Team Type 1 in Tour de Suisse. Promises to avoid chocolate.

05. Apr, 2011 6 Comments

Swiss Tour too dangerous for Team Type 1?

The Tour de Suisse just handed out a wild card invitation to Team Type 1 – Sanofi Aventis. The US-based team has the reigning Swiss national time trial champion Rubens Bertogliati.

However, the invitation comes with a unique proviso. No gorging on Swiss chocolate bars or cakes or pastries for the team whose mission is diabetes awareness.

“This we cannot have. We cannot have any crazy sugar binges. It’s just too dangerous,” said race director Beat Zberg.  ”It is imperative that they stay away from the bakeries and pastry shops.”

The Swiss eat more chocolate than any other country in the world — over 22.3 pounds per year, a frightening statistic for anyone with diabetes.

Swiss time trial champion and Team Type 1 rider Rubens Bertogliati has already warned teammates of the chocolate peril. “They know this is a true test. Not only athletically, but mentally. They must at all costs avoid the addictive Swiss sweets.”

Medical opinion on the chocolate temptations is decidedly cautious. “Is Switzerland a danger zone for diabetics? Without question,” said Richard Insulineri of the American Diabetes Lab. “I would be extremely wary of that kind of athletic event given the risk factors.”

Team CEO and founder Phil Southerland was not overly concerned. “The participation in the Tour de Suisse is a further step for us in our global mission of showing people that they accomplish their dreams despite diabetes,” said Southerland. “I think we can say yes to the race and no to the chocolate.”

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  • TDog

    I have come to expect better of your site. You must be running low on material or spending to much time trying to monetize your site if you need to stoop to cliched and misinformed stereotypes about type 1 diabetes. And it wasn’t even funny! Why don’t you join me some time for my nightly 2am check of my type 1 diabetic child’s blood. That’s every night – 13 years and counting. Brutal disease that has nothing to do with chocolate.

    Go Team Type 1! Kick the ass of the weak AND the ignorant.

    • http://www.atwistedspoke.com TwistedSpoke

      Tdog, sorry to offend you and I can certainly understand your annoyance as a parent. Let me just say a few things in my defense. FIrst, I had the pleasure of meeting Phil SOutherland, the founder of Team Type 1 at last years' Tour de France. It's an awesome project and I am 100% behind it. In fact, I plan on trying to write more about the team and I'll be checking them out first hand at the Tour of California. Second, in my day job as an advertising writer, I spent three days last week working on a naming project for a big new web portal that hopefully will be a huge resource by and for people with both forms of diabetes. In the course of my background reading and seach for inspiration, I must have read a dozen personal blogs written by people living with this disease — including parents like yourself. I put extra effort into that assignment because I could feel the pain and suffering. As a parent of two kids, I can only imagine how difficult that is. Finally, as a regular reader of this site you know that we take a comedic view of the sport and poke fun at many things. Is diabetes a sensitive subject that I should avoid? Maybe, maybe not. I'd like to believe that we can look at the difficult things in life in several ways at once, both empathetic and humorous. Best, Matt

  • alex

    Lol, that's so cool! Great post Matt :)

    • http://www.atwistedspoke.com TwistedSpoke

      Glad you like it, Alex. We try to amuse. Matt

  • Jason Crawford

    Wow. TDog. A little satire never hurt anyone…however overdosing on chocolate could certainly be hazardous. I would recommend that you go back to reading Velonews where 75% of the articles about Doping and the UCI radio ban. I'm personally happy to be able to come to site like Atwistedspoke and FatCyclist to read some less rehashed content.

    Keep it up Twisted…not sure if people call you that but maybe we can start a trend.

    • http://www.atwistedspoke.com TwistedSpoke

      Twisted is good for me. I truly understand TDog's feelings and perspective. For me, as is often the case, it's about context. TS is meant to be a funny twist on cycling and we spare no targets. I drawn the line at profanity and mean-spirited character assassination — except when writing abotu Patrick McQuaid. But I'm glad you like the stories so please keep reading and writing in. Keeps me motivated. Matt