Rumblings at Golden Trail Series

Salomon owns the Golden Trail Series and see it as a marketing tool for them. This isn’t news but through this light we need to see the various changes Salomon is announcing for the Series. Athletes don’t seem to love it. Francesco Puppi on Instagram:

After checking the course of the Golden Trail Series final last week, I feel like it’s not aligned with the idea that I have of a nice, logical course.

This will be an interesting tension going forward. The money in our sport will be in making it more spectator friendly. This money in turn will flow to the pro athletes. Complaining about a course being too contrived – to support spectator viewing – feels shortsighted.

Here’s how the GTS speaks about the route:

The finals will be held on Saturday for the women’s category and on Sunday for the men’s category and will feature a “flower format” course with a total length of 23.5 kilometers and a total elevation gain of 1,400 meters. The course offers a variety of tracks to suit all types of runners and is designed to take athletes through the fan zone six times.

I also didn’t love the repetitions at the Whistler, so I get it in some ways. But I understood why they made these decisions, and there are more trails they can take advantage for future races. If spectators would’ve been allowed on the mountain I doubt I would’ve even pointed it out.

My feeling is that this “flower format” will become the signature formant for the Golden Trail Series. They will try to maximize their opportunities to bring spectators close to the event, allow seamless live coverage and present a model of the sport that could become an Olympic event.

Most likely this sort of athlete whining is similar to the complaints about UTMB: It’s voiced, it’s noted, and then the athletes all show back up at the events the following year.