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STAVANGER, Norway - Team Type 1-Sanofi rider Vegard Stake Laengen won the King of the Mountain jersey at the one-day Rogaland GP in his native Norway on Sunday, besting a tough field and even tougher conditions over a 192km course in a hilly, windy and wet southwestern bulge of land bordered and buffeted on three sides by the North Sea.

Photo credits Team Type 1-Sanofi Martijn Verschoor checks his blood glucose before the Rogaland GP

Photo credits Team Type 1-Sanofi Vegard Stake Laengen dons the blue King of the Mountains jersey from the Rogaland GP

Laengen, who is in his second year as a professional and his first season riding with Team Type 1-Sanofi, said the day's weather came on as promised, and he was ready to slip into a breakaway from the start.

"We talked in the team meeting about how important it was to get out in front of the peloton early and build up a good lead while we had a headwind. After 100km the hills were going to be finished, and the race would head north with a tail wind along the coast. So when five other riders and I got away after just 8km, I knew this was going to be the best opportunity for the team and I put my head down and rode hard," Laengen said.

Laengen and his fellow riders in the breakaway put as much as seven minutes between themselves and the peloton over the three intermediate mountain finishes, with Laengen jumping early to take the first climb and open his account for the blue KOM jersey.

"The first climb was the longest, and probably the hardest. We raced for it, and it broke up our rhythm, so it took a while to get back together. But the break stayed away until the finishing circuits, so I consider it a good success for the team," Laengen said.

Team Type 1-Sanofi rider Daniele Colli came in to the finishing circuits with the lead group and passed his flagging teammate to cross the finish line 7th, 48 seconds behind winner Antonio Piedra of Spain.

Team Type 1-Sanofi Director Sportif Massimo Podenzana said the weather played a decisive factor in the race.

"Seven degrees Celsius, 30 kilometer-an-hour tailwinds, rain on a cobblestone finish in downtown Stavanger, those factors all worked to break up the peloton more than any team tactics could. We saw a good chase after the feedzone to catch a late attack, and in the end it was a great day of racing, no matter how you look at it. We move on to a stage race next, and this was a good sampling of what Norway has to offer the cycling world," Podenzana said.

Team Type 1-Sanofi rider Martijn Verschoor, who has type 1 diabetes and must check his blood glucose continuously and periodically take insulin to manage the disease, said the cold weather did little to his insulin sensitivity, but did affect his hands and feet.

"It was good diabetes management all day, but it's hot in the Netherlands compared to here in Norway today. I felt cold at the end, and going up the cobbles was a hard way to finish the race," Verschoor said.

Based in Atlanta, Team Type 1-Sanofi is a professional continental cycling squad with 23 riders, five of whom have type 1 diabetes. The team was founded in 2004 by Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge.

"We have moved on to the second phase of our 2012 season by coming up to Norway, and with this foray into Scandinavia we are reaching out to more people in the diabetes family with our message of hope and inspiration. We are here to show that with the right technology, a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and good control, diabetes is no obstacle to an extraordinary life," Southerland said.

SILVER CITY, New Mexico - Team Type 1-Sanofi made its mark on the SRAM Tour of the Gila on Thursday, putting one rider into the top-10 in a mass sprint and another into an all-day breakaway.

Team Type 1-Sanofi rider Georg Preidler finished 9th at the end of 126km of racing in the rolling second stage of the five-day race, while teammate Javier Megias slipped into a 6-man group of riders after the day's first big climb.

Megias, from Spain, has type 1 diabetes, and must check his blood glucose continuously, and periodically take insulin or eat carbohydrates to manage the disease.

"It's my first time in New Mexico, but I have done races in the United States before, so I know some of the riders. The pace of a race in the States is always different, and it takes a day or two to remember how things work over here. This morning I felt good, and so did the rest of the team, so we had a talk before the race to see what we could do here. The high altitude and jetlag for almost all of us makes it hard to feel good on the first day, but we are getting stronger and we'll see more action every day," Megias said.

