TriSports.com Blog

Picture of the Day

I have received this photo and the corresponding link so many times today that I had to share it with everyone. This past weekend was the 24th Annual Tucson Bicycle Classic. TriSports Cycling team members represented extremely well – among the placements in the GC: 2nd Place Sr. Men II – Victor Riquelme. Check out Victor’s photo posted by VeloNews.com. If that doesn’t make you want to get out and race a bike, I don’t know what will!

Congrats to all of the TriSports Cycling team members on their collective awesome racing. Other notable finishes include Anna Sanders, Cara Bussell and Kathryn Bertine: 6th, 7th and 9th respectively for Pro Cat 1-2 Women, Chrissy Parks: 6th Cat 3 Women, Erin Borg: 2nd Women’s Cat 4, Justin Orkney and Andre McNulty: 3rd and 4th respectively Cat 3 Men, Brynn Dietz and Ken Montaney: 6th and 7th respectively Cat 5 B Men. Many others raced – great job to all!

Another Big Honor for TriSports.com

The League of American Bicyclists Announces TriSports.com as a Silver Level Winter 2010 Bicycle Friendly Business

Washington, DC – March 9, 2010 The League of American Bicyclists is proud to announce TriSports.com as a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB), in an impressive group of 51 new BFBs. The official announcement was made at the 10th Anniversary National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 9. The announcement, the fourth time BFB winners have been named since the program’s inception in 2008, marks the ongoing success of the program and continued momentum amongst businesses to provide a more bike-friendly environment. “The League is especially excited to recognize TriSports.com as a 2010 winter BFB winner at the 10th Anniversary National Bike Summit. TriSports.com is making simple changes to their transportation policies to encourage biking to work. They are setting a community-wide example,” said Andy Clarke.

Businesses that apply for the award are contributing to a more bicycle-friendly lifestyle for their employees. TriSports.com serves as an example for best practices and innovations in bicycle friendliness at the workplace, making bicycling an easy option for transportation and providing amenities such as showers and a locker room and incentives such as credit for miles commuted.
“This Bicycle Friendly Business is making a difference for employees, customers, and communities,” said Bill Nesper, Director of the Bicycle Friendly America Program. “TriSports.com promotes bicycling as a viable form of transportation and gives their employees choices and options that make biking to work easy and fun.” The staff and management at TriSports.com were very excited to learn about their designation as a Silver Level award designee. “Being a bicycle retailer, we feel that we have even more of a responsibility to our employees and our community to be a Bicycle Friendly Business. At TriSports.com, we strive to offer our employees as many opportunities as possible to encourage them to ride their bikes to work. As a company, we commuted over 35,000 miles to work in 2009, so we will continue to develop new strategies and incentives to increase participation and grow that number,” stated Debbie Claggett, Vice President of TriSports.com.

There are a lot of very simple, effective and creative ways that companies are finding to get people back on their bikes, and the League is proud to recognize the efforts of working America to make our nation a more bike-friendly place. Companies across the country are realizing that getting their employees biking – either to or from work, in course of work, or even in their own time – is good for business. When bicycling is infused in a company’s culture, great things happen: reduced health care costs; more productive employees; improved worker and customer satisfaction; smaller carbon footprint; and increased corporate social responsibility.

Applying for BFB recognition is easy and free. Applicants receive technical assistance from the League staff as well as tools to evaluate and assess their bicycle friendliness through the application process. The BFB application is available online at www.bicyclefriendlybusiness.org.

The Bicycle Friendly Community and Bicycle Friendly Business programs are generously supported by program partners Bikes Belong and Trek Bicycle’s One World, Two Wheels Campaign.

The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The League represents the interests of America’s 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit www.bikeleague.org.

TriSports.com is an industry leader in triathlon, swim, bike and run retail, located in Tucson, AZ. 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 like spearheading the effort to declare Tucson as the “Winter Training Capital” for cycling and endurance sports. TriSports.com has been recognized by Wells Fargo with their Copper Cactus Award for Business Growth (October 2005), by Comerica Bank as one of Arizona’s “50 Companies to Watch” (October 2008), by BizAZ as a “Top 35 Entrepreneurs Under 35” (June 2008), and as one of Outside Magazine’s “Best Places to Work” (May 2009). Learn more about TriSports.com online at www.trisports.com/info.html.

