Stephen Clancy is hoping his diabetes diagnosis may have a silver lining in America
Dan Morrissey-Speedy Spokes rider and last year’s Cycling Ireland ‘Rider of the Year’, Stephen Clancy has secured a trial with the US-based ‘Team Type 1’ professional team which is mainly made up of riders with Type 1 diabetes.
He leaves for the US tomorrow morning, Sunday, and will race and train with the Pro Continental team for the next month, with a view to securing a place on their development squad.
The 20-year-old student from Limerick is a member of the Irish U23 set-up and rode the Tour of Ulster with an Irish development team this year.
However, while his winter went very well and he felt he had the form of his life leading into the new season, some routine blood tests in March ended with a shock diagnosis that he had Type 1 diabetes.
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The condition essentially affects the ability of the pancreas to convert sugar and carbohydrates into energy in the body. It necessitates sufferers to inject insulin to help process sugars and also requires those with the condition to very carefully regulate their diets.
“At the start of the year I was cramping in races in the first few weeks and just didn’t feel good, I didn’t know what was wrong with me,” he told stickybottle.
He added that routine blood tests recommended by national development coach Paddy Doran to all of the U23 riders in the Irish panel revealed he had very high levels of sugar in his system. He was told to follow a set diet for the following fortnight and when he retuned for testing his condition was confirmed.
Since then he has had to inject insulin four times per day and has been forced to endure what sounds like a very challenging trial and error process during which he has gotten know his condition and how his body reacts to it.
He has been working work www.tribikes.ie of late in between going to college and training and racing and his employer Mark Mc Keigue said Clancy’s adaptation to the challenge of diabetes has been remarkable.
“Having seen Stephen quite a bit during this time and having seen how he took this setback and dealt with it with a positive solution-based attitude has been inspirational. He deserves every success and has worked very hard for it.”
Clancy was initially forced to stop the heavy training load that goes with competitive cycling and to build that workload very gradually to normal levels in recent months.
“At first the doctors seemed to be worried about the fact that I was even a competitive cyclist,” he said.
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“I was asking them how far I could train at first and they were recommending one mile. I thought they were joking.”
Clancy said after beginning his insulin injections upon diagnosis he then had to begin training alone because of the challenges thrown up by the condition.
“It was a question of having to stop every 20 minutes, take a device from your pocket, prick your finger and draw some blood and put it on a test strip in the device to check the sugar levels were OK.”
“Then when I started racing again it was the same, I had to go to the back of the bunch and take out this device which is like the size of a walkie talkie. I did it in the break in Rás Clár there a few weeks ago and one of the lads thought I was mad, that I was texting somebody!”
Clancy said he felt having the strength to get in the breakaway that day signalled to him that he was getting back to a level where he belongs. He said it’s essential he monitors his condition properly because if his blood sugar gets too low he could pass out and experience complications that could damage his health.
Some time back he sent a Facebook message to the founder of Team Type 1, Phil Southerland, seeking advice on managing his condition while trying to improve as a serious bike rider. While the reply from him was slow in coming, progress has been very quick since then.
“After I sent that to him the team had also contacted a lot of federations because they are looking for riders. So Paddy Doran and Geoff Liffey got the email and then Phil Southerland got back to me on Facebook pretty soon after that. That was only two days ago. They booked my flights last night to Atlanta, Georgia, where the team is based and I’m flying out in the morning.”
Clancy said he would race and train with the development team of the pro squad. Currently studying PE with Maths in UL, he will return to start his third year at college in late September.
After that, he said gaining a place on the team would be an incredible silver lining after being diagnosed out of the blue with the condition.
“I would definitely love to get a place with them, it would be a dream come through there’s no doubt about that. I guess they want to bring me over and see what level I am at.”
“At the moment they have a roster of riders who have the condition and those who don’t have it. Next year they are moving to a full squad of riders with Type 1 diabetes, so they are looking for riders.”
“I feel I could do my last year in college and I would still have plenty of time to race with them for the season next year. But that is probably jumping ahead a lot. I suppose we will see what happens in the next few weeks.”
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