Tri-Dubai: I still don't get it

Triathlon Forum
1

I’m not sure I understand the whole Tri-Dubai arrangement. I’ve seen the ads, and I read the story in this month’s Inside Triathlon, but I’m still in the dark about it. Is it actually a team where the members work together to help another teammate win a race? They aren’t racing draft legal, so I don’t see how this would work. But say Reid, DeBoom and Brown are coming down the stretch together in Kona this year. Who wins? Do they go all out against each other or is there a team leader who is designated for the win?

Or are they just a group of athletes who wear the same kits and are payed by the same employer to race and train and promote the city-state of Dubai? What do they do with their earnings from races – give a percentage (or all) to a charity and live solely off what their employer pays them? Are there performance bonuses?

Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t get it. I think it’s great that these pros are getting paid to train and race, but I don’t understand what kind (if any) team dynamic is present on Tri-Dubai.

Can anybody enlighten me?

RP

2

It’s about money.

3

And it’s about PR for Dubai.

4

I don’t think there is any kind of “team” dynamic in terms of working together. I thought that basically, these selected athletes receive money for their designated charity and I guess the city of Dubai or whoever is backing this gets the PR. Kinda strange set-up but good for the charities, if the donations are significant.

5

  1. I doubt very much that there is any real team dynamic at work on race day other then a bit of cammraderie. I think that too many people try and read bike racing’s team dynamics and protocols into triathlon racing. Even in draft legal ITU racing, despite 10 years of legal drafting on the bike, their is still very little of what you see going on in professional bike racing. For the most part, even in ITU racing, this is an individual sport.

  2. As for the sponsorship itself, it would be for your latter reason - for the promotion of Dubai. Obviously, this is an area that is REALLY trying to promote itself as a tourism destination and is very open to unique and novel marketing strategies to reach new people.

Fleck

6

Every time I see this name, I think President Bush is going to enter a tri.

7

It’s just like any other Multisports team associated to Long Distance Triathlons. Just like Team Timex… would you except Vitor to wait for Tom on the bike and work “as a team” ? They promote the city Dubai by winning races individual not as a team. So they are all from the same team but race as individual triatheltes.