes do not have to resent the financial doping witnessed in previous seasons.