They are off!
Gavin Wright, Carolyn Maxwell, Hugh Harvey, Nicola Hoey and Devo the Wonderdog departed Saturday for Santiago in South America.
Their journey will take them from sea level up to the highest elevation possible to cycle, on a volano called Ojos del Salado.
We won't be able to hear from them for most of the journey, but stay tuned here for any updates we do receive.  Or you can read about the challenge as described by Gavin here:

2009 Type 1 Diabetic Team Cycling Challenge

An attempt to break the world record for cycling at high altitude - and doing it with a team of people with type one diabetes! 

 
Gavin Wright, a long time member of the HypoActive annual Murray to Moyne challenge, is gearing up for an international challenge of epic proportions.  Read his story and learn about this incredible task he and four others are preparing for this November 2009.
 

By Gavin Wright

Background - The Path to the Mountains

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1964 and have been injecting insulin every day ever since.

I’m also a cyclist and bikes for me are all about fun and adventure.

My bicycle is my main means of transport and I need to have a very good reason to pick any other. I care about the environment for myself, my family, my community and the future of the world and this makes riding a bike an important thing for me.

But every time I swing into the saddle and ride down our very steep driveway into the street I start my journey with a roller-coaster reminder of the fun of riding a bike.

And there isn’t a single time I’ve headed off into the hills and forests close to our home here in Queensland – which I do as often as I possibly can – that my ride hasn’t been an adventure.

In 2002, however, I had a bigger adventure when I cycled solo over the Annamite Mountains in Indochina after practising hard on my bike for a year and a half.

And in 2005, Hugh Harvey (non-diabetic) and I cycled over the Andes in Peru. We rode from Lima on the Pacific coast, up to an altitude of 4,818m (15,807ft) above sea level – over the highest surfaced road in the world – through the lonely mountain towns of the Andean plateau and then 200km out into the Amazon jungle on the other side.

 
 Me crossing the Andes in 2005                                                            Photo by Hugh Harvey
 

My byword at this time was ‘Diabetes didn’t stop me’ and I received generous support in the form of sponsorship from Novo Nordisk for the Andean trip when I put it to them that I wanted to show young people developing diabetes that it need not be a barrier to a sporting or athletic lifestyle.

In fact, what I learned in my tough training schedule was that regular heavy exercise wasn’t just possible – it actually had a significant, positive effect on the management of my diabetes and the maintenance of stable blood sugar levels.

Apart from the benefits of excellent blood pressure and circulation, I found that exercising heavily three or four times a week gave me better bsl readings – every day.
 

After the trip over the Andes, I gave talks at several DAV events and a well-received speech to 200 participants of the Parent and Young Person Diabetes Symposium at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne in November 2006.

After returning from Peru I was introduced to a group called…
 

HypoActive

HypoActive is dedicated to promoting an active lifestyle for type 1 diabetics. The group is involved in a whole range of annual events, but a main fundraiser (funds raised for diabetic camps in Victoria) is the yearly Woody’s Murray to Moyne. This is a gruelling 520km, 24-hour cycling relay running from the banks of the Murray River to the mouth of the Moyne at Port Fairy.
 

HypoActive has had a fully diabetic team in the event for the last seven years and I have been proud to be part of the team for the last four. 15 or so diabetics (the support crew are also all type 1’s) spend a hectic weekend giving their all on the road, squeezing themselves into the support van and squeezing droplets of blood out of their fingers for high-frequency testing.
 

The Murray to Moyne has become the high point of my cycling calendar. The team spirit created, not just by cyclists performing on a tough endurance relay, but by a group of people who all have to manage a complicated medical condition, is one of the most rewarding experiences I have known.

If you’re a type 1 diabetic and enjoy riding a bike, you should give it a go sometime.

 
Me in the HypoActive 2009 Murray to Moyne     Photo by John Hempel
 

In 2007 I organised my own kind of challenge for the HypoActive cyclists. I managed to get a full team of diabetics to cycle up Mount Donna Buang, a vertical climb of over 1000m.

Since moving to Queensland I have twice organised (with Murray Little) small, fast teams of HypoActive riders for the annual 100km Brisbane to Gold Coast Challenge, a fundraiser for DAQ. Last year HypoActive took DAQ’s spot with the major sponsor and premier teams.

In April 2009, I presented my plans for another cycling conquest of the Andes to the diabetics on the HypoActive team on the Murray to Moyne.

My aim was to build a type 1 diabetic event of international magnitude.

The Challenge – the toughest ride we could find

At the end of last year my old partner Hugh and I got together and decided it was time to think up another big challenge.

We found Ojos del Salado, a live volcano in remote northern Chile. It’s the highest volcano on earth and the second highest peak in the Americas. (Although live, there has been no volcanic activity of note for about 500 years.) And it looks like you can ride a bike quite close to the top.

Ojos rises to 6,893m (22,615ft) above sea level. We’re going to start on the sands of White Beach (Playa Blanca) at Puerto Viejo, a small, isolated fishing village tucked in between the Pacific Ocean and the southern end of the Atacama Desert.

High hopes                                                                                         Photo by Gavin Wright
 

From there we ride over 300km eastwards and up into the Andes. Apart from in Copiapo, our base town about 80km in from the coast, we will pass no human habitations and have to be entirely self-supporting.

We will have a support vehicle carrying food and water for 12-14 days and be camping at the roadside in the barren hills.

