For the month of December I've decided to write about where I feel our wonderful sport is at present and where it might go in the future. I should probably start by saying that what I write is of course just my own rambling musings (as regular readers will already know!) and that in no way do my ideas or comments reflect that of Duathlon247.com or it's partners. It's really just me and my Duathlon shaped trumpet so apologies if I offend anyone!

First of all I thought we’d better address the present; duathlon is officially Triathlon’s little sister and that is due to three things:

• People outside the sport can be forgiven for thinking it’s tri for non-swimmers. They are of course wrong, but we’ll still forgive them.


• It’s governed in most countries and worldwide (at ITU level) by the national triathlon bodies and is therefore second fiddle to those bodies’ Olympic sport of Tri and as we all know; Olympics = funding and funding needs to be secured. It’s not all sour grapes though as much of the lottery funding in the UK for instance has trickled down to support some of the Duathlon programmes and activities. I’ll repeat the word ‘Trickled’.


• That leads to my final point: It’s not an Olympic sport and certainly on a European level, most governing bodies funding tends to be channeled into Olympic sports. You can understand it I suppose.

It is a great testimony then to a sport which is so under funded and under resourced that it has an ITU world cup series, multiple national series across the world, a Powerman long distance series and an ever increasing number of athletes who consider themselves pure duathletes.

On a world scale, there’s two powerhouses really: the first is the place where du originally spread from in the USA. There are multiple duathlon series attracting massive numbers of athletes in the States. The second is what we should think of as the joint entity in duathlon terms, that of France and Belgium. The two nations are home to some very high quality racing and support an ever growing number of Duathletes, who operate as Professionals racing regularly on the French and Belgian circuits.

The two countries offer a very clear example of two different styles of races and formats and it’s brings to the table the age old debate in Tri; Drafting or non-Drafting?

Sorry folks – It would come up sooner or later.

The European elite style of duathlon borrows very much from the its native style of cycle racing which predominates Belgium, France and Holland whereby the races are held on tight, town centre circuits and the races are designed more around which cafes and bars will be on the route than what will suit the riders best. This way, the race is made for the spectators primarily and big crowds come out to watch and even place bets on the eventual outcome. These drafting races are often open to pros and age-groupers alike. Of course, they tend to suit the strong runner who can ‘hold a wheel’ well on a tight bike circuit and then run like a maniac afterwards.

The American style is on the whole quite different with much bigger, open courses and a non-drafting format where the race becomes quite spread out. These tend to suit the all-rounder but it has to be said that, the ‘epic’ courses and courses that suit the strong bikers tend to be out of town and out in the middle of nowhere as well.

I feel it appropriate that I make a couple of my key feelings known right now before I go on:

• Draft legal racing in both tri and du is wrong. It kills the very essence of the three leg test and virtually nullifies the bike leg unless the course is D’Uezian (to coin a wonderful new phrase). It’s just wrong. Somebody in a suit sat in an ITU office somewhere watching cycling on TV thought "how can we be as popular as cycling? I know we’ll try to ride how they do”. Wrong! End of.


• Money comes into the sport through sponsorship primarily. Sponsorship is based on brand coverage and exposure and so therefore the races need to be watched and well attended for the sponsors to remain and see a return on their investment. That means taking the racing to the people whilst not losing any of the thrill of competing for the athletes.

Up until two years ago my fellow Duathlon247 columnist Clive Faine had been the headman on the ITU’s Duathlon committee and he worked tirelessly to build a World Duathlon series. Sadly, since him leaving the post the series has dwindled along with the ITU’s long course championships; which simply didn’t happen this year.

My personal opinion is that one of the reasons the series is in trouble is that in its current form the races are having to be run as drafting races as the ITU has decided that’s what is best for elite racing (Why? It’s easier than non-drafting so why have the amateurs doing something which is harder than what the elites do?) and are not attracting great numbers of age-groupers to support non-drafting racing. It’s a well known fact that the main reason such massive numbers of age-groupers are encouraged to take part at world and European championships is to pay for the event as a whole. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing if everybody’s happy. But what if the age-groupers are actually doing a different event to the Elites? Which they are. Are they still doing the same race or is it just a sideshow? After all; you can’t really compare the times because of the drafting rule.

