Team Type 1 Completes Race Across America

Annapolis, Md. — As dawn broke in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Team Type 1 completed the Race Across America (RAAM) with a runner-up finish in the eight-person team division of the non-stop, transcontinental race.

The eight members of the squad, all of whom have Type 1 diabetes, bicycled the final miles of their journey together to complete the 3,015-mile race that began last Wednesday in Oceanside, Calif., about four hours after the winners.

The Byggkjøp presented by BMC Cycling won the eight-person division in a time of five days, nine hours and 56 minutes. That time bettered the previous record for the category (five days, 15 hours, 43 minutes), established last year by Team Type 1. The Norwegian-based team averaged 23.2 mph, the second-fastest speed ever ridden in the race regardless of category.

Team Type 1’s official finish time was five days, 13 hours and 40 minutes. The squad incurred one hour’s worth of penalties while Byggkjøp/BMC Cycling received one 15-minute penalty.

“Finishing second was not something we wanted because we got into this to win it,” Team Type 1 RAAM Team Director and racer Bob Schrank said. “But how we did it was important – by helping each other, by managing our blood sugar, by waking each other up. That’s what this team was all about it. It was a group of people with Type 1 diabetes learning how to be successful in what they were doing.”

In addition to Schrank, Team Type 1 consisted of Australian Monique Hanley, Americans Alex Bowden, Matt Brooks, Andy Mead, Mark Suprenant and Tim Powell and New Zealander Timothy Hargrave. Schrank and Mead captained the squad’s two foursomes.

The Byggkjøp/BMC Cycling and Team Type 1 squads waged a head-to-head battle over the course of the race, with neither team gaining more than a four-hour advantage. At one point past the halfway mark, Team Type 1 had whittled what had been a three-hour lead down to fewer than 90 minutes.

“We used different strategies than we have in the past,” Schrank said. “Overall, it worked out really well. We used everyone to their highest strengths.”

Along the way, Team Type 1 pedaled up and over mountains, into strong winds through powerful thunderstorms while enduring extreme temperature swings and a high-speed crash involving Alex Bowden. Even the team’s coach, Rick Crawford, survived some hardship, undergoing a procedure to place three stents in the arteries of his heart just a day before the event.

Throughout the course of the race, Team Type 1 racers used Apidra’s rapid-acting insulin made by sanofi-aventis, as well as Abbott Diabetes Care’s FreeStyle Navigator and Insulet Corporation's OmniPod Insulin Management System. They boosted their blood sugar level with Dex-4 Glucose.

Team Type 1 was created in 2004 by Type 1 diabetes racers Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming the obstacles often associated with the condition. Southerland and Eldridge are now professionals, racing on Team Type 1’s 15-member pro squad that won the team classification Sunday at the Tour de Beauce stage race in Canada.

Southerland, who accompanied the team for part of the route, said he was proud that Team Type 1 did not give up.

“We set out to win the race and break our own record and unfortunately things didn’t go as planned,” he said. “About halfway through, we were having a hard time but our team didn’t give up.

“They rode a hell of a race and did a great job of getting the word out there that people with diabetes can accomplish anything a normal person can do with the right technology and control. More team followed Team Type 1 than ever and it was inspiring for me to personally follow them, too.”