Team Type 1 secures Pro Continental status
Team Type 1, founded by two type-1 diabetics with the stated intention of getting the first type-1 diabetic cyclists into the Tour de France, has succeeded in its bid to climb to the next tier of pro cycling. The UCI confirmed that the American-based team
will be competing at a Pro Continental team in 2011.
"We got the official email [Tuesday], so it has been really exciting for us around the office all morning," said director Vassili Davidenko.
Former cyclists Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge founded Team Type 1 in 2004 and an eight-rider version of the team won the Race Across America four times. After the long bureaucratic process of building an international professional team, they are finally
within reach of the Grand Tours.
"The whole process was very challenging, and we're lucky to have such a great crew here in Atlanta,” said Davidenko. “Without them there's no way we'd have been able to get through so many different levels of paper work. They did everything they could to
keep us on track and get us through this process."
The team has expanded to include a women’s pro squad, a triathlon team and a young rider development team. Its core of American riders, many of them living with type-1 diabetes, has expanded to include a line-up of European international cyclists.
"The Giro, the Vuelta, Paris-Roubaix, all of those are now within our reach, and even if the Tour de France is not a goal for us in the immediate future - let's face it, that's the biggest sporting event in the world and you have to ride around the block
a couple of times before they invite you - the races we will be competing at in 2011 are the ones with the highest visibility, and they will let more people with diabetes know what they can do with this disease," said Southerland.
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