With the recent announcement of the new Specialized triathlon team, some folks have raised the logical question, "Team? What team? Triathlon is an individual sport." To many people, the new triathlon team may seem simply like a group bound together by nothing more than a common sponsor with no sense of cohesion or commonality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Far from being a "bigger billboard" or a "shotgun approach to marketing," the Specialized triathlon team has some very definitive elements that show it's something much more than a bunch of random athletes collected under a single marquee. 

What I won't attempt to say is that the athletes on the Specialized triathlon team are all best friends who'd give the shirt off their back to a teammate. Some of us are, but that was the case before this team was ever formed. What I want to answer is what it really means to have a team in a sport where individual success is what is rewarded. What is the value of a team when only one person can win a race? That is the question I hope I can answer. I have my own ideas, some of which may be foolish, naive, etc. And you are free to disregard them as such. They are simply my opinions. However, as a part of the team, I hope that I can offer an insiders perspective on the project and share my own thoughts on what I think it means to the company, the athletes, and to the sport as a whole. 

This real value of the team was most eloquently summarized in this great article which is about *countries* making a commitment to winning: http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com/high-performance-sports-systems-the-non-system-system/  which Coach Paulo Sousa, coach of the Specialized Team's own Simon Whitfield, initially passed along to me (and others). The article parallels exactly the purpose of the triathlon team. It is NOT a "high performance system." The Specialized triathlon team is about winning races. And if you understand what is required to win races, then you will understand the purpose of the team. If you don't understand what is required to win races - if you are an "audit bunny" - then you won't get it. But simply put, at the end of the day, it is winning races that is the purpose of the team. And if you wish to win races, then you need to do what is required to win. And what is required to win is to create a culture where winning is everything. And that's how the triathlon team - like the mountain bike team before it - was born.

Walk into Specialized HQ in Morgan Hill and there is a banner celebrating the World Championships that Specialized bikes have won. That is what matters to this company. And the team is about creating a culture that is about winning. Because a team is more than one person. A team is more than "let's hire this guy because he wins races." A team is about supporting what is required to win. It's about taking risks to build better bikes. It's about the creativity required to gain any advantage you can. Ultimately, in order to win consistently as an athlete, you need to do the same things that are required to win as a business. And that is where the Specialized team comes from. It is the manifestation of a corporate culture of winning applied to athletics and vice versa. Athletes that win help make better products. And business that win can help make better athletes. But that's a vision. And a risk. And I don't know if it will work. But I believe in what underpins it. I believe in winning. I believe in high-performance. And that is why I believe in vision of what the Specialized triathlon team aims to be. Because I think that they view athletic success as the pathway to corporate success, and I think that's a valid and proven model, and it's one that I'm excited to be a part of. I'm happy to be a cog in a machine when that machine has a singular purpose - victory.