A total of 11 teams are competing in the first Competitours tour, scheduled to begin March 15, 2009. Information for each team is provided below:

Team 1 – Goldtroni

David and Alex (co-sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Motto: Logistics Matter

Team Colors: Cardinal and Gold

Team Bio: Alex is a broadcast journalism Junior at USC heading to a lifetime of sports broadcasting! David is a business executive and professional business coach from Santa Fe, NM. He’s bicycled around Europe, horseback safaried in Tanzania and travelled extensively in Japan. None of this means that he has any language skills. Both Alex and David enjoy great cheese and will be sniffing out local ones in their spare time! David will also be on the lookout for a great espresso. David’s other son Ben will be coaching the team from his college dorm!

Team 2 – Plan B

Bob and Ally (co-sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Motto: You mean we were supposed to have a Plan A?

Team Colors: Whatever is clean that day.

Team Bio: In Belize, eighty feet down, Ally (Almita) swims within five feet of a forty-five foot long whale shark to say “Hello!” (The dive master told her to stay at least fifteen feet away). In Galapagos, Bob clings onto the rocks for dear life in a current at sixty feet to commune with a school of migrating hammerheads numbering in the hundreds. We obviously love to scuba – preferably off a sailboat rented in the Caribbean. Ally hurts her shoulder before a ski trip; she contrives a shoulder brace so she can learn snowboarding.  We tried “relaxing” at a spa resort once – that lasted 12 hours. We left in search of a hang gliding outfit to take us up (or is it down?).  We also tried sightseeing … once! Conveniently, we don’t get lost -  just temporarily rerouted. There’s always a “Plan B”! Oh yeah! When we’re not traveling (or wish we were) Bob is an investor and Ally is a mortgage banker.

Team 3 – Valley Girls

Fran and Judie

Team Motto: You Can Have Anything You Want, You Just Can’t Have It All (which has never stopped them from trying).

Team Colors: Well, we won’t know until we know what we’re wearing. But probably something in the Cornflower Blue family.

Team Bio: Fran (Vagabond40) lives in Cleveland where she was born although she moved to California when she was 7.  She and Judie (SweetPea) met at North Hollywood High (Go Huskies!) and have been best friends ever since.

Fran ended up marrying a Cleveland boy and moved back when she was 22. SweetPea came for the wedding and ended up marrying a Cleveland boy and moving there too. Fran is still married to the same man, Judie is not.  After a 3-year marriage she returned to Los Angeles and began a career in the entertainment industry where she enjoyed many fun and interesting years and met the man of her dreams whom she married in 1989, 20 years after their first date when he never called her back. She is in currently struggling with her first book.

Meanwhile back in Cleveland, Fran raised two (fabulous) kids and worked with her concert-promoter husband Jules, the only man in rock and roll who didn’t do drugs or fool around – as far as we know.  She is now an artist and has her own studio where she alternates between creating fabulous things and resisting fabulous Pecan Rolls at the Italian bakery on the ground floor.

Team 4 – Wandering Jewels

Laurie and Lynn

Team 5 – Gadling

Kent and Linda

Team 6 – Stimulus Package

George and Mike (sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Colors: Black and Lime Green

Team Motto: If you’re not having fun, get the hell out of our way…

Team Bio: With over 20 years of FlyerTalk experience between them, geo & chex have formed a friendship based on a common passion- Traveling. Music, sports, booze, politics and humor have grown out of the friendship that extends coast to coast. Mike and George have traveled to Europe and Asia together on multiple occasions. And have individually knocked off 6 continents a piece. They are excited to represent FlyerTalk in the Competitours trial run.

Read the proposal that won Team Stimulus Package a FlyerTalk sponsorship

Team 7 – Swizzle

Caroline and Bill (sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Motto: Freedom and adventure for all humanity!

Team Colors: Black and Silver

Team Bio: Team Swizzle (husband: Billy Swizzle and wife:Upfront 777)  live the possibility of freedom and adventure even in historically horrific economic times. We have spent a lifetime circling the globe on land, sea, and everything in between and we’ve held office jobs too.   Upfront 777 has graced the halls of corporate America and Billy Swizzle’s alter ego is an award winning sailing journalist.   Homebase is the Boston area yet we’ve ridden camels in Africa, yaks in Tibet, horses in Ireland, elephants in Thailand, and toboggans in Maine. We are psyched to race around Europe with Flyertalk!

Read the proposal that won Team Swizzle a FlyerTalk sponsorship

Team 8 – You Be Thelma, I’ll Be Louise

Sheri and Elizabeth (sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Motto: Here today, there tomorrow.

Team Colors: Blond and Blonder

Team Bio: Sheri aka letoile is a former newspaper, magazine and TV reporter. She gave it up when she realized full-time travel was much more rewarding. She sails, bicycles (so she hasn`t gone cross-country like Dave and Kevin, but she did cycle 700 miles in 7 days along the Oregon and California coasts, fighting off logging trucks and rental RV drivers all the while) and is a vegetarian who travels the world promoting San Francisco values.

Elizabeth travels the world the same way she navigates through daily life – awash in a spin cycle of inspiration, enthusiasm, giving, and learning. Whether home or abroad, Elizabeth combines a steady composure and gleeful curiosity to face the sublime, or the ridiculous.  This balance oft serves her work as a high-tech program manager based in the heart of Silicon Valley .  Broadband, twittering, or cloud computing anyone?  When not flying the friendly skies you can catch her hiking the hills, skiing double blacks, teaching her 9-year-old Portuguese Water Dog new tricks, re-routing gas lines, wrangling her chickens, gardening organically, volunteering locally for green and veterans causes.  And, be aware, Elizabeth is known across several continents for throwing fabulous parties!

Read the proposals that won Sheri and Elizabeth FlyerTalk sponsorships

Team 9 – Extreme

Kevin and David (sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Motto: What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Team Colors: Black and Gray

Team Bio: Kevin is a former finance guy from Wall Street who travels now.  He’s bicycled cross-country, kayaked from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and hiked the Appalachian Trail.  He has lived in Europe and speaks several languages.  He’s not afraid of engaging anyone in a little trash talk… and he can back it up.

Dave is a trial attorney in Chicago, and a washed up air traffic controller from O’Hare.  He has also bicycled cross-country and travels when given permission.  Dave’s language skills revolve around different pronunciations of “bier” and “grande.”  His hobbies include dieting and mocking Illinois politicians.

Read the proposals that won Kevin and Dave FlyerTalk sponsorships

Team 10 – Royal Roadies

Jen and Caitlin (sponsored by FlyerTalk)

Team Motto: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Team Color: Purple

Team Bio: Jennifer has combined her two favorite passions, writing and traveling, to keep her busy while she and her husband play the adoption waiting game. In the past 5 years she has logged over 500,000 miles while visiting different countries and writing reviews of hotels and excursions. She’s never met a luxury hotel or 1st Class seat she didn’t like.

Caitlin is an independent contractor who travels 100% of the time on tours. When she is in between contracts she likes to vacation in other countries to volunteer and learn others’ cultures and languages. Travel is Caitlin’s number one passion.

Read the proposals that won Jennifer and Caitlin FlyerTalk sponsorships

Team 11 – North Stars

Charmaine and Philip