The road (Chilean International Highway 31 – partly surfaced, partly not) rises to about 4,500m altitude shortly before it reaches the border with Argentina. It will take us about six days to reach this point and here we will have a day off relaxing in the warm waters of Laguna Verde, mingling with the pink flamingos.

Peruvian mountain food – plenty of carbs                               Photo by Gavin Wright
 

Then comes the steep tough stuff.

We leave the road and start the ascent of Ojos itself. Although it’s only less than 30km to the summit, there’s a vertical climb of about 2000m to conquer and here the air is debilitatingly thin.

There’s a refuge (Atacama Refugio, a metal shipping container with a few bunks) at 5,300m, then another one (Tejos Refugio, two metal shipping containers with a few bunks) at 5,823m.

At about 6,500m there is a permanent glacier, which climbers have to cross with axes and crampons. We can’t get past this on bikes, but this is our target, the highest point we can reach.

We may not quite get to the glacier – we may end up falling off our bicycles gasping for air amid rocks and rubble on the frozen slopes of 6,300-6,400m altitude, but if we get that far we will, I believe, have cycled our bikes to a higher altitude than anyone ever before.

Hugh and I have experience of cycling at high altitude and know how hard it is. This time round we will be taking scheduled days off to try and minimize the risks and effects of the lack of oxygen. We know from research that people have died on this mountain from altitude sickness and we hope that our slower ascent (because we’re cycling up there) and planned days of acclimatisation will enable us to make this attempt without serious trauma.

This time round I felt strongly that heres was a chance to show once again that diabetes need not be the hurdle that many people perceive it to be and that it would be a great opportunity to shine a light on the real benefits of exercise for those with type 1 diabetes. So I went looking for the right diabetics to join the team.

And we’ve got three, possibly four, type 1 diabetics taking the challenge. But with insulin treatments worked out over a long period of training, type 1 diabetics supporting each other throughout and cyclists who know dietary requirements better than most, we’re going to show that not only is diabetes not a barrier to athletic achievement, but that type 1 diabetics can do better than anyone in the world.

Exercise promotes a whole range of health benefits. For diabetics, it can be daunting to take on an exercise schedule, not knowing how blood sugar levels are going to react. But with proper care and planning – and plenty of testing – diabetics can not only profit from better blood pressure and circulation, a healthier heart, lower stress rates and better control of bodyweight, but also improved and consistent management of bsl’s.

This has been my personal experience and I am dedicated to passing on this message.

You don’t have to be a champion cyclist, or drag yourself off to the ends of the earth, but regular exercise – just getting out on your bike, down to the pool or round the park at a jog – is a vital key to a healthier and longer life for people with type 1 diabetes because it makes the management of diabetes easier and better.

In 2007 Team Type 1 (all diabetics, including HypoActive rider Monique Hanley) cycled to win the Race Across America in record time, and repeated this feat in 2009 with Bendigo rider and type one diabetic Simon Bennett.

This year I’m taking a team including at least three type 1 diabetics to break the World Record for cycling to high altitude.

Exercise – the next best thing to a cure.

 
 
HypoActive riders: dedicated, fit, fast – good-looking and funny too           Photo by Gavin Wright
 

The Route

 

 
 
 
 
 Total climb: 7,981m                                               Total descent: 1,301m
 

 

The Team

Gavin Wright      Type 1 diabetic

Photo by Gavin Wright
 
Gavin has had type 1 diabetes since 1964 and now lives in Nerang on the Gold Coast. For the last ten years he’s been benefiting from better health – and better management of diabetes – because of his regime of regular heavy exercise.  Gavin has been a community worker, a film-maker and a chef. He now lives for his beautiful wife, three children, his writing and his travels on a bicycle.
 

Scott Lahrs         Type 1 diabetic

 
Photo by John Hempel
 

Scott has been a persistent and well-known voice on diabetic forums for years. He is a tireless advocate of self-determination and exercise for diabetics.

He lives and trains in the rolling hills of the hinterland of southeast Queensland.

His cycling skills – road, MTB and endurance – are awesome by any standards. 

Matt Warry          Type 1 diabetic

 
Photo by Gavin Wright
 

Matt has been a volunteer with diabetic camps, summer and autumn, for five years, co-ordinating senior camp and winning Volunteer Role Model Award in 2008.

He has been a key figure in the HypoActive Murray to Moyne support team for five years, obtaining his LR truck license just for the M2M.

Matt lives in Gippsland and is currently studying Div 1 Nursing full-time.

He is also a demon MTB rider.

Jaimee Rossborough     Type 1 diabetic

 
Photo by Melissa Pizzato
 

Jaimee is an exercise physiologist and is studying to be a diabetes nurse educator. She is also an accomplished triathlete, but is having to practise her MTB skills before committing to the assault on Ojos.

Jaimee is now in Melbourne and is doing everything she can to facilitate being part of the Ojos team. We are all hoping she will be able to join us.

‘Sounds like a dream opportunity…’

Hugh Harvey    Non diabetic

Photo by Gavin Wright
 

Hugh lives and works in Melbourne and is a long-term civilian member of the Australian Defence Forces. He has ridden his bicycle in Peru, Cuba, East Timor, Germany and Spain. He does not have diabetes, so the rest of the team will have to keep an eye on him.

 
 
Stay tuned for more updates on this amazing journey..