Team Type 2 officially finished Race Across America (RAAM) in 7 days, 15 hours, and 8 minutes. They began their 3,005-mile journey in Oceanside, California June 12 and crossed the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland June 20, in hopes to inspire others living with diabetes, to achieve their dreams.
All the riders in Team Type 2 participating in RAAM have type 2 diabetes.Team Type 2 rider Rob Coburn said “It’s one thing to control your blood sugar during a day at the office and a daily workout. But it’s really different when it’s 27 degrees at 9,000 feet above sea level three days into a race. It’s hard to explain…I thought the riding would be harder, but the logistics were so much a part of the success.” Team Type 2 is living proof to all patients with diabetes that their disease can be controlled through healthy eating, regular exercise and appropriate medication.
About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
The win did not come without some bumps along the way. Rider Jeff Banninck was struck by a car, but was not severely injured and was back on his bike in no time. Another challenge came when rider Adam Driscoll lost a cleat when he tried to pull it out going 23 mph. He not only kept riding, but he increased his speed to around 30 mph – all this with only one cleat intact. The team came to the race to win and nothing else; they accomplished their goal and proved to the world that people with diabetes can do anything with a little hard work and determination.
Here are some words from a few of the riders in Team Type 1 about why they chose this team and what it means to them.
About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
Team Type 1's Tom Kingery and Lonny Knabe switch leads on a flood plain outside of Alton, Illinois during Race Across America
Team Type 1′s Race Across America Update: Team Type 1 has been averaging 23.5 mph during the Race Across America and crew members suggest the team is, in fact, traveling faster, and may have a chance at beating its own 3,000+ mile record of 5 days, 9 hours and 3 minutes. Team captain Bob Schrank said Kansas was beautiful and they were lucky to have missed a massive storm that hit the night before which caused major flooding. Power was out and lines were down all over western Kansas.
The hills immediately started when they hit Missouri, and they just didn’t stop. The hills were difficult but the guys were thrilled to push each other to ride harder and faster. The team is hungry to break a record this year and plan on making the second half even faster than their first.
Personal update from Team Type 2 rider Rob Coburn: We are moving through Kansas. Now at Yates Center waiting for the transition to the other squad. One of our guys got sick last night so three of us went out about midnight local time and rode about 150 miles. It was a great night. We raced back and forth all night with another team and averaged 20.87 mph for about 35 miles.
We are just over half way through the course. The routine is working itself out and we are all adapting in ways you wouldn’t believe. Our crew is top-notch and essential to making all of this work. A huge thunder storm just went through, glad to still be in the RV. Chances are pretty good we’ll get wet at some point.
About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
Over a quarter of the race down, and I’m somewhere in Colorado. The Milky Way is an incredible sight at night, and the Monument Valley just after sun up is truly breathtaking.
It’s 4 p.m. mountain time and I’m off to “bed”. We’re on the road for the next 3-plus hours in an RV to meet the squad that’s riding now. Sleep is hard to come by in shifts of approximately three hours in the RV. I’ll be back on the bike around 1:00 am, and there will be more climbing tonight.
We’ve logged 321 miles from Flagstaff, Arizona to Durango, Colorado in the past 24 hours at an average speed of 17.5 miles per hour. This puts a total of 857 miles behind Team Type 2, and we have 2,147 miles still to complete. Fortunately, the climbs and elevation of the Rocky Mountains will be complete soon, which will bring us to the rolling hills of Kansas and Missouri.
The team is really making good use of our Nike sunglasses which have replaceable lenses. I looked up as I was swapping out the dark lenses to the clear lenses for night riding and saw that two of my teammates were doing the same thing.
If you’re anywhere near our route, come out and cheer us on. We’d love to see you!
About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
Jerry Willis is a member of Team Type 1′s Elite Team and is competing in the Race Across America. He’ll be providing exclusive updates for VSP throughout the race. Here’s a video Jerry recorded before the race started. He shares about his dream to compete in this race and why he got involved with Team Type 1.
Good luck this week, Jerry!
About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
Guest blog from Rob Coburn. Rob is a rider with Team Type 2and writes about his journey and team goal for the upcoming race, Race Across America.
I’m Rob Coburn, a rider on Team Type 2, and a member of this year’s team set to take on Race Across America (RAAM). On Thursday, June 10th, 8 of us and a fantastic support crew met up in Oceanside, California to get ready to take off on a week-long, 24 hours-a-day adventure. We will be racing against other teams from around the world on a 3,000 mile route that ends in Annapolis, Maryland. The race starts on Saturday, June 12 at 2 p.m. PST. Our goal this year is to finish in less than 7 days.
