Team Type 1 to start at Langkawi

By Jean-François Quénet

The newly formed American continental squad Team Type 1, which is managed by former Navigators Insurance director Ed Beamon, will begin its first season in Malaysia with a strong contingent of Australian riders at Le Tour de Langkawi. The US-based squad will be led by Matt Wilson, who made his debut at the Malaysian event some 10 years ago with the Australian National Team. A former national champion during his time with Française des Jeux in 2003, Wilson is the recent winner of the Herald Sun Tour in Melbourne Australia.

Team Type 1 will bring along his compatriots Ben Brooks and Fabio Calabria. The three 'foreigners' will be New Zealand national time trial champion Glenn Chadwick, America's Shawn Milne, who won the Tour of Taiwan in 2007, and Moises Chavez Adalpe from Mexico.

"I'm very excited to return to Malaysia with this new team in a race I've always enjoyed", Beamon said.

In a bit of a departure from the normal product sponsor model, the team is named not for a product but for a cause: Type 1 diabetes, which several of its riders have lived with since childhood. The team is funded by pharmaceutical sponsors who make insulin and other products to help diabetics cope with their disease, but its mission is not to help sell those products but to sell a lifestyle.

For more of the new North American outfit, click here.