T100 course preview

In 2024, a new series has hit the world of triathlon – the PTO T100 World Tour and round one is at the Miami Speedway. Given the only remotely interesting thing about this course is how important aerodynamics are – and that race ranger will be in play – we thought we would preview it here. 

Commentators might mention the “technical” nature of some of the turns. This course is only technical to long course triathletes but these will be the athletes taking on the lap. That said, there are no features of note for this course.

Weight vs Aerodynamics

You won’t be surprised to know that aerodynamics obviously matter a lot more than weight on this course but triathlon commentators can never seem to resist discussing how athletes look or the fact that some are lighter than others (no matter how many times that relatively heavy athletes prove this discussion to be nonsense) so we thought that we would put it to bed in the context of this bike course.

This plot shows the change in speed that results in a reduction in aerodynamics. We can see that a 50% increase in cda results in a speed change of almost 6km/hr.
A change in weight behaves differently. We can see that doubling an athlete’s weight will cause a change of less than 2 km/hr. Watts per kilo mean nothing on this course. Let’s hope the commentary team can resist talking about it…

12m vs 20m and Race Ranger

Race Ranger is in force at Clash Miami. This is a device that is fixed to the front and rear of each athlete’s bike to make sure they maintain a legal distance. There are athletes who have “earned” a start in the PTO T100 from races with a 12m draft rule that don’t have Race Ranger enforcing this – so it will be interesting to see how those athletes get on.

There’s a marked difference in riding with a 12m gap vs a 20m gap and the wind direction at Clash Miami exacerbates this. As a result, this race will be a true solo effort on the bike.

Any draft that you get from a rider 20m in front will be eliminated at Miami due to the crosswinds that are scheduled to blow across the course.

How to watch


The broadcast kicks off at 1300 EST on Saturday, March 9th. The men will commence the 100km race (2km swim; 80km bike; 18km run) at the Homestead-Miami Speedway at 1315 EST, followed by the women at 1650 EST.

To catch the action, European viewers can tune in exclusively live on Eurosport from 1900 CET, while the rest of the world can access it via PTO+ and in the US on Max. TriathlonLIVE.tv will also broadcast in specific territories. The global live coverage is made possible through the PTO’s collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery, along with various international, regional, and local broadcasters like CCTV in China and ESPN in LATAM.

If you want more detail on the courses for all the PTO events, sign up to myWindsock here.