Supporting Your Local Races

Have you ever thought about your race schedule and chosen races specifically to support your local athletic community? Have you wondered what would happen if your favorite race just up and went away? As race sponsors have backed off over the past few years due to financial strain, and as municipalities continuously raise fees for race permits and traffic control, it is a wonder that our beloved, local, home-grown races still exist. The reason they do is because of the athletes who enter them (you) and the companies who have made a dedication to supporting them (us). I propose we make a promise to eachother to continue showing our support for the small-guy races. They may not offer you the big-time competition or pro fields that make you feel special when racing, but they also probably don’t have bike courses that are overcrowded, registration lines that take over a half hour and exorbitant fees. Of course there is a time and place for the fun mega-races, but do yourself and your community a favor and sign up for a local run, ride or triathlon today!

Here are a few of the upcoming local races that TriSports.com is supporting in Arizona. Join us!

February 28^th: TriSports.com Desert Classic Duathlon

March 7^th: Tour de Cure

March 13^th – 14^th: Tucson Bicycle Classic

March 21^st: Tucson Triathlon

April 20^th: Tri for the Cure Arizona

Another Great TriSports.com Video Production

This past weekend, a small crew of TriSports.com staff and TriSports Cycling club members joined our fellow sponsors of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team p/b Maxxis in Fountain Hills, AZ for a little bit of business and a lot of fun. The purpose of the weekend was for the sponsors to get to hang out with the team and introduce themselves to the riders and one another. We were fortunate enough to have beautiful weather for the morning group rides out to Saguaro Lake – a real treat for those who flew in from colder areas of the country. Saturday the attending sponsors were able to officially address the team to provide knowledge about their products. Since we do not providing a specific product, we thought it would be a good idea to let the team (and now the world) know exactly why a triathlon retailer has chosen (for the 2nd year in a row) to sponsor a pro cycling team. The reason is pretty simple: we all love to ride our bikes! We decided to get this point across, we’d make a little video…

Special thanks to Zachary, our Media Artist, for making the message come alive in a funny, light-hearted way!

Welcome to Tucson UHC Pro Cycling!

Last December, we announced our sponsorship of the 2010 UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis (yes that is their official, really long name). This month we are excited to welcome the team to Tucson for their official training camp. These guys obviously know what they are doing, because not only did they select *THE BEST* place to train in the winter (Tucson), they also selected to stay in a location in Tucson that is very, very, very close to the shop. Brilliant if you ask me!

To celebrate their arrival, we are hosting a very special event on Monday, February 8th including a catered reception, rider introduction with Q&A and photographs. We are looking forward to hosting the who’s who of Tucson for this event – including the City of Tucson mayor! The mayor will be making an official announcement at our event regarding the City of Tucson. I’d highly recommend joining us if you are in the area. RSVP is required.

So welcome to Tucson UHC Cycling. We’re rolling out the red carpet, getting dressed up and having a party! Of course, you do have to get up and train the next morning

PS:  If you can’t make it to Tucson for our event, consider joining the team in Scottsdale for their offcial presentation and banquet!  We will be there, will you?

TRIFEST 2010 – It’s coming…

Where will you be in March? I highly recommend a trip to Tucson. Why? TRIFEST 2010 of course. The TriSports.com Retail Store is now the official headquarters for TRIFEST 2010 where we have 3 weekends of events planned geared towards getting you ready for the racing season. The month’s festivities kick-off with a 2 day educational conference covering various topics to ensure you get your season started on the right foot. This year’s conference is free to the general public so you may attend only the seminars that you are interested in! If you are a USAT coach or a member of the ACSM, you have the option to pay a small fee and earn CEU’s at our conference. Each weekend our retail showroom will play host to our vendor showcase where our top vendors will have hands-on product demo’s and give-aways. But it isn’t all work and no play –we also have group rides and runs planned to make sure you experience the best of winter training in Tucson. Learn more on the TRIFEST 2010 website  as we will be updating information frequently!

