Grand Prix de Triathlon

The Grand Prix de Triathlon (Championnat de France des Clubs Division 1 (Triathlon D1) or Grand Prix F.F.TRI. - Lyonnaise des Eaux), defines itself as the most outstanding triathlon event in France[1] and attracts numerous international elite triathletes hired by French clubs. The Grand Prix may not be confused with the Coupe de France des Clubs, which is not a circuit but a one day national championship and in which the clubs admitted to the Grand Prix are obliged to take part.

Contents

Organisation

In 2011, the circuit consists of the following five triathlons:

According to the official Réglementation Sportive,[2] there should be 16 male and 14 female teams. At the end of the year 2010, however, three female teams (Beauvais, Montpellier, Nantes) and two male teams (Beauvais, Montluçon) withdrew.

Beauvais Triathlon decided to boycot the Grand Prix when the French Triathlon Federation (FFTRI) canceled the traditional Triathlon de Beauvais and replaced it with the Triathlon de Nice.[3]As it seems, there were tensions between FFTRI president Philippe Lescure and Beauvais manager Laurent Chopin, who is reported to return to soccer. Besides, French clubs obviously face increasing difficulties hiring foreign elite stars. Two of the Beauvais elite stars, Andrea Hewitt and Delphine Py-Bilot, moved to Poissy and Charleville respectively. Fred Belaubre and Charlotte Morel, however, will take a break and concentrate on the ITU races to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

Qualified Teams 2011

16 male teams:

11 female teams:

In 2011, Sartrouville won the Grand Prix with its super trio Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee, and Javier Gómez. In the women's ranking, Poissy Tri placed first with its top runners Jessica Harrison and Anna Maria Mazzetti.

Points System

Each of the 16 male and 14 female teams nominates seven triathletes for the whole season, of whom five triathletes actually have to take part in the race. In 2011 at least one triathlete in each team must be French (two from 2012 onwards).[5] For each of the five competitions the ranking of the clubs is determined by the three so-called triathlètes classants l'equipe, i.e. the individual positions of the three best triathletes of each club are added and the club with the lowest sum is the winner, and so forth. The ranks of the rest of each team are irrelevant. For the whole circuit, however, the clubs are assigned points on the basis of the club ranking of each individual competition. The best male team, for instance, receives 20 points for the first place in one competition etc.

For the season 2011 the French triathlon Federation FFTRI was not only unable to secure the right number of clubs, some clubs, especially female elite teams, seem to have difficulties in hiring five elite triathletes for each race:

In general, it seems that the official Rules (Règlementation sportive) are not strictly applied. E.g. at the official podium ceremony in La Baule (17 September 2011), Saint Raphaël Tri (Anna Tabarant, Polyanskaya, Ivanovskaya, Camille Donat and Daniela Chmet) did not turn up. According to the rules, this should have led to a penalty.[8] Nevertheless, the club received all 11 points for the third place in La Baule.

Foreigners' Dominance

The high amount of international guest stars has always raised criticism in France. On the one hand, FFTRI is proud to gather some of the best elite stars of the world, on the other hand the rankings clearly show that the French triathletes are a small and irrelevant minority among the Grand Prix participants. In the old Réglementation Sportive of the season 2007/08, the importance of the foreign guest stars was still restricted because among the three triathlètes classants l'équipe only one (EU) foreigner was allowed.[9]

Season 2010

The rankings of the opening Grand Prix triathlon held at Dunkirk on 23 May 2010 give the following picture.[10]

Season 2011

To some extent this sesaon is irregular. On the one hand, traditional guest stars withdrew and concentrate on ITU races for the 2012 Olympics qualification. On the other hand, five clubs which had already been admitted to the Grand Prix, among which the female gold medalist and male silver medalist Beauvais, declared to withdraw in autum 2010. So in 2011 there are only 11 instead of 14 female teams. The opening triathlon in Nice (24 April 2011) proves the undiminished foreigners' dominance in spite of the new regulation according to which each club has to be present with five triathletes at each competition with at least one French triathlete among them.

Notes

  1. ^ «Le Grand Prix F.F.TRI. – Lyonnaise des Eaux est l’événement de la saison de triathlon puisqu’il rassemble sur son circuit les meilleurs athlètes français et étrangers engagés dans les clubs de 1ère Division. Les clubs de 1ère division concourent pour obtenir le titre de Champion de France.» - see http://www.fftri.com/spip.php?rubrique109. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  2. ^ See http://fftri.tamaco-dev.fr/sites/default/files/pdf/RGF_2011_0.pdf. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  3. ^ Cf. the club's official statement: http://beauvais-triathlon.onlinetri.com/index.php?page_id=3050&news_id=25194. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  4. ^ Cf. the Grand Prix de Triathlon brochure enclosed to Triathlète No. 288 (avril 2011).
  5. ^ See http://www.fftri.com/plugins/fckeditor/userfiles/file/REGLEMENTATION/20091016-RGF-2009-2010-valideparleCDdu15-10-09.pdf. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  6. ^ See p. 84 and p. 87 in: http://fftri.tamaco-dev.fr/sites/default/files/pdf/RGF_2011_0.pdf. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  7. ^ Cf. http://www.fftri.com/node/123/4698. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  8. ^ See p. 90, Règlementation sportive: http://fftri.tamaco-dev.fr/sites/default/files/pdf/RGF_2011_0.pdf. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
  9. ^ See http://www.fftri.com/plugins/fckeditor/userfiles/file/REGLEMENTATION/RGSportive2007-2008.pdf. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  10. ^ See http://www.ipitos.com/de-resultats/course-132. Male results under GP D1 Hommes. Retrieved 28 May 2010.

External links