Rosskopf wins first professional race, dons yellow jersey, in hilly stage 3 at Tour of Rwanda

GISENYI, Rwanda, Nov 22 - Team Type 1 - SANOFI rider Joey Rosskopf notched his first professional win on Tuesday, taking the third stage at the Tour of Rwanda after a tumultous day on the bike, and scoring the leader´s yellow jersey to boot.

Rosskopf, from Georgia, sat just seconds behind race leader and teammate Kiel Reijnen at the outset of the 150km hilly stage from Kigali, and capitalized on the American squad´s strong position when rival teams attacked.

Reijnen said riders from the Ethiopian national team blew the race apart from the first climb, in a day with more than 2,500 meters pointed uphill.

Joey and Will Dugan made it back up after the Ethiopians drilled it, and we took turns covering attacks after that. Unfortunately Ty Magner flated at a really bad spot in the race and wasn´t able to get back in, but Alexey Shmidt and Alex Bowden rode in and saved energy for tomorrow, Reijnen said.

Rosskopf counter-attacked the leading group with 20km left in the race, and the remaining riders, all watching triple-stage winner Reijnen in yellow, allowed the former US National Team rider to escape. Marking his first victory as a professional, Rosskopf crossed the line finish line in Gisenyi with nobody in the picture.

Reijnen came in fourth and dropped to fourth overall, but said with five stages to go, things look under control for Team Type 1 - SANOFI.

Our team is strong, and now we have two chess pieces. Joey and Will rode awesome and I am happy with how I'm climbing, so good things are expected for the rest of the week, Reijnen said.

Bowden, who has type 1 diabetes and must monitor his blood glucose continuously and periodically take insulin to manage the disease, said the 150km stage was not without its challenges.

For the most part my BGs were good. I started the race at 146 and ended at 132. In the middle of the stage I did go pretty low, but I got a soda off the Belgian team, and that saved the day, Bowden said.

 Based in Atlanta, Team Type 1 - SANOFI is the men´s professional cycling squad of Team Type 1, an organization of more than 140 athletes living, racing and winning with type 1 diabetes. Five of the 22 riders on the men´s professional squad have type 1 diabetes.

At the Tour of Rwanda, Team Type 1 has a full complement of riders in the race, and an even larger squad of amateur cyclists, educators and diabetes specialists spreading the diabetes message in Africa. In their second year in Rwanda, Team Type 1 has distributed more than 300,000 donated diabetes test strips, 600 blood glucose meters and countless other donated medical supplies.

You can follow Team Type 1 at the Tour of Rwanda on Facebook, and from our website www.teamtype1.org

signup for fanmail

Race Results and Previews Exclusive Store Discounts Monthly Fan Giveaways

fanzone downloads

desktop wallpaper | screensaver

team type 1 images and video