Tell our readers a little bit about the new team you are supporting.
It’s a new team for 2013 and it’s called Your Competitive Edge. The aim of the team is to give age-group athletes across Europe the chance to be part of one team that works together.
The guy who launched the team is an ex-investment banker who has done a masters degree in Sports Marketing. He is also a really keen age-group athlete himself and feels, quite rightly, that top end age-groupers who train really hard, race really hard and compete a lot around the world, sadly don’t have a team that caters for them. You either have standard club teams or pro teams but nothing in the middle.
Any age-grouper can join the team. It’s simply a case of signing up online. As a bit of an incentive, if you sign up this month you get a free Rudy Wingspan team helmet and a free wetsuit bag as well.
Anyone who signs up to Your Competitive Edge has a chance to qualify for the ‘elite team’, which will be fully sponsored. Those that don’t make that particular team will still have loads of benefits from being part of the community as a whole, not least, that it gives all athletes the chance to communicate directly via the forum with people training for the same events and are of similar standard.
In terms of sponsorship, Your Competitive Edge, is a non-profit organisation and so any membership fees will be ploughed back into the elite team to sponsor and support the athletes that are doing really well with a bike, wetsuit and a little bit of money for expenses.
It’s a new team that needs to get some publicity and I believe that the concept is fantastic and so wanted to get involved and help where I can.
Personally having stepped up to do some longer distance events last year I found that when things went right, like at Outlaw, it was great. However when it didn’t quite go according to plan, like at Ironman Wales because I hadn’t quite learnt how the longer events work, I ended up with 20-30 really decent quality age-groupers coming past me towards the end of the bike leg and then the run. I thought when they were coming past me how incredible these guys were with little or no support – so when I heard about this project, I thought it would be a great thing to get involved with, especially as I am planning to do some more longer distance events this year and so will be at some of the same races as these guys.
Yeah I think so. I’m going to use 2013 to do some longer distance races and use it as a sort of development year. When you are racing at the top-end you can just put the blinkers on and not see anything else around you, so I want to use this year to just enjoy racing, meet new people and have some fun. That’s not to say in the races I will be doing I wont be going as fast as I can – I just have a different perspective on the whole thing this year.
My coaching has been fairly constant over the last couple of years and 2013 won’t be any different. I set up Driven to Tri in 2006 and every year I’ve had between 6 -10 athletes that I’m working with at any one time. My emphasis has always been, and always will be, on giving them a top-level personal coaching service. Its not my main means of making a living so I don’t have to be as commercial with it as other companies who take on 20 + athletes at a time.
Driven To Tri caters for a range of abilities, from seasoned triathletes to first timers. For example, I’m currently working with someone whose aim is simply to complete their first sportive in the next 4 months, while one of my other clients is looking to break the Irish Ironman record. It’s this broad range that makes it so much fun for me. As long as someone has a goal and loves doing what they do, I love helping them get better and achieve their dreams – whether it’s to qualify for Kona or simply to fit in their wedding dress next summer!
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Posted on Monday, February 4th, 2013 at 11:04 am under Triathlon News. You can subscribe to comments. Comments are closed.
