Quintana Roo Becomes First Brand to Join IRONMAN’s Bike Partner Program
Quintana Roo is the first brand to enter IRONMAN’s new Bike Partner Program, which will see Quintana Roo appear at more events to service athlete bikes, launch co-branded versions of their triathlon bikes, and allow for athletes to try bikes from multiple vendors at race expos globally.
The new Bike Partner Program aims to allow athletes to more connect with more bike brands on a global scale by eliminating geographical barriers. Brands participating in the new program will be given access to IRONMAN’s global audience and drive improved athlete experience with an eye towards the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. Brands will be given the opportunity to focus on key markets for their own sales targets and interface directly with current and potential customers.
As an example of that, as part of the new partnership Quintana Roo will be expanding its presence at IRONMAN events outside of North America, appearing at multiple IRONMAN branded events in Europe. Owners of Quintana Roo bikes will enjoy complimentary pre-race checks and service at these selected events. In addition, athletes can expect a larger presence in the Athlete Village to be able to view and try Quintana Roo’s range of triathlon bikes.
These events in 2025 will include:
- IRONMAN 70.3 Alcudia-Mallorca – May 10
- IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship – June 1
- IRONMAN Frankfurt European Championship – June 29
- IRONMAN Copenhagen – August 17
- IRONMAN World Championship, Nice (Men’s race) – September 14
- IRONMAN Wales – September 21
- IRONMAN World Championship, Kailua-Kona (Women’s race) – October 11
- IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, Marbella, Spain – Nov 8-9
IRONMAN’s Executive Vice President of Partnerships Yanni Andreopoulos said, “We are excited to welcome Quintana Roo as the first partner in our newly formed IRONMAN Bike Partner Program. Choosing your perfect race day bike and being confident it will help you perform at your best on the day can be a minefield. With this new program, our athletes have an opportunity to experience different bike brands at different races, so they can find what works for them without being limited by geographies.
Europe has been a key market for Quintana Roo as they look to grow. The brand had previously announced in December 2023 a global supply partnership with Challenge Family and their series of events. Over the past few years of the IRONMAN World Championship bike counts, QR has sat between third and sixth place, lagging well behind Cervelo and Canyon, which both have stronger global presences.
Quintana Roo will also be developing multiple exclusive versions of their bikes for IRONMAN. These IRONMAN branded bikes will begin with two versions of their flagship V-PRi bike. The first of these will be an IRONMAN exclusive color way, open to all athletes for purchase. The second is an exclusive offering to athletes who have earned All World Athlete status. These bikes will be offered through Quintana Roo’s website and shipped directly to the athlete’s door, ready to assemble and ride out of the box in under ten minutes.
Is this an indicator that we will see lots of different bikes at expos, or is it just going to be another price barrier for brands to show up to events?
I have asked IM specifically whether any other brand has expressed interest. No response yet (which is expected, it’s only been a couple hours).
But it certainly seems, at first glance, like this is a step in them trying to reduce friction in getting more bikes to different marketplaces.
How is this new? ventum was the bike brand for many years?
The new Bike Partner program isn’t about exclusivity. It appears it is about trying to get more brands participating in the program and to have more bikes for people to try / purchase at expo. It also appears that it might be reducing friction on getting some of these brands into new marketplaces. e.g., QR has wanted to really expand in Europe, but is fighting an uphill battle there. By participating, now their bikes are showing up, in-person, to the exact type of audience that should be their customer.
Works the other way I would imagine, too. Let’s say one of the Euro brands wanted to make another push in North America; they could participate in this program, have their bikes at various NA events, and a purchasing flow directly through IM. And, well, IM winds up with more customer data out of the deal, too.
So it is a bit different than the traditional bike partner model that they have used.
Movement?
Texas bound.
This sounds interesting, but historically Ironman has put much too high of a price tag on these types of programs. It’s typically very difficult or impossible for a company to make a positive return marketing through Ironman. If that’s the case with this program then participation will be limited. It’d be nice if expos were something worth going to again.
If the Oceanside expo is any indicator, things are changing at Ironman and with expos. Oceanside is typically a larger expo anyway but this year there were more vendors present probably due to Ironman’s change in policy in not allowing competing brands to their sponsors be present.
Ironically I looked at the raw paint scheme on the VPRI and thought they needed to add this exact stripe to it and make it more in interesting graphically.
I’d choose different colors but this is a step in the direction aestheticcally for QR.
Think if they inverted the colors and did the orange/red primary with white accents it’d be a stronger statement. But also probably too close to an existing paint scheme.
Looks very Canadian to me. Maybe QR is just welcoming the 51st state!
Copying Canyon’s painting with the sloping triangle on the top tube
Trek’s had that type of scheme before, too.
Let’s be honest: there’s only so many ways to paint a bike.
Does this include the ability to rent bikes for the race?
I’m sure the financials behind supporting that service might be a bit iffy but I honestly just hate traveling with my bike & would be keen to pay a fair bit to totally cut out all logistics related to that.
That would be a service that could persuade me to change bike manufacturers. I would love to travel all over the world to race, but hate flying with my bike. Even if I had to agree and pay for the service 6-12 months in advance if they could provide a bike adjusted to my fit for race week (not just race day, need to ride ahead of time), that would be a game changer.
If that’s ultimately what you wanted—we can do it. Benefit of being assembled, painted and shipped in the U.S. Been doing some great one-offs lately.
And with this edition, we are certainly paying homage to Ironman’s company colors… though I did like some of the initial commentary on Instagram that the bike was a take on the McLaren Marlboro F1 livery that Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost ran back in the '80s.