HypoActive

On October 12th, three members of HypoActive, M2M veterans Murray Little and Gavin Wright and newcomer Jaimee Rossborough, flew the flag for HA and represented DAQ in the annual Bicycle Queensland mega-ride from Brisbane to the sunny Gold Coast.

Jaimee lives on the GC, competes regularly in triathlons and heard of HypoActive through feelers put out by Gavin at his endo clinic. She proved to be not just a valuable asset as a cyclist, with considerable strength and skills, but also a great team diabetic to ride with.

At 5.30am, all three riders pedalled off in high spirits having been given the luxury of space in the sponsors’ enclosure at Southbank. This generous gesture from DAQ meant a clear start ahead of the squashed throng behind metal barriers.

Gavin had early talks with DAQ about a working relationship between the two groups after noticing DAQ had no team representation at last year’s ride. Touching base with the Queensland diabetes group just a few days before the event, he was shocked to learn that his contact had fled the fold and no-one at DAQ had ever heard of him or HypoActive. Gavin’s chain slipped to the thin end of his cassette as he tried desperately to plead the cause and hard-sell HA into a profile spot.

Fortunately, HypoActive is a dream package to promote and DAQ were happy for us to represent them on the ride, taking their unfilled position at the start in front of almost 8000 other cyclists.

There was serious talk in the team before the start about keeping average speeds down and trying to conduct a more conservative ride than last year. Surviving members of last year’s team felt that high spirits in that event had led HA riders to cycle inappropriately fast and everyone promised not to make the same mistake again.

Didn’t work though.

Something about the almost immediate induction into Brisbane’s Busway – an empty cement road, part tunnel, leading 16km straight out of the heart of the city and humming and clicking with the sound of speeding road bikes – set the HA team off to a racing start that never really slowed before the beaches of Southport finally came into view.

From other riders who were going fast enough to read the back of the HA jerseys, there came a number of comments – all positive – about Insulin Injected Engines.

The HA team took full advantage of both rest stops, at 40km and 78km, to test and refuel. Results ranged between 2.8 and 9.1, with Murray getting a 5.6 at the second stop and claiming the closest-to-perfect prize.

The team freewheeled through the final arch having done the 100km in just over three hours (riding time) and had tired photo’s taken outside the DAQ tent.

DAQ are clearly seeing the HypoActive factor as an opportunity and spoke of working together now and in the future. Hopefully this will mean at least a much more effective attempt to contact would-be type 1 cyclists next year for what could be the chance for more diabetics to learn about the benefits of exercise and share a small part of the HypoActive experience.

Why, this kind of new, sugary blood could even slow the Queensland HypoActive team down to a more moderate speed. Seems like nothing else can. 
 

Gavin Wright, October 2008