The road to London starts this weekend as the Arena Games Triathlon Series powered by Zwift begins in Montreal, the first stop of the three-stage series which will see London host the final event in April.
The series, which is organised by Super League Triathlon, blends real-life and virtual reality as athletes swim in the pool before switching to smart trainers and self-powered curved treadmills for the bike and run legs on Zwift’s online platform.
Montreal is the first stop of three events this year with the venue in Canada then followed by a trip to Sursee in Switzerland on Sunday 12 March before the grand final at the London Aquatics Centre on Saturday 8 April.
Three British athletes are on the start list for Montreal with Dan Dixon, Chris Perham and Jack Stanton-Stock ready to pull on Super League Triathlon’s coloured trisuits for the first event of 2023.
Stanton-Stock and Perham will both be making their Arena Games debuts in Montreal, while Dixon has featured in this unique event before.
The British elite senior and junior champion from 2021 finished fourth in the final event in Singapore last year, before going onto race in the Super League Triathlon Championship Series, finishing in 13th place overall including two top-eight finishes.
Perham is new to the Arena Games but is no stranger to Super League Triathlon having competed in the Championship Series including with Team Bahrain Victorious Scorpions last year.
Stanton-Stock is new to this format, but showed his versatility last year across different formats, finishing third overall in the British Triathlon Senior Super Series, as well as representing Great Britain at Europe Triathlon Cups.
As with all Super League Triathlon racing, the racing doesn’t follow the usual swim, bike, run format.
The heats will this year consist of two stages of swim, bike, run to determine who advances through to each event’s final where the format is then mixed up even further with the order of the disciplines shuffled across the final’s three stages.
Stage 1 starts in the pool with a 200m swim, followed by a 1km run and then a 4km bike. It’s the same distances across the three disciplines for the next two stages but it’s run, bike, swim for stage two before the pursuit style final stage of swim, bike, run.
The athletes who collect the most points across the series will be awarded the triathlon esport world titles at the series finale in London.
Last year Beth Potter and Alex Yee became the first ever world esports triathlon champions, collecting the most points to claim the title at the final in Singapore.
Live coverage will be available in the UK on Eurosport from 22:30 (UK Time) on Saturday 25 February, as well as on Super League Triathlon’s YouTube and website.
(Images: Super League Triathlon)
