Well, they always have an opportunity to do a race locally with the team beforehand! And we see such great bonding at Pumpkinman - if the race scars any of them, it’s that it makes them more likely to train for the next go around, not leave our team. 
I believe it!!
i do not know if there is other triathlon with more climb, but we have in France the Triathlon de la Madeleine. bike is 100km/3400m elevation gain.