Team Type 1 has signed young Belgian all-arounder Willem Van den Eynde and re-signed Australian Fabio Calabria. 

Both racers have Type 1 diabete. Calabria and Van den Eynde must constantly monitor their blood sugar and food intake while using insulin that is permitted by a the UCI's Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). 

Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said Calabria’s success in his first professional season provided the team with the confidence it can meet its stated goal to put a racer with Type 1 diabetes in the Tour de France by 2012.

“Starting the season when he was only 20, Fabio showed great maturity and discipline and played a significant role in virtually every one of our major international stage race successes,” Beamon said. “We are looking forward to his continued development, and expect to see him on the podium in 2009.”

Calabria helped Team Type 1 score top 10 finishes on the final general classification at races around the globe, including the Tour of Langkawi, the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, the Tour of Arkansas, the Tour de Beauce, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, the Vuelta Mexico and the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. 

Van den Eynde, 18, is a native of Herentals, Belgium, who has raced for the past five years as a junior. Competing for the DCM-GB Vorselaar squad in 2008, he won five races and scored nearly 20 podium finishes. A former competitive swimmer, he is the nephew of Guy Vandijck, a former Belgium cyclocross standout who raced professionally from 1990-94. 

“The amazing thing about Willem is that he has accomplished so much without the benefit of much of the technology and medicine that is available in the United States,” Beamon said. “He is really excited about having the support of sanofi-aventis and our other diabetes industry sponsors as he continues to learn how to manage his diabetes.” 

Van den Eynde said he admired the accomplishments of Team Type 1 from afar while working with researchers at the University of Brussels who studied how his condition affected his cycling performance. 

“They (Team Type 1) are an example for all the people — not only for those with diabetes — because they prove that everything is possible,” he said.