On Saturday, Februrary 20th, the infant Trek-K-SWISS Triathlon Team was a day into their first camp. The day was shaping up to be a landmark day in the team’s history. The team was just two days old, and already Chris Lieto, the de facto elder statesman on the squad, had laid down the gauntlet with his teammates.

The challenge: buzz their heads.

Lieto had promised to bring out his personal clippers sometime the next afternoon to play military barber on his teammates. “It’ll be everyone but a few pretty boys,” Lieto said with a laugh. “We can keep it sorta long … it’ll grow back in a few days!” Ironman 70.3 World Champion Michael Raelert swept his long locks back, shaking his head, but feared the inevitable; that he’d have to take part in this "teambuilding experience."

Meanwhile, young bike power Andrew Yoder was all in. “No, I don’t want it long—I want it buzzed all the way down!”

Friday, February 19th marked day one of the Trek-K-SWISS Triathlon Team and, by all accounts, it looked like it was gonna be a hit. Never mind that the athletes were presented that day with the details on their new team-issue Trek Madone, TTX and soon-to-come Speed Concept rides, and their new 2010 K-SWISS racing and training flats. And never mind that the squad includes two 70.3 World Champions, the reigning Xterra World Champion, a Kona runner-up and several other rising talents.

No, the success came in the blend of folks that came together. Bunking two to a room near K-Swiss headquarters in Westlake Village, California, the camping experience brought together an intrepid group that includes Hawaii Ironman runner-up Chris Lieto, Chris’ brother Matt Lieto, Ironman 70.3 and Xterra World Champion Julie Dibens from the UK, Ironman 70.3 men’s world champion Michael Raelert of Germany, as well as Fraser Cartmell (GBR), Joe Gambles (AUS), Heather Jackson (USA), Paul Matthews (AUS) and Andrew Yoder (USA). From the start, the group was simply having fun.

“You can get so much more out of a moment, whether it’s a win or third or fourth place, when you have someone there with you,” Raelert said. “When you have a team like this, it just makes the experience more special.”

Lieto echoed the sentiment that as they grow together as a team, they’ll take ownership for one another, and celebrate one another’s victories. Hence Saturday’s impending buzz cuts. “The cool thing is that as we get to know each other as teammates, we’ll follow one another, wherever we’re racing, and be invested in one another, no matter how we do.”

Rightfully so, it all started with Lieto, who had Trek and K-SWISS as sponsors for the last few years. Now, with a Hawaii Ironman runner-up finish to his credit (as well as a Twitter time trial runner-up finish to Lance Armstrong just weeks before the camp), he explained how pleased he was to see his sponsors become theirs. “The sport has gotten more professional, and Trek and K-SWISS have used our relationships to develop their products,” he said. “I’m proud that they’ve come together to create this team, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Friday was a day of product presentations, giving the athletes the understanding of the arrows in their collective quivers. Athletes were taken through the Trek history, as well as just what goes into the two (and eventually three) bikes the team members will be supplied with: the Madone, the TTX, and shortly the Speed Concept.

Bontrager brand manager Chris Clinton began to go into the details on his company’s Aeolus race wheels, explaining wheel build and selection. The room was attentive until Clinton described the wheel’s aero build. “Our nipples are hidden” brought snickers among the athletes. Clinton quickly qualified it. “Yes, my nipples are hidden, but the wheel’s nipples, which hold the spoke to the rim, and located within the rim and out of the wind.”

Everyone sat up in their chairs when the Speed Concept came up. The athletes fawned over the bike, soon available to the athletes (and to the public in July) for its innovative new Kamm Tail, as well as a newly revamped front end. Said Dibens of her Ironman 70.3 win aboard the Speed Concept, “it was amazing going into that race with confidence and knowing I had the edge. That bike was worth several minutes, and I don’t think I’d have won Clearwater without it.”

The media was later ushered out of the boardroom, as Trek engineers showed the team some of the coming developments on the Speed Concept.

Eric Vervolet of K-SWISS brought in his lighter side, ribbing Joe Gambles, the model for the 2010 race kit, for his … um … package, before going into the history of the brand—two Swiss brothers who made ski boots, moved to California, and in 1966 created their classic tennis shoe with D-ring lacing. Noting that company president David Vaughn is a five-time sub-10-hour Ironman finisher, Vervolet demonstrated that the company’s commitment to triathlon was genuine, with the line of shoes each offering features rooted in multisport (including a breathable neutral racer/trainer prototype that completely shed the can of Dr. Pepper he poured on top of it).

“I look at what those (Trek) guys do to make that Speed Concept, and it amazes me it doesn’t take 100 more years to have created it,” Vervolet told the athletes. “We have the same vision. We want to be innovative, and have you guys test that innovation for us. You have an idea about footwear? You’ll talk to our designers. You guys have a voice here.

Each of the athletes received a huge duffel full of team apparel, race kits, and shoes. After a photo shoot, the team was off to a press conference in Santa Monica.

But at dinner, the discussion went from the ahi tuna and wine to shaved heads. Lieto, who claimed to be a long-lost relative of surfer Kelly Slater, began issuing his challenge. What will happen tomorrow? Who’s getting shorn? Will it include the team’s two women, Dibens and Jackson?

Read more from day two ...