Team Type 1’s Reijnen wins, Rosskopf second at the end of a tough Tour of Rwanda

KIGALI, Nov 27 - Team Type 1 - SANOFI rider Kiel Reijnen wore yellow on the final day of racing at the Tour of Rwanda, crossing the finish line on Saturday in triumph as overall champion and lifting his arms in victory.

Reijnen, who lives in Colorado, said he was grateful for the win at the end of a long, dark season of illness and recovery.

"This race was tough, because it was chaos trying to control the peloton on such a hilly course. Every day my teammates got out there and rode their legs off to keep this jersey for me, and I'm really glad to be back healthy, racing like normal again. I hope Rwanda is just the first of a long list of good things to come with Team Type 1," Reijnen said.

Reijnen, riding in his first year with Team Type 1 - SANOFI, fell ill in February, and was unable to race throughout the season. After a long ordeal of diagnosis, treatment and recovery from a virus, he was able to resume full training at the end of August, and cleared for competition at the Tour of Rwanda.

"What can I say but thanks? I'm super thankful for the team's faith in me. Vassili Davidenko and Phil Southerland signed me up last year based on my overseas race success and a podium finish at the National Championships. It was not projected that 2011 would be spent on the couch, and they stuck by me when I got sick and put their faith in me for the Tour of Rwanda," Reijnen said.

Southerland, CEO and Founder of Team Type 1, said Reijnen's overall victory helped to spread the team's larger diabetes outreach message in Africa.

"Team Type 1 is now famous in Rwanda. Every day thousands of fans stood on the side of the road and shouted Kiel's name, and at the end we had huge groups of people with diabetes coming to see us, meet with our riders, our doctors and hear about the benefits of good diabetes control," Southerland said.

Team Type 1 - SANOFI rider Joey Rosskopf finished second in the Tour of Rwanda, and won stage three, his first victory as a stagiaire after coming to the men's professional squad at Team Type 1 - SANOFI in August from the development team.

"Every rider in the race is exhausted. The first two days Kiel got out there and won on some tough roads, but the third stage was probably the hardest day I've had on the bike all year. Coming back to Kigali is an enormous relief and we're all really happy to have the top two steps of the podium," Rosskopf said.

Team Type 1 brought donated more diabetes supplies in its second year at the Tour of Rwanda, packing along 100,000 test strips, 400 blood glucose meters and 10,000 lancing devices as part of an education and distribution program aimed at putting the tools for diabetes control into the hands of Rwandans affected by the disease.

"Rwanda's Ministry of Health and the Rwanda Diabetes Association helped us to organize meetings every day at the finish, and we had hundreds of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes come and listen to Dr. Steve Edelman talk about the power of good control," Southerland said.

"What we heard from these people every day was humbling. They want good control, they want to manage their diabetes, but they can't afford the supplies that let them do this. Some test their urine for blood glucose levels once a week, some have a once-a-day insulin regime prescribed by a doctor, some of the lucky Rwandans can do one blood test per day. And the result is they have BG levels at 350 or 400 all the time. One little girl we tested said she was feeling low, and her BG was 250. The compound complications down the road from keeping your blood glucose so high all the time is blindness, renal failure and neuropathy," Southerland said.

"Team Type 1 had an enormous entourage of 22 people in Rwanda, racing the Tour every day and getting out ahead of it to spread the diabetes message. But what we all come back home with is a powerful inspiration to take this message of good diabetes control and keep stressing its importance. We met so many people in Rwanda who do whatever they can to manage their diabetes, with what little resources they have available to them. For us in the United States, the UK and Europe, we have everything we need to get on top of this disease. We can't complain about anything," Southerland said.

Based in Atlanta, Team Type 1 has more than 140 athletes living, racing and winning with diabetes. Five of the 22 men on the professional cycling squad have type 1 diabetes, and all ride to share the message of good control.

With the proper technology, a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and good control, a life with diabetes can be extraordinary.

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