The cycling ‘team’ that educates about diabetes

It is a professional second division professional cyclist team.Competes in international elites and celebrates their triumphs like others.But it has a particularity: they are all type 1 diabetics.

The team's mission is to educate, inspire and encourage people affected by diabetes to pursue their dreams, says Brais Dacal, 25 years old from Galicia.

Team Novo Nordisk training loads are the same as those of other teams and competitors."The way we handle our nutrition is the same, the only thing is that we have an added condition that is type 1 diabetes and we have to be aware of that."

Dacal is ambassador and previous corridor of this team.He participated in the Thailand Tour, Tour de Ukray, Rwanda Tour, among others.In total, there were 30 countries that toured on his bicycle on different roads, after at age seven he received the diagnosis of diabetes and in the transfer of his sports life many "no" because of this.

"They all told us when young people could not be professional cyclists, now we are a team running," he says.

Type 1 diabetes (also called insulin -dependent, youth or starting in childhood) is characterized, says the World Health Organization, for poor insulin production and requires the daily administration of this hormone.

Another message that they carry with each pedaling is that people when they have diabetes "must be responsible with their health, play sports is basic for those who have or not."

the team

There are 16 professional runners from all continents, plus the entire staff and a development team behind.They also have camps to hunt talents in which they take boys and girls to Atlanta, United States, where they learn to handle their diabetes, see their sports and others.

In 2006, Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge gathered a group of eight cyclists with type 1 diabetes to face the exhausting Race Across America of 3,000 miles and raise awareness of many about diabetes.The Team won and from there the project was growing.

The false perception that people with diabetes are inferior, are sick or will not be able to live life satisfactorily is a great barrier for those who wish to go far."The main problem is the infused social stigma and we have the responsibility to inform about this condition," says Dacal, which very young was decided by the bicycle.

To convince his family was not an easy task.He, who now travels the world by joining the passion of cycling and to generate awareness through different talks, says that "in the end the fight is worth it."What one day was a family with reservations and the occasional fear, is now a home convinced that he can reach its highest level.

“It has been an incredible opportunity because this team gave me the possibility that nobody wanted to give me and that I had won on the road.I had demonstrated my potential and nobody wanted to give me the space.It allowed me to meet many people affected by diabetes and gives you a different perception of the world, ”he says.

Those negatives that he received when aspiring to several cycling teams, he says, were based on fear and ignorance from the point of lack of information.“They were afraid that I could give me something with sugar, a dizziness or not yield to the same level of others.That is not true and we demonstrate it. ”

There is the possibility that these cyclists have a sports downturn, as well as with those who are not diabetic.“It is responsibility to handle diabetes, have optimal control and have a medical team.Each cyclist knows what he should do, ”he concludes.

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