In with the new!
January 15th 2011

2011 is under way and after saying goodbye to our leaving members of 2010, we now look forward over the next 3 weeks individually introducing you to our new incoming members joining the teamTBB family. Those that have read the slowtwitch story of changes within the team for 2011 have had a little head start in knowing the plans for 2011.

TeamTBB in 2011 will not only continue, but will morph into 3 teams. Yes, it had been published due to the global economic down turn that teamTBB will this year be a much smaller and sleeker team,looking like a normal tri pro team rather than a professional bike team set up. However, as our most loyal readers would know, doing things the normal way just has not sat well with our team structure; it was like a shirt that looked great but just didn’t feel comfortable.

The closer to the New Year and the reshaping of our team it got, the itchier Alex and I became. We didn’t originally intend to have just a pro team with only the best athletes in it. In fact our founding weekend in Phuket was at pains to say don’t develop down that one narrow sided road. It was always about a balance to give a pathway to those who had a talent and a dream to become full time athletes to now after the unprecedented success of our development strategy. To just let that go because of an economic downturn caused by millionaires didn’t seem right. Thus, the starting of the team on the website is a little late as we had to go into consultation, not only with athletes contracted before our u-turn but also our sponsoring partners who had also signed on for the down sized team; as one can imagine, this is not a small thing to be rushed.

I can proudly report that at such short notice with a thorough explanation of our goals and aspirations for 2011 and beyond that all were 100% supportive of the new vision. Without the full support of our founding sponsor Cervelo for our complete bikes, The Bike Boutique and, the support of Avia shoes, 2XU for all our training, race and compression apparel, Louis Garneau for our helmets and bike shoes and Blueseventy for our wetsuits, this could not have happened. So, we can announce that in 2011, teamTBB will have an American based team, a German/Swiss based team and a Pan Pacific Japanese / Australian based team.

Here are the rosters:

As you can see all teams have some superstars and we have spots for aspiring pros but also, we have preserved our development arm to give some new boys and girls a chance to have a crack at the big time.

So please accept our apologies for our lateness as the logistics as you can see has needed some serious attention.

Elite Development Group 

With this now in place, I can also announce the elite development group has been closed for the moment due to an over whelming response. While there are certain criteria, the best athletes will not be handpicked for this project but after the initial criteria has been met, it’s first in and first served. So we will now bed down the first intake of athletes and then review. It's imperative that we make sure this project works as well so a slowly, slowly approach to development in this area will be our focus.

Here at teamTBB, we are all very excited by the new direction and supplementary project that will ensure that the ethos of teamTBB will be kept, not only intact, but enhanced for the future. Our hope is to continue to make stars from the rank and file members of the triathlon community.

Over the next 3 weeks, rather than a group photo, we will introduce our newbies individually to you on the website and further develop the individual teams’ structure over the early season. 

Thanking you for your time and understanding.

Alex and the doc.