Ivan Melero completes European squad at Team Type 1
Spaniard Ivan Melero is the latest European signing in Team Type 1’s expansion into a Pro Continental team for the 2011 season.
The 27-year-old turned pro in 2005 but until now has competed only in Spanish Continental teams, most recently team Casilla y Leon. At only 18 years old, Melero was the Spanish national junior champion, and his top professional results have been a podium
finish at the Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad de Madrid this year and a stage win at the Circuito Montanes.
"Ivan is a good all-rounder for stage races and understands the pace of European races,” said team director Vassili Davidenko. “He's going to help us in the multi-day events and we hope will find himself with a free hand to bring in some podiums for the
team next year."
Melero joins seven other new European riders for the American-based Team Type 1, including Laszlo Bodrogi, Alexander Efimkin and former Tour de France yellow-jersey wearer Rubens Bertogliati. Efimkin is expected to lead the team in the European circuit.
“He’s a stage racer and an endurance rider, and up until now he has been in the service of his team-mates,” said Davidenko. “We are very excited that next year we will have the opportunity to work for him.”
Team Type 1 was founded in the US by Davidenko and Phil Southerland, both former cyclists and Type 1 diabetics. They developed a team which won several editions of the Race Across America, and then began the effort to expand into an international Pro Continental
team. Davidenko is targeting an invite to the Giro d’Italia and plans to give Javier Megias the distinction of being the first Type 1 diabetic cyclist to ride in a Grand Tour.
"These new additions to the squad are the culmination of a lot of hard work in putting together the right squad that can compete at the highest levels of the pro peloton,” said Davidenko. “Team Type 1 has high hopes to go to the Giro d'Italia next year and
bring our message to hundreds of millions of cycling fans about how we can help people affected by diabetes around the globe.”
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