Van Buren, Ark. — Glen Chadwick will go into the history books as Team Type 1's first overall winner of a professional stage race.
The New Zealander wrapped up the Tour of Arkansas on Sunday by finishing eighth in the 75-minute Celebrity Classic Criterium in Historic Downtown Van Buren. Chadwick enjoyed a 25-second margin of victory in the final standings ahead of runner-up Predrag Prokic (Toshiba-Santo Professional Cycling Team presented by Herbalife) and third-place finisher Michael Lange (Jelly Belly Pro Cycling).
Team Type 1 also placed two riders in the top 10 with Moises Aldape (fifth) and Chris Jones (ninth) while Valeriy Kobzarenko was 31st, Fabio Calabria was 35th and Ian MacGregor was 48th. Timothy Hargrave, who made his stage race debut for Team Type 1, also finished the race but his final position was not immediately made available.
Chadwick – who had not won a stage race since the Tour of Korea in 2003 – dedicated the victory to his wife, Isabelle, and their two-year-old daughter, Jade.
"It has been a strange season with a pretty bad six months off because my family and I were very sick," Chadwick told Cyclingnews’ Kirsten Robbins. "To actually pull off a result like this is amazing for myself.”
A bout with Epstein-Barr Virus sidelined Chadwick in February following the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia. The life-threatening spinal virus even infected his daughter, forcing her to be hospitalized as well.
“It was very tough for us to see our daughter hooked up to an I.V. all the time and her veins collapsing,” he said. “It’s hard to explain to a two-year-old why the doctors were always sticking her with needles."
Chadwick, 31, won his first stage race in the United States by soloing to victory in the first two stages of the 350-mile race that featured a pair of mountain top finishes and more than 23,000 feet of climbing. Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said teamwork solidified the victory from there.
“The guys were awesome,” Beamon said. “It was pretty much textbook on the last two stages. Today, the guys took the lead on the first lap and held it to the finish, pretty much destroying the field in the process.”
Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) won Sunday’s six-corner criterium ahead of Karl Menzies (Health Net presented by Maxxis) and Mark Walters (Team R.A.C.E. Pro), while Aldape took the small field sprint for fifth.
Chadwick’s accomplishment follows a 20th place finish at the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T and improves his chances of becoming one of New Zealand’s three representatives for the Olympic road race in Beijing in August.
Team Type 1 was created to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming obstacles often associated with the condition. This is the first year Team Type 1 has fielded a professional squad, after winning the corporate team division of the Race Across America the past two years. Calabria and Hargrave are two of four athletes on the pro team who have Type 1 diabetes.
Photo: Courtesy Team Type 1
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