Three Australians are members of a professional cycling team whose riders take a banned substance each and every race.
Quite often the riders inject themselves mid-race in order to stay competitive and functional.
The team are proud of the message they send, and they’re encouraging the next generation to follow their lead.
Before imaginations run too wild, this is not the story of a doping scandal. Far from it.
Instead, it’s a rare feel-good story in a sport that has endured many years of doping controversies.
Team Novo Nordisk is an outfit made up entirely of type 1 diabetics.
Under normal circumstances, insulin is a banned substance in professional sport.
But understandably, the members of Team Novo Nordisk have been granted a therapeutic use exemption.
It’s not giving them a competitive edge. But it is allowing them to function normally and stay alive.
American Phil Southerland founded the team in 2005.
He was just seven months old when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1982.
Doctors thought he would either be dead or blind by the age of 25.
Southerland turned 30 last year, and he’s thriving.
Canberra-born rider Fabio Calabria ended up in a coma when he was 13 due to complications from type 1 diabetes.
Fast-forward 13 years, and he is a key member of the all-diabetic team aiming to compete at the Tour de France by 2021.
Fellow Australian rider Chris Williams collapsed after completing a stage at the Tour of Gippsland in 2008.
He considered quitting the sport after he was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
His friends refused to let him give up, and today Williams is also a vital cog of Team Novo Nordisk.
Justin Morris is the third Australian on the team. The 27-year-old was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 10, but he didn’t let it get in the way of his cycling dreams.
The outfit contains 17 riders from 10 different countries.
Their short-term aim is to win bike races.
But their ultimate goal is to leave a lasting legacy by inspiring others with type 1 diabetes to reach for the stars.
It wasn’t long ago that doctors recommended diabetics avoid endurance exercise.
Team Novo Nordisk, which also boasts a stable of professional triathletes and runners, have blown that theory out of the water.
They’ve shown that with exercise, a good diet and disciplined insulin use, anything is possible.
Calabria’s health deteriorated rapidly when he was 13.
At one stage, he thought he was going to die.
The eventual diagnosis of type 1 diabetes ended up being a relief after so much uncertainty.
“I was going downhill pretty quick. I was in a coma for two or three days,” Calabria says.
“And I was in intensive care for five days after that.
“But I was very fortunate that everything worked out.
“Being diagnosed with diabetes – I saw it as a good thing.
“It was like I’d been given a second chance. As long as I kept on top of things, I could do whatever I wanted to do.”
Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes is a scary experience.
Doctors inform the patient they’re at a much greater risk of heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, osteoporosis, and skin and mouth infections.
They’re also told blindness and amputations are two very real scenarios if they don’t manage their diabetes well.
Type 1 diabetics can no longer produce insulin, which means their body’s cells can’t turn glucose (sugar) into energy.
Instead, their body burns fats for fuel, which in turn releases dangerous chemical substances into the body. It’s these chemicals that wreak havoc.
Each rider of Novo Nordisk is fitted with a continuous glucose monitor. The device gives a glucose blood reading every five minutes.
If the blood sugar starts rising, the rider takes an insulin shot.
If the blood sugar gets too low, they load up on carbohydrates.
It’s a delicate balancing act that’s easily managed most of the time.
But it’s not always the case, as Williams found out recently at the Tour of Denmark.
“In that race I couldn’t eat anything, because my blood sugar was too high,” Williams says.
“So I did the whole race, 180km, on just water.”
Those scenarios are rare, and Southerland is confident he can build a team to match it with the best.
His outfit is classed as a Pro-Continental team.
Their goal is to eventually join the World Tour, which would bring them starts in the world’s biggest races.
Southerland knows it won’t be easy to get an all-diabetic team to the starting line of the Tour de France by 2021, a date which marks the 100-year anniversary of the invention of insulin.
But with an estimated 78,000 children developing type 1 diabetes every year, there’s a growing talent pool to choose from.
“It’s a 14-year-old today who in eight years’ time can be a Michael Matthews, winning stages in the biggest races of the world,” Southerland says.
“We really need more kids who have diabetes to realise their dreams can come true, and target being on this team.
“We’re looking for that next generation.”
If all goes to plan Southerland will bring his outfit to Australia in 2015 for the Tour Down Under.
In the meantime, the team will keep working hard to inspire others who are also affected by the disease.
Southerland has his mother to thank for helping him achieve his dreams.
“She found out from an early age with me that when I was exercising, my insulin worked better, and my control was better,” Southerland says.
“At the time it was unconventional to push a type 1 diabetic with exercise because of the risks and complications. But my mother said, ‘screw it’.
“She said, ‘when my kid exercises, he has good numbers, and good numbers mean no complications, so I’ll keep him exercising’.
“And that was my way of life growing up.”
A diagnosis of type 1 diabetes used to be a career-killer for athletes.
Now, it’s more like an inconvenience that can be overcome with good management.
“You don’t have to change your plans or dreams just because you’re a diabetic. You can do what you want,” Williams says.
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