The 2004 dates for the ever-growing London Triathlon have been announced, along with a new sponsor – splendidly it’s now the Michelob Ultra London Triathlon. It’s a “low-calorie” beer, apparently. Marvellous.

As well as the event itself, there’ll be the London Triathlon Expo, “set to be the best Endurance Multi-Sport exhibition of 2004”. We’re not sure how many others there are, but with over 100 exhibitors and 25,000 visitors expected to attend it’s almost certainly worth a look if you’re even slightly interested in multi-sport shenanigans.

Among the Expo attractions are Cycling, Running and Swimming areas offering the opportunity to have your gait and style analysed by experts, a Sports Therapy area with masseurs, chiropractors and osteopaths to help you regain the ability to walk and the Triathlon Theatre featuring talks and seminars by elite coaches.

Oh yes, those details – we nearly forgot because for some reason they don’t actually appear to be in the press release. But thanks to Google the dates are 31 July/1 August 2004 at ExCeL, Docklands, London. Also not in the release was the all-important web address for further details – it’s www.thelondontriathlon.com. And for those wondering how far it is, there’s a Sprint event (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) or an Olympic-distance event (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run). We had to rummage a bit to find that out too – hint for the organisers: We reckon “How far is it?” is probably worth putting in the First-Timer’s FAQ. It’s certainly likely to be more frequently asked than “Is the water safe to swim in?”…

Entries are open now, with entries received after the end of January 2004 going into a lottery for the remaining places.