With wheel diabetes

with wheel diabetes

Javier Megías is the only Spanish professional cyclist with type 1 diabetes

Cristina G. Lucio |Madrid
Updated Friday 10/15/2010 20:22 hours

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To the next Tour of Italy, Javier Megías will not only carry the best sports equipment and all its illusion.They will also go with him several glucose meters and his inseparable insulin, the substance he needs to live.

This Madrid of Torrejón de Ardoz is the only Spanish professional cyclist - probably also European - suffering from type 1 diabetes. However, he does not give greater importance.

"I just have to take some precautions," he says, through the phone and without false modesty."I know I can win a race and that's why I'm going to fight this season," he emphasizes.

Although he has already competed as a professional in teams such as Saunier Duval, this year he has found a tailored training: Type 1 Team, a group that promotes awareness of diabetes worldwide.
Fulfilling dreams

Created in 2004 by non -professional diabetic cyclists Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge, this organization is convinced that "with diet, exercise, appropriate treatments and technology, anyone with diabetes can achieve their dreams."

This also believes megías, for whom the disease has never meant any brake."When I was diagnosed with diabetes, at age 15, doctors suggested that competition cycling was going to end for me. But I have always been very 'head' and I wanted to move on," he recalls.

With a lot of effort and dedication he managed to climb to the professional category and make a place between the elite without duty to anyone.

For most teams, explains this 27 -year -old, his diabetes was "little more than an allergy" that did not need any special attention and that Megias was able to control for himself.

"I punctured my fingers in the race to control the glucose and had some more food in my pockets, in case it had a low sugar. That was," says Megías.

However, things changed just over a year ago, when in Australia he knew the existence of Type 1 Team."They were interested in recruiting professional corridors with diabetes, so they immediately signed me and went to the US," Megías explains.

The latest technology for diabetes control was waiting for him upon arrival in Atlanta: devices to measure glucose 24 hours, modern insulin bombs, new prototypes of pharmaceutical companies that sponsor the team ... "If I had known this before, my sports life would have been very different, "says the Madrid, who no longer has to puncture in the race because he has an automatic device and whose sugar levels are" now better than ever. "

Already back at home, he prepares for what will be the first season of his team in first -level European competitions."I know I can do it well and continue to grow sportsly. And that's why I fight every day," says this athlete, who does not stop repeating whoever wants to listen to that "when you want, you can."

As an amateur cyclist some time ago I follow it since I joined the Fuji-Servetto, it is a great example and a great person

Beautiful news, but little truthful.I explain myself: The last Puente del Pilar was celebrated in the area where I live a cycling event that understood from one city to another passing through enough peoples and making a total of 200 km in three days.I was excited about the idea of ​​participating and I went to tell my endo.She told me that at most a lot, I could only do the smallest stage (40 km), that being type one diabetic nor did it occur to me to make the entire journey, that this kind of thing only makes them very few athletes worldwideBecause they have the best technology and are super controlled, but that others cannot even dream it.

In the end I do not know if this news gives a false image of diabetes or if my endo is very restrictive and prohibitionist ... On the other hand, do anyone know how it is possible to measure glucose without stopping with the bicycle, as the person of the article says?

Roa, why can't you do the longest stage?: Shock:
With adequate training, I'm sure you can do the test ...
I do not see any impediment, unless you are not trained enough or have other health problems apart from diabetes.

The most useful technology is a continuous glycemia meter ... that some of this forum are already using.
It is not a complicated or impossible technology to achieve.
It is true that it is expensive and that social security does not finance it.

No doubt your endocrine is very restrictive and very negative.Of course, a diabetic can do any sport no matter how hard it is whenever it is well controlled and trained.There are elite athletes who have participated in Olympics, professional players who play in the 1st division, mountaineers, cyclists, basketball players etc ...
Do not let them put limitations if you look trained.

I don't think that stage is much harder than:

Get up at six in the morning, drive for three hours, be 14 hours in a row, mounting furniture, drive again three hours ...

An intense and prolonged exercise can be done without problems, you just have to be physically prepared, and control the glycemia every time (that depends on each one).

Good luck, and next year, for the long stage.

Greetings.

Hi Roa:
I have practiced road cycling two years, the same time that makes me join the Sweet Group.
The first months towards what I could, this last year I have participated in the social championship of my club that represent 28 stages 1 every Sunday, I have run the breakthrough of this year and I have finished it.
And I'm 52 years old, I don't think you can't improve it with a little preparation.
Sometimes the doctors overprotegen us, maybe it is easierIn our illness.
I encourage, control and go ahead, the satisfaction I get every time I finish a race helps me much more than anything else.

Antoni, congratulations on your achievements with the bike.I wanted to ask you one thing: if you are 52 years old and you are two diabetic, are you type two?Is that being type two there is not so much danger of hypos when doing sports ...

If I am type2.
A week ago they made a presentation here in Andorra de Sports and Diabetes, a doctor from the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona and a type1 diabetic athlete than Triathlons came.
Both commented that there is no impediment to perform any type of sport by a diabetic, on the contrary they argued that the level of living of the diabetic was significantly improving by practicing sports.
The doctor as I have told you was from the Clinic of Barcelona, ​​it seems that they have a medical unit of diabetes and sport inside the hospital.
The athlete worked on television in Catalonia and towards several years that participated in all kinds treated you in all parts of the world.

Uffffffffffff, you leave me speechless with what you tell ... thanks for the information.