TriSports.com Blog

TriSports Cycling.

In case you have not heard the news…  (You will be hearing much more about this team in the very near future.)

TriSports.com Announces Arizona’s Newest Cycling Club

Tucson, AZ November 6, 2009:  TriSports.com has announced the creation of Arizona’s newest cycling club in partnership with Eclipse Racing.  The TriSports Cycling/Eclipse Racing Club is a joint effort between the two organizations to increase the level of participation in road cycling in the state of Arizona and elevate the quality and experience of road racing events.  “As a retail bike shop with an extensive service department, it simply made sense to begin our own cycling club in order to further our support of cycling in Arizona”, said Seton Claggett, president and owner of TriSports.com.  Through increasing the numbers of active club cyclists in the state, the club hopes to have a positive impact on bike safety and advocacy, with an emphasis on responsible riding by all club members.  The club is split into two different groups – a men’s and women’s supported category 1 and 2 racing team, managed by Scott Blanchard of Pyramid Coaching and Tammy Lamb, and a group of club riders of all abilities.  The club’s official kick-off date and membership drive is set for November 14th and 15th at the TriSports.com Retail Store.  The weekend’s event will include a Sunday “pancake ride” with free breakfast for all riders provided by TriSports.com post-ride.  The club’s official inaugural ride will be El Tour de Tucson on Saturday, November 21st. For more information, please visit www.trisportscycling.com. 

About TriSports.com

TriSports.com is an industry leader in triathlon, swim, bike and run retail, starting out of the home of Seton and Debbie Claggett in April 2000.  Nine years and two moves later, TriSports.com occupies 22,000 square feet of retail, warehouse and office space with 50+ employees, with expansion plans in the works.  TriSports.com is more than just a retail presence, however; the company is also very involved with growing the sport through partnerships with races, clubs, teams and other endeavors.  TriSports.com has been recognized as one of Outside Magazines Best Places to Work (April 2009), by Comerica Bank as one of Arizona’s 50 Companies to Watch (October 2008), Seton and Debbie Claggett were recognized as one of BizAZ’s Top 35 Entrepreneurs Under 35 (June 2008), and by Wells Fargo with their Copper Cactus Award for Business Growth (October 2005).  Learn more about TriSports.com online at www.trisports.com/info.html.

TriSports Cycling Jersey – we’ll see you on the roads.

Rubber Revolution.

It happened this week.  While we won’t remember the exact time, day or week down the road, Emilio De Soto has changed the wetsuit game with the official introduction of the De Soto T1 Water Rover.  10mm of rubber in the legs.  Yes, you read that right – 10mm!  And 8mm of rubber in the arms.  For those of you who are thinking that this suit is definitely illegal, think again (as long as you are racing in the US under USAT rules).

Check out more information here.  If you are interested in the suit, I would HIGHLY encourage you to pre-order because they are moving fast and will sell out.  Welcome to the new world of triathlon wetsuits.

Hidden Gems.

Have you ever taken a look at a product offered by TriSports.com and just wondered…”Why in the world are they selling that?”  Often times, we bring in a product for testing and it fails.  Sometimes they fail product testing miserably.  Other times, we simply decided the product is not a good fit for our selection.  However, there are times when a product surprises us or times when a product is so interesting that we must sell it.  These hidden gems are what sets TriSports.com apart as we try to bring top level products to our customer base.

The thinksport stainless steel waterbottle is one of those hidden gems.  The bottle is not designed fit into a waterbottle cage or designed for racing so you may be asking “why?” and I have the answer…

• thinksport bottles are free of BPA, Polycarbonate, Phthalates, Cadmium, Lead and PVC.  In general, these bottles are good for the environment and also non-toxic for human use as well.
• If the environmental reason is not enough, this bottle is great at keeping things cold (or hot) and I cannot stress this enough – these bottles are awesome!  I can tell you from experience that the thinksport bottles are perfect for recovery drinks.  Even in the hot summer of Arizona, I have filled up this bottle with a recovery drink and ice then come back several hours later to find the drink mix just as cold as I left it.  I think we all know how wonderful recovery drinks taste when warm – not fun.

More hidden gems to come…

Annual Polar Power Throwdown.

