Eagle County athlete competes in supertri E World Triathlon Championships in London

Sullivan Middaugh placed 17th in the supertri E World Triathlon Championships, held last week in London, England.

On April 13, the 2022 Battle Mountain graduate competed alongside 30 international athletes at the London Aquatics Centre in Queen Elizabeth Park for a first-place prize of $7,500 as well as World Triathlon points.

“It was my first time racing the indoor format and it was one of the toughest races physically that I have ever done,” Middaugh stated on social media.

Formerly called the Arena Games, the event launched in 2020 as a way for live professional triathlon to continue behind closed doors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The popularity spurred the creation of the first E sports World Triathlon Championships in Singapore in 2022.

“The event blends real-life and virtual reality racing, providing an immersive viewing experience that allows fans to get up close and personal with the best triathletes in the world without leaving the comfort of their seat,” the event’s athlete guide stated. “The event also gives esport fans, and lovers of sports statistics the chance to enjoy live data from the athletes in real time.”

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Athletes swam 200-meters in a 50-meter pool, biked 4-kilometers on Tacx Neo3M Trainers linked to Zwift — an online interactive cycling program — and ran 1-kilometer on self-powered curved treadmills, also linked to Zwift.

“This format played well to my bike strength because drafting was turned off, so it was up to just pure power,” Middaugh stated in an email to the Vail Daily on Friday. “I feel like this helped my race overall and I was able to make up time after the swim”

Middaugh, a two-time XTERRA USA champion, said the field was one of the strongest he’s ever competed in.

“So I went into the race knowing it was going to be very challenging,” he stated. “I felt with my bike that I had a shot of making it to the finals. I was happy with my performance and I gave it everything I had. It was a very intense and short race.”

The morning heats consisted of two stages of swim-bike-run. A short break followed the first stage; the second stage was a pursuit start based off of finishing time from the first. The finals included a full three stages of the supertri E format (swim, bike, run; run, bike, swim; swim, bike and run). Ten athletes qualified from the morning heats for the evening finals — Middaugh just missed the cut.

“I made a couple small mistakes that cost me some time, but if I would have been 11 to 12 seconds faster I would have maybe made the finals,” he said. “It was a very tight race.” 

Chase McQueen of the United States won the men’s final by nine seconds over home favorite Max Stapley. France’s Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger rounded out the podium.

Strong start to the season

Middaugh, a Project Podium athlete at Arizona State University, opened his season this winter with a pair of indoor track races in Boston, lowering his 5,000-meter personal best to 14:33.

“I felt these were very helpful to get some speed before the triathlon season,” he said.

His season-opening triathlon races confirmed the approach. He placed 11th in the elite men’s category (and was the third-place U23) in the Americas Triathlon Championships in Miami on March 8 and finished fourth overall in the Americas Triathlon Cup in Barbados on March 17.

“I have been training very consistently and I feel like I am fitter than I have ever been,” Middaugh said. His longest bike session of the year so far has been a 60-mile ride up Mount Lemmon, which included 7,000 feet of climb. Prior to the E World Triathlon Championships, he and his teammates conducted a swim-bike ‘brick’ workout which included three sets of 200-meter repeats in the pool followed by 4-minute VO2 max efforts on the bike.

Middaugh is currently preparing for a Continental Cup draft-legal road triathlon in Columbia on May 5, where he said he’s hoping to improve his world ranking with a podium finish. After that, he’ll return stateside for the North American XTERRA championship in Pelham, Alabama, on May 18.

“That will be my first XTERRA of the year and I am looking forward to getting back racing on the mountain bike,” Middaugh said.

On the academic side of the equation, the 20-year-old said he’s enjoying his online biochemistry class.

“It has been one of my most challenging classes yet, but I like the topics we are learning about and they related to training and life overall,” he said. “I am really enjoying Project Podium.”

His younger brother, Porter, will join the team next year.

“I’m looking forward to that,” said Sullivan Middaugh before adding that he’s tentatively planning on returning to Colorado after the Alabama XTERRA event to attend his brother’s graduation.

“I am unsure if I will make it back in the summer this year because of no XTERRA Beaver Creek and a busy race schedule,” he said.