Our team wears Nike cycling sunglasses throughout the race and I leave them in my helmet every time I get off the bike to make sure that they’re there for the next ride.
A bit of background on me: I’m 46 and on a mission to manage my diabetes and raise awareness of what people with Type 2 diabetes can achieve. Everyone on our team has type 2 diabetes and we all are acutely aware of the importance of regular eye exams and eye protection. I’m fairly new to cycling at this level and have been training for about a year. I found out I was on the race team in February and have been training just for RAAM since then.
I’ll be providing updates before and during the race to let everyone know how we are doing. I’ll try to include some action shots, but it may be difficult depending on where we are.
If you want, shoot questions back to the blog site and I’ll work with the administrator to try and capture a few to answer during the race. So stay tuned for a wild ride!
About Team Type 2 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 2 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. Team Type 2 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
Guest Blogger – Laura Ely competes as a member of Team Type 1′s Triathalon team. She works as a Clinical Research Coordinator and Marketing Coordinator for the University of North Carolina Diabetes Care Center Clinical Trial Program and is also a Communication Coordinator for DiabetesSisters, an online diabetes community for women. Laura was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of four.
Diabetes is a different disease for men and women. Diabetes provides its share of ups and downs with constant carbohydrate counting, insulin adjustments, and 24/7 life-long management. For women, the diabetes rollercoaster (as some call it) is further complicated by the continual change in hormones – whether it is puberty, menstruation, pregnancy or menopause. Throughout my life I’ve relied on the support of my female friends with diabetes to deal with the daily ups and downs of the disease. I am one of the lucky ones. Not many other women out there have a tight-knit support system that I have.
One amazing woman, Brandy Barnes realized the lack of this support system in the diabetes world and decided to do something about it. She created an online community, DiabetesSisters, that would allow women to connect via the web and share their experiences as a woman with Type 1, Type 2, gestational or pre-diabetes. I was fortunate enough to meet Brandy at a diabetes event and I fell in love with the organization. At the time, I knew how important my girlfriends with diabetes were to me but knew that not everyone shared my fortune. Every woman living with diabetes deserves to have this type of support system to help her live to her fullest potential. Since it began 2 years ago, DiabetesSisters has grown to become a 501c3 not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the health and quality of life of women living with or at risk of developing diabetes, and to advocate on their behalf. Read more »
Guest Blogger – Edward Tepper works as an accountant, is an avid photographer and a rider for Team Type 2. He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2008 and through cycling and exercise, stays happy and healthy while properly managing his condition. He shares his personal experience on how switching to progressive lenses helped him.
Ed Tepper with Team Type 2
I’ve been wearing glasses since ever I can remember, and I’m now 61. About 30 years ago a friend talked me into wearing contact lenses and I did up to about 9 months ago. The story about me changing back to glasses started a few years ago when I could no longer read close up or clearly see a computer screen without “cheater” reading glasses. I had several pairs that I kept in different rooms at home and in my office. Then one night at a nice restaurant I had to ask my wife to read the menu to me because I left my cheaters at home. Needless to say, the ribbing continued through dessert. Read more »
Thank you to everyone who participated in the VSP Vision Care / Transitions Scavenger Hunt. We hope we kept you engaged throughout the race. Here are our grand prize winners as well as some noteworthy mentions with a picture from one of their entries.
Winner of the Team Type 1 signed jersey: Roy K.
From day 5: Find a Team Type 1 rider wearing Nikes
Winner of the Garmin-Transitions signed jersey: Casey K.
Congratulations to Team Type 1 for completing the 2010 Amgen Tour of California race. The team faced some hardships throughout the race but persevered to the finish line in hopes to inspire anyone with diabetes to dream big and go for their goals.
Here are some noteworthy mentions by Team Type 1 from the Amgen Tour of California race:
Team Type 1 finished 5th overall out of 12 teams.
Thomas Rabou won the King of the Mountain Jersey, with a total of 77 points!
About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.
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Team Type 2 officially finished Race Across America (RAAM) in 7 days, 15 hours, and 8 minutes. They began their 3,005-mile journey in Oceanside, California June 12 and crossed the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland June 20, in hopes to inspire others living with diabetes, to achieve their dreams. 
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