For most companies, Interbike is a time to look at new product and meet with potential and existing vendors.  For TriSports.com, Interbike is time for the Annual Polar Power Throwdown (among other things – including meeting with potential and existing vendors).  Every year, the employees of TriSports.com that attend Interbike spend the entire summer NOT preparing for this event which makes it even more special.  This year our rag-tag crew just finished up a brutal day of talking and walking before we met to see who could produce the best power-to-weight ratio in a one minute test.  Zachary came away the grand champion this year and deserves special props for also lugging around a heavy video camera all day prior to the event.  He comes home a most honorable and deserving Champion.  Here are the numbers:

• 1.59 – Webster
• 1.93 – Sarah
• 1.97 – Seton
• 1.98 – Alison
• 2.09 – Billy
• 2.32 – Erik
• 2.67 – Mark
• 2.78 – Nik
• 2.81 – Zachary

Special thanks to Polar.  Here is a pic of our third-to-last place contestant warming up for the event.

Building Freedom Day.

This past Friday, September 11, TriSports.com was involved with Habitat for Humanity Tucson’s Building Freedom Day.  As a corporate sponsor of the event, 2 people from our staff were able to help volunteer on the jobsite during construction.  TriSports.com is involved with many charitable organizations, but we certainly enjoy getting outside and getting our hands dirty when the opportunity presents itself.

“Each year on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers, Habitat for Humanity Tucson honors hope and the American dream with a service and remembrance project called Building Freedom Day. Each year we raise the walls on several new homes for hardworking Tucson families. At this year’s Eighth Annual Building Freedom Day, more than 350 volunteers, made up of community members, representatives from local businesses, congregations, members of the military and current and future Habitat homeowners, came together as early as 4 a.m. to raise the walls on four Habitat homes.”

Here are a few photos from the event…

Debbie showing off her power tool skills…

Vanilla Gel Blind Taste Test.

What is your favorite gel?  We all have that one flavor of that one brand that is our go-to time and time again.  For most of us, that one gel just agrees with our body.  Whether it be the way it goes down, the way our stomach handles it or simply the way it makes our body feel in giving us energy, our favorite gels simply work for us.  But if I had to guess, for most of us, a lot of it comes down to taste.

We decided to conduct a blind taste test of a variety of different flavored Vanilla gels here with our staff.  They were each sampled (7) different brands of Vanilla gels and were asked to rate their top (3) favorites and also their least favorite.  Here are the results from our staff (we had 40+ testers).

• Number 7 – Clif Shot Gel
• Number 6 – Hammer Gel
• Number 5 – GU Gel
• Number 4 – Accel Gel
• Number 3 – CarbBOOM
• Number 2 – PowerBar Gel
• And Number 1…

First Endurance EFS Liquid Shot

Remember, this test was based on flavor alone.  There is much more to making a gel choice than just flavor, but it doesn’t hurt that it tastes great.

8:31:59.

8:31:59.  Chrissie Wellington.  Quelle Challenge Roth.  July 12, 2009.  4:40:28 bike split.  Sub 3-hour run.  World Record.  Simply amazing.

Check out the article here courtesy of TYR.

Roth.

The biggest iron-distance race in the world is taking place this weekend in Germany.  Because of its status as an independent race, it does not get the typical media attention of the Ironman-branded events here in the states.  On a global scale, Quelle Challenge Roth is still one of the premier events.  I had the pleasure of racing in Roth last year and it was an experience that I won’t soon forget.  This race is truly one of a kind with the race history, course speed and spectator support.

For more information on the race, click HERE.  Live coverage will be available this weekend and there is talk of another world record possibly going down (as it did in the women’s race last year).  Check it out if you can.  The pro field is stacked with the likes of former Ironman world champion Normann Stadler heading up the men’s field and current Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington racing on the women’s side.  TriSports.com athlete Leanda Cave will be there as well with a host of other top tier pros.

Best race ever?

There have been some great races in triathlon history, but the men’s Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon in Des Moines this past weekend may go down as one of the best ever.  With $200,000 on the line, Simon Whitfield sprinted to the win over a small pack of other triathletes.  Words cannot do this race justice, so check out the video coverage here.

Simply amazing.  Congrats Simon.  Looks like your winter training time in Tucson is continuing to pay off (literally now).

Man vs. Car

I had this 2-part video passed onto me last week.  When I used to own a car and would be sitting in traffic, I often wondered how much faster it would be to walk (or run) – much like the opening scene from Office Space.  They did a little experiment across the pond – check out the video if you have some time to kill.

PART ONE

PART TWO