The Les Stables-ZEROD Launches New Team

Les-Stables triathlon holidays, in a joint venture with ZEROD, have launched a new triathlon team for 2013!

The Evolution
The Les Stables-ZEROD race team is an Anglo-French team of athletes who have had connection with both Les Stables training holidays in France as well as ZEROD.

Building on the informal support that Les Stables has given to athletes over the years, this new team will focus on athletes who are knocking on the door of going professional and also on the age group athletes who have supported the business in the past, either with training camps or with events – Pacesetter Events.

Also coming into the partnership is Compressport, the world’s leading compression brand, which has been a sponsor of Pacesetter’s events for the past two years.

Mark Shaw of Les Stables and Pacesetter Events said: “Our new partnership with ZEROD and Compressport has resulted in us being able put a professional plan together for our athletes for the first time. These new packages are layered. They are not only based on performance but also on developing ambassadors for us with a real love for what we do and a passion for their sport.”

Tim Williams from Avalanche Sports Marketing the distributors of Compressport and ZEROD in the UK commented: “We had no hesitation in saying yes to Mark about forming this team. We have worked with Mark for two years now and see how his passion and professionalism for the sport always delivers results. We look forward to supporting the team and sharing in its success.”

The structure
The newly formed team which has both French and British male and female athletes is made up of both elite and age group athletes.

Why set up the team?
The team was set up for a number of reasons, obviously the promotional element of having a team are important but apart from that we didn’t want it to be an elitist team even though it is by invitation only. We are not a club and don’t have that kind of infrastructure, after all most our athletes are spread over a very large area, and as a result we can’t all train together so that kind of structure wouldn’t have worked for us, but we wanted the team to feel like a team when the athletes met up at the races and it has been great to see that happen when they arrive at the same competitions, especially when they are way from home, or when they come to Les Stables.

The Elite
There are some names on the team like Nick Baldwin who people may have heard of, although Nick also has some other major sponsors which come as part of being a major performer in the big races. Nick is based at Les Stables for the early part of the season where he supports the coaching staff and guides rides so that athletes can learn from his race and training experiences. Having won his age group at the 70.3 World Champs in Las Vegas and picking up 40th overall at Ironman Hawaii, his season couldn’t have been a lot better but we believe he is capable of even bigger things in the future. He is only 23 so he has a real future ahead of him now he has taken up a pro licence.

The Youngsters
Apart from Nick, we also have young athletes such as Ryan Hanlon and Pete Hawkins. Ryan was new to us last year and will now spend much of the summer based back at Les Stables coming back into the sport after a year out whilst he was finishing off his degree. Having won his age group at the Sprint Triathlon World Championships in Beijing 2011 we knew Ryan was a good prospect for the future and just needed a bit of structure and support to make it to the next level and we hope we can be a part of that.

Pete in contrast is one of the longest serving members of the team at Les Stables having first become involved with us when he came to us in france on work experience. A really well organised athlete with a great pedigree in both running and triathlon and a lot of experience for his age. Pete picked up second place English Age group Championship last year after coming back from a long term knee injury which required surgery, 2013 beckons and with a lot more winter work under his belt we are hoping to see a big improvement in this very talented athlete.

The Age Groupers
But the team is not just for the youngsters and we have some great age group athletes across the spectrum of ages including Melanie Berry, Richard Baker, Collin Franklin, Tim Scrivener, James Croft, Stephane Decressac, Matt Lawton, Sibyl Anderson and Katie Cook who we hope to see good performances from both in the UK, France and on the international scene when representing GB or France. They were selected not just for their performances but for their enthusiasm for training and racing which is infectious and we knew we wanted them to be part of the team, having ambassadors for us with a real love for what we do is a big part of what we are about.

The Philosophy
Our philosophy is that it isn’t just about the results. Great results are always the icing on the cake but it is the progression and development that we are interested in and the love for the sport.

The experience should be about the journey and the process not just the result, triathlon at any level is very time consuming and requires a lot of commitment but not everyone has the ability to offer the same amount of time to their training and we recognise that. At the same time it is about searching out the best possible options relating to training, equipment so the results come because you got the planning and process right and a big part of that is to remember why you started it in the first place and we look to our athletes to offer support based on that to each other and other athletes.

Whilst a significant number of our athletes have achieved national honours and podium places it is not the criteria upon which we based our selection for membership of the team. We made it clear from the start that we wanted people on the team who have a love for what they are doing and a thirst for knowledge and are willing to share that with everyone else. We see our athletes as our ambassadors, and believe strongly that if they get the process right the results will come from that. We don’t chase medals or wins, we wanted athletes who had enthusiasm and drive because the wins come from that.

For further information contact Mark Shaw MARK@LES-STABLES.COM

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