Megias said that in spite of the normal variances in his insulin regimen brought on by altitude and the large time difference from his home outside of Madrid, his blood glucose readings during both days of racing have been "surprisingly normal."

"Usually there are changes, because high altitude increases insulin sensitivity, and jetlag changes the metabolism. But today I started the race at 150, and was 140 at the finish. That's perfect. Yesterday the variance was 110 to 170, so eating on the bike has been normal and I have felt really good," Megias said.

Based in Atlanta, Team Type 1-Sanofi is a Professional Continental squad with 23 riders, including five with type 1 diabetes. 

"Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires lifelong management, and all our riders are a testament to the remarkable achievements that can be made in light of that fact. In our organization we have more than 150 people affected by the disease, all training and competing in marathons, triathlons and bike races around the world. Javier is living proof that with the right technology, a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and good control, diabetes is no obstacle to an extraordinary life," Southerland said.

GUMI, Korea - Team Type 1-Sanofi rider Aleksandr Serebryakov won a bike race going away on Thursday, breathing a huge sigh of relief as he crossed the line with his right arm raised, and leaving no doubt that he is a world class sprinter.

Serebryakov, from Russia, turned an ace leadout from teammate Aldo Ino Ilesic at 500 meters to go in the 146km fifth stage from Geochang to Gumi into a 200m solo launch up the right side of the dead-straight finish while his competitors chased shadows off to his far left.

"The pressure was off psychologically because we feel like we actually won the stage two days ago, before being relegated, and today was a chance for us to build on our confidence and win a little justice for Team Type 1-Sanofi," said Serebryakov.

On Tuesday, Serebryakov's stage three sprint victory was annulled when a local rider who finished in second place complained to domestic commissaires that the Russian drifted from his line and unsafely blocked his competitors.

"For 30 minutes on Tuesday after the race we sat in the antidoping room with the flowers and the victory medal, thinking we had won. Then one person from the organization came over to tell us we lost, took away the medal and the flowers, and there was no way to make a counterargument or explain the situation, because it was a done deal," said Team Type 1-Sanofi Director Sportif Frederic Moncassin.

"The team is very motivated to win more stages in this race, because we want more podium victory flowers," Moncassin said.

Thursday's stage five of the Tour de Korea was raced under bright blue sunny skies, a sharp contrast to Wednesday's cancelled fourth stage after a relentless downpour put 10cm of water on the roads before the 12km neutral rollout was even completed.

"On Thursday the race was perfect for us, but there were three crashes in the peloton caused by race organization motorcycles. Harley-Davidsons are good bikes, but not handy or nimble in a big race," said Moncassin.

Team Type 1-Sanofi General Manager Vassili Davidenko, in Bodrum guiding another squad at the Tour of Turkey, praised the young Russian rider.

"We had a victory last year at the Tour de Korea taken away from us by bad road marshalling, and the bad luck got worse this year when Daniele Callegarin crashed out on Tuesday. To see Serebryakov come across the line first on Thursday is a big relief, because it confirms what we already knew when he finished fifth at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in February. Two wins in Korea, and two more podiums in Turkey this week is a pretty successful set of results," Davidenko said.

Team Type 1-Sanofi CEO and Founder Phil Southerland called Serebryakov's win a huge accomplishment for the global diabetes community.

"A win by a rider on Team Type 1-Sanofi is a win for our entire organization, and for the larger diabetes family around the world. Doctors and patients see a victory in a bike race as tremendous motivation to take control of their diabetes, and for Sasha to get podium flowers in Korea is proof positive that with patience and the right combination of factors, success is inevitable," Southerland said.

Based in Atlanta, Team Type 1 has 150 athletes on seven different squads, professional and amateur, riding, running and racing in marathons, triathlons and some of the world's biggest bike races, all to show that diabetes is no obstacle to an extraordinary life.

Five of the 23 professional cyclists on the men's professional cycling team have type 1 diabetes, a chronic disease of the pancreas that requires continuous blood glucose monitoring and periodic insulin injections or the consumption of carbohydrates for effective management.

Check out the team's website at www.teamtype1.org