And then, straddling most of the world we have Powerman which seems to blend a bit of both worlds with tight close town centre runs and non-drafting bike legs. It would be wrong to suggest that Powerman is duathlon’s Ironman as it’s really closer to the 70.3 distance in tri terms, but there is a growing thinking amongst regular duathletes that Powerman is where the hardcore duathletes go for there competitive kicks and that has to be, presumably because the IPA (International Powerman Association) is a Duathlon only body and it doesn’t have to guarantee funding or promotion for anything other than duathlon. It has to be noted that it also only uses the non-drafting format.

So that’s where we’re at.

The question is; where do we go from here? Well, I’ll tell you:

• We forget drafting altogether and use duathlon internationally as a shining example of what tri used to be. A test of the best across three legs. That way the Olympic programme is not upset and those strong elite bikers in tri who are fed up with their only option being to go long with 70.3s and Ironman can come to Duathlon where there would be parity across all races on the same course. Before draft legal racing came in, age-groupers loved having the chance to compare their times on the same course as the pro’s where as now, in ITU duathlon, that just isn’t possible, even at world or regional championships. Why are the Pros drafting and the age-groupers aren’t anyway?! Are we saying that the age-groupers don’t have good enough bike handling skills?! Actually, lets not go there.


• Or either push for du to become an Olympic sport (in much the same way that athletics has a 200m and a 100m it is simply another event within multisport) or duathlon has to be governed independently under one recognised banner away from the ITU. It’s controversial I know but it may be the only way. Consider this; tri is the money earner and it's now been an Olympic sport since 2000 and is growing in it’s media coverage. Why would you rock the boat and try to promote duathlon at all? It would just serve to water down your triathlon lobby to the world’s media and event organisers alike. I’m not saying that duathlon breaking away is the only way it will reach it’s full potential. But then I don’t need to.


• Or finally go Back to basics. It’s easy to become obsessed with wanting du to be as big as tri, and that may well be the mistake – to keep comparing it to tri in the first place. It needs to stand on its own two feet and I feel that the key to that is to tap into duathlon’s strongest selling point; it’s simplicity. All you need is a bike and some trainers. It’s no surprise that the fastest growing form of Duathlon world wide is ‘cross duathlon’ with it’s off-road run and bike legs. Very little need for marshals, no need for road closures, the feel of a ‘day out’ for spectators, and epic racing experience for spectators where skill and the sense of adventure adds to a more potent racing ‘high’ - and all of this in conditions where drafting becomes almost irrelevant. It does seem to fit well. In Holland and Belgium a hybrid of cyclo-cross and duathlon is just starting to pick up pace in the parks in and around town centres and like cyclo-cross the races are short and fast. As a result they attract good size crowds and are fun for all; especially children.

Not having to be tied to a lake or swimming pool seem to make the off-road scene even more suited to duathlon than Tri so I’m wondering if it’s time that duathlon claimed all the woods and parkland as it’s own and broke away from tri altogether. It borrows from all of the above ideas and it takes Duathlon to the people, right there in the parkland, that they are prone to visit anyway.

Last year, here in the UK I took part in a Duathlon in Cheltenham which was held in just such a park and it illustrated my point perfectly. It was meant to be a triathlon with the swim being held in the pool next to the park, but the pool was out of order and so it was made into a parkland Duathlon instead. I received an invite to do it and although it wasn’t advertised locally, exactly what I thought would happen did! I won’t say there were crowds three deep all the way round as it was nothing like that but there was an undeniable presence of non-multisporters stopping in the park and choosing to take the time to sit and watch the race unfold over the three short legs. It provided a hint of what it could be like in the UK and in other countries if we keep it simple, take the sport back to its ‘best across three disciplines’ roots and take the race to the people whilst combining the close, multiple-lap racing of cyclo-cross with the epic sense of adventure that comes from surviving a technically demanding course.