A new era begins this weekend - $1 million in prize money at stake in the first race of the PTO series in Edmonton, Canada, over 100 kilometers of race distance: 2 km swim, 80 km bike, 18 km run. The three best athletes in the men's PTO world rankings were also there :
No. 1 Kristian Blummenfelt, No. 2 Gustav Iden and No. 3 Lionel Sanders
They will face off at the Canadian Open for the first time this season. But not only these three athletes are fighting for the historic prize money.
Who can beat the Norwegians?
The starting field is peppered with big names in the sport:
Joe Skipper, Bart Aernouts, Ben Kanute, Alistair Brownlee, Challenge Roth winner Magnus Ditlev, David McNamee, Daniel Baekkegard, Andrew Starykowicz, Tim van Berkel... they are all poised to take advantage of any weakness in the top 3.
From a German perspective , Sebastian Kienle and Frederic Funk will be at the starting line. Frederik Funk recently convinced with his victory at the Challenge Walchsee. Here the strong American Sam Long could be left behind. For Sebastian Kienle, a top placement is difficult to achieve: after a long injury break, he made his comeback last weekend at his home race, the > HeidelbergMan, in which he finished fourth .
After his hard-fought second place at Challenge Roth , Patrick Lange decided not to start in Canada and focus on training for the COLLINS CUP.
The women's starting field
For the women , Laura Philipp is the top favorite to win the first PTO race. With her impressive success at the IRONMAN HAMBURG and 70.3 KRAICHGAU, she made it clear that she is one of the absolute best in the world.
The toughest competitors on paper are the Americans Skye Moench and Taylor Knibb . Skye Moench will show off her strengths on the bike in particular, at the last IRONMAN WM ST. GEORGE in May she was fourth behind Anne Haug. As a short-distance athlete, Taylor Knibb has a high basic speed in all three disciplines. Most recently, however, she also impressed with her victory at the IRONMAN 70.3 CALIFORNIA. Similar to Patrick Lange, Anne Haug decided not to start in Canada.
What is the PTO Tour?
The PTO Tour is a new series of professional triathlon races with exceptional prize money created by the Professional Triathlon Organization. For 2022, the PTO Tour includes the PTO Canadian Open (July 23-24), the Collins Cup (August 20-21) and the PTO US Open (September 17-18). In 2023 the series will be expanded to include the PTO Asian Open and the PTO European Open.
Each Open event has a minimum prize purse of at least US$1 million and will be held over 100km – a 2km swim, 80km bike ride and 18km run.