See you in March!

Job Opening

We’re hiring! We are now accepting applications for the position of Sponsorship Coordinator. This position is full-time with benefits. The Sponsorship Coordinator works within the Marketing Department but also works closely with our Retail, Buying, Customer Service and Bike Departments. This key position is perfect for the social triathlete who likes to travel and attend events, is highly organized and who is motivated to help TriSports.com continue to be triathlon’s #1 retail store.

Duties include:
• Managing sponsorship of clubs, races and individuals (Team TriSports.com).
• Maintaining sponsorship website.
• Helping develop and participating in social and event marketing efforts, including maintenance of various social media.
• Frequent travel to events, often on weekends.
• Serving as a key member of the TriSports.com traveling expo crew.
You can view the job opening on the TriSports.com Employment Opportunities page!

Riding + Cookies = Delicious Fun!

We are kicking off 2010 with some yummy fun by participating in Tucson’s Tour de Cookie. This fun fundraiser takes cyclists through the city stopping at cookie stands hosted by local organizations to fuel up on tasty baked goods. The proceeds from Tucson’s tour are used to put on the Kids Try-Athlon, a free triathlon for children with special needs and/or disabilities.

TriSports.com is hosting cookie stand #5 – and we have vowed to have the BEST cookies of all, just like last year. I can’t find a better way to break that pesky New Year’s resolution of “eating healthier” than getting out there on your bike and sampling the goodies along the way! If you’re not in Tucson, there are tours planned for other cities in the US. If your city isn’t listed and you’re interested in getting one started, contact them! And now……off to bake.

Tour de Cookie 2009

Get Active

This holiday season, are you more focused on cookies than counting laps? Does your daily workout consist more of shoveling snow than pushing the cranks over? As endurance athletes, nothing can benefit us more than planning. Now is the perfect time to plan out your race season for 2010. Take time during your off-season to reflect on what went well in 2009 and ask yourself what your goals are for 2010. Are there specific races you have always dreamed of doing? Many of the most popular races fill up months in advance and many are open for registration now.

If you’re planning taking on a new challenge this next year, consider checking out the training plans offered through our website from Active Training. These simple, easy-to-use plans can help guide the athlete who needs just a little direction to finish races up to the half-ironman distance. These plans also happen to make excellent gifts for friends or family members who are interested in testing the waters, so to speak. What better gift to give than the encouragement and belief you can give another by helping them take their first step? Partnering with Active Training is just one more way TriSports.com has worked to provide you, the athlete, with all the tools you need for season after season of successful racing. You can access the training programs, or use the free online calendar to track your workouts by clicking on the “Training” tab on our top navigation:

Of course, if you’re interested in a personal coaching program, we support several high-quality coaching organizations through our sponsorship program. You can find them on our sponsorship website. These coaches are able to provide benefits to their athletes through TriSports.com on top of offering excellent service!

Triathlete’s Gift List – Week 2

Week two of an eight week series! Planning to give or receive a triathlon-related gift this holiday season? Check out our ideas in this series to see what is hot on our staff’s real-life lists. Today’s list is from Mike O. in the buying department.

Gender: Male
Age Group: 35-39
Athletic Level / Years Experience: Beginner / 5 Years Cycling, 1 Year Swimming
Activities I enjoy: Swimming and cycling.
Distance I typically compete at: My first race will be a half ironman.
Road Cycling Helmet. My old helmet is cracked and I need a new one. I’d suggest the Bell Furio Road Helmet for a great helmet at a great price.

Road Cycling Shoes. 5 years of riding and I’ve never had road shoes. I would appreciate the performance benefit! I’d suggest the Shimano SH-R220 Custom Fit Road Shoe because nothing is more important than your comfort!

Heart Rate Monitor. I would like to start interval training, but do not want to overdo it. I’d suggest the Suunto t1c for it’s basic functions and focus on fitness.