Jimmy Whelan is no stranger to the ups and downs of professional cycling. He won his very first race in Europe – the U23 Tour of Flanders no less – earning himself three years in the WorldTour with EF Education First. When that contract ended, he was left without a pro contract and spent two years in the Continental ranks trying to get back to the big leagues. A win at the notoriously hard Volta a Portugal in late 2023 helped him do just that, the Australian earning himself a spot on Q36.5 for the 2024 season.
But after an injury-riddled season, Whelan is about to begin a new chapter of his professional sporting story. He’s leaving road cycling behind and turning his attention to triathlon.
Whelan revealed the news in an Instagram video late last week, saying that it was time for a change. He followed that with a longer video over the weekend detailing his reasons for leaving cycling behind.
“Like any athlete, you want to be successful, and I’m not quite where I want to be, both on the results page, but also just mentally,” he said from his home in Barcelona.
Whelan described road racing as “savage and incredibly dangerous”, pointing to a series of injuries as one of his main reasons for quitting the sport. “I’ve had a few too many crashes over the last few years, and I’m not quite where [I want to be at] to justify putting up with those things anymore.”
Whelan singled out his experience at this year’s Criterium du Dauphine, his biggest race of the year. He’d spent a month training at altitude in the lead-up, only for things to go wrong on the opening day.
“I went to the Dauphine and I crashed on stage one,” he said. “I ripped my knee open, and I was in hospital again, and I was again in a hotel after the hospital, staring at the ceiling, feeling sorry for myself, and thought ‘OK, something has to change. This isn’t where I want to be.’”
Whelan returned to racing at the Tour of Slovenia 10 days later, but he promptly DNFed the first stage there too. It would be his last race for nearly four months. A crash during a training ride in Andorra in July left him with a broken arm, and then a bout of COVID further extended his time on the sidelines. All that time off the bike gave Whelan time to think about his future.
“I had two mates come to my home in Barcelona, and we laughed about the idea of me becoming one of the best triathletes,” he said. “That laughter quickly turned into me looking into the numbers and what’s required to be one of the best in the world. And I think I could be really good. And there’s only one way I’m going to find out, so I’m going to give it a crack.”
Whelan returned to racing at the CRO Race in Croatia in early October, but in his own words he “felt very out of place” and that he “needed to do something different.”
And so, with his season now over, Whelan is making the transition from professional road racer to professional triathlete. He’s got his professional triathlete licence and has signed up as a member of AusTriathlon. He says he’s got commercial partners lined up for 2025 but hasn’t yet revealed who they are.
While he’s a rookie triathlete, Whelan has some lofty goals. For starters, he wants to win an Ironman 70.3 pro race next year (1.9 km swim, 90 km ride, 21.1 km run). He also wants to qualify for the T100 Triathlon World Tour, a new series of world-class 100 km triathlon events (2 km swim, 80 km ride, 18 km run) introduced this year with only 20 spots available for male athletes. And looking further ahead, Whelan has an even loftier goal in mind.
“I want to see if I can qualify for the Olympics,” he said of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. “I’ve always wanted to be an Olympian, and I think this could be my ticket.” (The Olympic triathlon involves a 1.5 km swim, 40 km ride, and 10km run.)
Whelan’s first race will be in March 2025, giving him four months to prepare for his new challenge. Cycling will of course be his strongest discipline, but he’s got a strong foundation when it comes to the run too. Whelan was a talented middle-distance runner through high school before turning his attention towards road cycling. He’s continued running in the years since, and his Strava feed these days shows more running than it does riding.
Which leaves the swim – easily Whelan’s biggest weakness. To his credit, Whelan seems to be embracing that weakness with humour. “I can run well, I can ride even better … and I can learn to swim,” he said with a hint of a grin in his first announcement video. In the description of a recent swim workout on Strava, Whelan added the line “Did not drown ✅”. And in Instagram comments, he’s openly joked about how he’s likely to lose big chunks of time in the swim.
While Whelan certainly has a good engine, going from a beginner swimmer at 28 to being competitive against long-time professional triathletes who have been swimming their entire lives will be a huge challenge. And given how decisive the swim legs tend to be in the sort of triathlon events Whelan’s targeting, it remains to be seen how competitive he’ll be able to be.
Still, for Whelan, this change was a necessary one. Six and a half years after that breakthrough win at the U23 Tour of Flanders, and after a career of many ups, downs, injuries, and comebacks, Whelan is ready – and excited – for something new.
“I’m sad to be leaving road cycling, but I’m also very relieved,” he said. “I’m really excited to dig my teeth into something different and something that I could be just as successful in and not be going to the hospital every three races.”
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