Team Type 1 has hired a new director sportif, Vassili Davidenko, and a new assistant director, Gord Fraser, for the 2009 season.
Davidenko was Team Type 1’s assistant director last year under Ed Beamon, who is not returning.
“We were very fortunate to have someone with Ed’s experience to help guide us down the path of success in our first year,” said Team Type 1 General Manager Tom Schuler. “With Vassili and Gord, we have two former pros who can also relate well to the challenges a rider faces on and off the bike.”
Davidenko, 38, brings more than a quarter-century of bicycle racing experience to the team. During his 14 years as a professional, he won the Russian national road (1996) and cyclocross (1998) titles and was a silver medalist in the 1988 Junior World Road Race Championships. He also represented Russia at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and won the Athens Twilight Criterium in 2005 and 2006.
Fraser raced professionally for 13 seasons and represented Canada in three Olympic Games and five Commonwealth Games. A veteran of the Tour de France, the 40-year-old works for Carmichael Training Systems. He helped the revolutionary training system developed by Chris Carmichael open a regional training center in Tucson, Ariz.
Team Type 1 is the only professional cycling team in the world with a mission to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. It was created in 2004 by two racers with Type 1 diabetes, Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge. The pair led the squad to back-to-back victories in the Race Across America (RAAM) in 2006 and 2007 before joining Fabio Calabria and Timothy Hargrave as two of four professional riders with Type 1 diabetes on the roster in 2008.
Last year, Team Type 1 won 45 races, including team titles at the Vuelta Mexico and Tour de Beauce.
Southerland said the team hopes to build on that success by being a part of the field at the Amgen Tour of California in February.
“With everything that we accomplished last year, we certainly set the bar high for what lies ahead in 2009,” he said. “But with a solid management team in place, we are well on our way toward accomplishing our goal of participating in the Tour de France by 2012.”
In 2009, Team Type 1 is expanding to include a triathlon team, a developmental squad, a women’s professional squad and two teams for the Race Across America (RAAM): Team Type 1 and Team Type 2. The athletes with diabetes in these programs serve as examples that diabetes can be controlled through diet, exercise and the use of the best treatment and technology available today.