Team Type 1 co-founder Phil Southerland (Image credit: Marco Quezada)
Team Type 1 announced today that it has launched its first anti-doping testing programme. The world's only professional cycling team that includes riders who have Type 1 diabetes administered blood and urine tests to its riders at training camp in Buellton, California, in late January. The samples were tested and analysed by Scott Analytics Inc., an independent anti-doping test agency in Pasadena, California.
Scott Analytics is headed up by respected anti-doping researcher Paul Scott. He has previously served as Director of Clients at the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory and Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Agency for Cycling Ethics, Inc.
Throughout the season, every athlete on the Team Type 1 men's and women's professional teams will be periodically tested in random controls – in addition to their participation in in-competition and out-of-competition tests administered by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Team Type 1 founder and second-year professional Phil Southerland said the new programme is an integral part of the team's core belief in fair play.
"The riders on Team Type 1 who have Type 1 diabetes – myself included – have to use insulin, not for racing, but to stay alive," Southerland said.
Team Type 1's Dr. Michael Roshon will supervise the programme. Roshon said three criteria were used for its inception: It had to be as effective as the biological passport programme utilised by the International Cycling Union (UCI); it had to be independent, and it had to be within the scope of the team's budget.
"Our goal was to take those three criteria and come up with a programme that is effective at detecting and deterring the use of performance enhancing substances," Roshon said.
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Scott said Team Type 1's programme marks a revolutionary step in the realm of anti-doping programmes.
"Unlike other internal anti-doping programmes – including ones I previously designed – this one will offer what the UCI requires of ProTour teams at a fraction of the cost," he said. "This is a complete programme on a budget affordable to most U.S. or European continental teams."
