Moab, Utah – Team Type 1’s quest to earn back the eight-person team title at the Race Across America (RAAM) took a giant turn of the pedals forward today with the opening of the squad’s training camp.

The Team Type 1 Elite Team is preparing for the rigors of next month’s 3,021-mile (4,861 km), non-stop transcontinental race by training on their Orbea Ordu bicycles in the spectacular scenery of canyons and mountains alongside the Colorado River during a four-day camp in Moab, Utah.

Team Type 1 was created in 2004 by two racers with Type 1 diabetes, Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge, to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming the obstacles often associated with the condition. All eight athletes participating in RAAM have Type 1 diabetes, a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels.

Team Type 1’s eight riders for the 3,000-mile, non-stop transcontinental race are Jeff Bannink (Beaverton, Ore.), Alex Bowden (DeKalb, Ill.), Matt Brooks (Pickerington, Ohio), Tom Kingery (Delaware, Ohio), Lonny Knabe (Portland, Ore.), Kyle Rose (San Francisco), Bob Schrank (Gurney, Ill.) and Mark Suprenant (Milford, N.H.). Schrank is the team’s director and a three-time veteran of the race who rode on Team Type 1’s winning squads in 2006 and 2007.

RAAM begins for eight-person teams June 20 in Oceanside, Calif., and ends in Annapolis, Md. Last year’s winning team, Byggkjøp presented by BMC Cycling, completed the distance in five days, nine hours and 56 minutes, bettering Team Type 1’s record crossing in 2007 of five days, 15 hours and 43 minutes.

Schrank said this year’s team aims to not only win the eight-person division, but also better last year’s winning time. This weekend’s training camp will go a long ways toward helping achieve those goals, he said.

“This will be our second time being together prior to RAAM, so like any team-oriented event, the more comfortable we get with each other, the faster we will go,” Schrank said.

Team Type 1 Elite Team Coach Nate Keck said he will use the camp to measure each rider’s fitness, as well as stage individual and team training races. The eight riders will also be divided into two four-man teams to practice relay exchanges and paceline training.

“The biggest goal for the team this year is to prove that people with Type 1 diabetes are extremely capable of accomplishing extraordinary things,” Keck said. “Training camp will be the perfect time to evaluate each athlete’s fitness and make any minor changes that we may need to at this point. We also plan on working to improve our transitions to make them smoother and quicker than what they were in the past, as well getting some additional time together to bond as teammates and friends.”

Keck said he chose Moab – a mecca for mountain bikers – because it offers hundreds of miles of paved roads with little traffic.

Joining Team Type 1 in the race this year will be Team Type 2, an eight-person team of riders who all have Type 2 diabetes.