Team Type 1 co-founder Joe Eldridge has one clear goal: to prove that having Type 1 diabetes doesn’t inhibit him at all. In 2004, that desire sparked the founding of Team Type 1, a squad of fearless cyclists, each of whom has Type 1 diabetes and many of whom wear the OmniPod. Their mission is to prove that anyone can live well with diabetes.

 

The first challenge Team Type 1 set themselves was the 3,052-mile Race Across America—not just to ride it, but to win. The Race Across America is known as “the world’s toughest bike race.” Simply to finish takes tremendous endurance. Team Type 1 has not only finished, they have won their division in both 2006 and 2007; in 2007 they also won the overall title, cycling from Oceanside, California to Atlantic City, New Jersey in five days, 15 hours and 43 minutes. A year later, in 2008, they beat that record, shaving more than two hours off their finish time.

 

Meanwhile, a second Team Type 1 squad of professional riders, 4 of whom have Type 1 diabetes, are riding to advance diabetes awareness worldwide. Their plan is to compete in the Tour de France within the next five years. Many team members credit their success to the ease of OmniPod and the control it ensures. It seems that in testing their limits, Team Type 1—powered by OmniPod—has found they have none.