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The Team Type 1 men’s professional team will be a part of one of the most prestigious stage races in the United States when it takes the start line of the Tour of Missouri in early September.

Team Type 1 has won nearly two dozen races and stands fifth in the National Racing Calendar (NRC) standings. Earlier this year, the only professional cycling team in the world with a mission to spread inspiration to those affected by diabetes competed in North America’s other major event, the Amgen Tour of California.

“We would like to extend a big thank you to the state of Missouri for having us in their race,” Team Type 1 founder and second-year professional Phil Southerland said. “I am very excited that we will again be competing against the best in the world, and have the opportunity to share our message of inspiration to people affected by diabetes.

For the first time since its inaugural year, the Tour of Missouri will travel east to west, starting in St. Louis and finishing in Kansas City. The past two years, the race routed west to east, beginning in Kansas City and ending in St. Louis. The more than 600-mile (965 km) race will be contested over seven days and seven stages. There will be two circuit races (St. Louis and Kansas City), one time trial (Sedalia) and four point-to-point road races (Ste. Genevieve-Cape Girardeau, Farmington-Rolla, St. James-Jefferson City and Chillicothe-St. Joseph).

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Near Ellenboro, W.Va. – Team Type 1 remained on pace Thursday morning to finish the Race Across America (RAAM) a little after midnight Eastern Daylight Time.

The team that is comprised entirely of athletes who have Type 1 diabetes is also riding fast enough to better the RAAM transcontinental crossing record of five days, nine hours and 43 minutes, established last year by the Norwegian Byggkjøp presented by BMC Cycling Team.

Through 2,575 miles of the 3,021-mile (4,861 km) race from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md., Team Type 1 was averaging 23.76 mph. The second-place team in the race, Team ViaSat, was averaging 22.64 mph and riding nearly five-and-a-half hours behind Team Type 1 as of 8 a.m. EDT.

The past 24 hours for Team Type 1’s Jeff Bannink, Simon Bennett, Alex Bowden, Matt Brooks, Tom Kingery, Lonny Knabe, Bob Schrank and Mark Suprenant has not come without a few setbacks.

Team Type 1 was also hit with its first 15-minute penalty of the race Wednesday night when RAAM officials ruled the team’s follow car failed to yield to follow traffic in Ohio.

But there was a more memorable moment Wednesday when Brooks turned in one of the most impressive riding shifts of the race when the vehicle carrying the riders who would replace him took a wrong turn near Oxford, Ohio.

“Matt ended up being out there for 28 miles and he averaged more than 26 miles an hour,” Team Type 1 RAAM Coach Nate Keck said. “The kid just cranked it.”

About a day behind Team Type 1 on the road, Team Type 2 was producing its own impressive performance. The eight riders who have Type 2 diabetes shifted up their strategy – turning to shorter, three-mile riding shifts – to up their average speed by nearly an entire mile-an-hour in a 24-hour span.

The team of John Anderson, Bill Arnold, Bob Avritt, Bob Chaisson, Larry Cleveland, Peter Cowley, Mark Thul and Denny Voorhees throttled through three of the 53 time stations along the route with an average speed of more than 22 mph to raise their average speed to 17.45 mph. At that pace, Team Type 2 will reach the finish line Saturday night.

“We’re going to try and add another mile an hour to that today,” Avritt said. “We’re going to do everything we can to go fast until we hit the Appalachian Mountains because we’ll give back some time in those climbs, for sure.”

Avritt was also pleased that Team Type 2 is riding fast enough to easily make the second of three time cut-off points (the Mississippi River) for teams.

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Team Type 1 Team Dr. Bill Russell explains how the riders
on Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 are managing their blood sugar
during the Race Across America.Share this Post

Members of Team Type 1 had the pleasure of meeting Nathan Denton,
a promising cyclist who has had Type 1 diabetes since the age of five.
From left: Mark Suprenant, Jeff Bannink, Nathan Denton,
Simon Bennett and Tom Kingery.
Photo courtesy Karen Scheerer.
Oxford, Ohio – As the miles pile up in the Race Across America, so do the stories of inspiration that Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 are helping create for so many who are affected by diabetes.

The latest touching moment came Wednesday night when Team Type 1 was met by Nathan Denton, a 15-year-old aspiring amateur cyclist who has suffered from Type 1 diabetes for the past 10 years.

Denton and his family (pictured at right) made an hour-long drive from their home in Centerville, Ohio, to meet Team Type 1 at its transition point in Oxford, Ohio. Two years ago, Nathan’s mother, Renee, met Team Type 1 Founder Phil Southerland at a JDRF event in Whitefish, Mont. The entire family are part of “Team Dayton,” a Southwest Ohio cycling team.

After hearing Nathan’s story and learning of his impressive cycling accomplishments – which include second overall in the Ohio Spring Cycling Series and a fifth place in the state’s junior road championships – members of Team Type 1 presented him with a signed jersey and officially welcomed him to the team as someone who has Type 1 diabetes.

Matt Brooks (left) signs a Team Type 1 jersey for Denton.

Jeff Bannink is one of eight members of Team Type 1’s squad for the Race Across America (RAAM). The Beaverton, Ore., resident has been sharing his behind-the-scenes experiences exclusively with VSP Vision Care since the 3,021-mile race began Saturday in Oceanside, Calif. This will likely be his final entry before the team reaches the finish line tonight in Annapolis, Md.

We started in the heat of the Illinois Wednesday morning when it was warm, but there was not much wind. It was mostly flat to rolling terrain, which let us get a lot of time back. But we ran into a bit of a frustrating stretch when we got to Bloomington, Ind. There was a lot of traffic, so we were having to start and stop a lot.

Wednesday night, we were fortunate that we were running ahead of schedule. We were able to negotiate a pretty technical and potentially sketchy part of the course in Ohio in partial daylight. Had we not been going as fast, we would have had to do this part in the dark and we would not have been able to go as fast on these winding roads. But as it was, we blasted through there and it was a lot safer, so that was to our advantage. We just ripped it the last two hours of our shift.

My blood sugar has been real good throughout the race. Our nutritionists are awesome. They load us up with all kinds of good food to eat so that’s helped manage my diabetes. I have also had no trouble seeing clearly (or getting my eyes nailed by bugs) thanks to my Nike sunglasses and my Cateye lights on my Orbea bicycle. We have a lot of terrific sponsors that have given us the best in equipment, which has really helped.

This race has gone fast! Real fast. My “Tango” squad (along with Simon Bennett, Tom Kingery and Mark Suprenant) has done seven shifts. I can’t even think back to which shift was which day. I can’t believe my body is still able to do what it is doing. Somehow my body has been able to recover after drilling it at maximum effort for 10 minutes at a time. I just didn’t know that it would be able to handle that, but it’s responded.

We’ve been having fun. Obviously, we are in the van together for a long time. But nobody has gotten on anybody’s nerves. We’re a good-natured group. Sometimes our emotional energy gets low during the shift, but we have stayed focus and had fun. We just want to push it right to the end.

Thanks for letting me share my experience with you. The next time I check in will hopefully be in Annapolis.

Team Type 1 increased its lead to four hours overnight in the eight-rider team division of the Race Across America (RAAM), while Team Type 2 pushed its average speed back to 17 mph as it steamed across the western edge of Kansas.

More comprehensive updates to come.

Team Type 2 RAAM: ‘It Doesn’t Get Any Better’ Team Type 2′s John Anderson describes the ride into Pagosa Springs, Colo. Tuesday in the Race Across America. Video by Andrew Burgess.

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Team Type 1 tackles RAAM’s highest point.

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