Life On The Road With Team Novo Nordisk’s David Lozano

Pro cycling is a tough sport. Riders face multiple days of racing, through rain, snow, scorching heat, and mountain passes. David Lozano, and the rest of Team Novo Nordisk have the added challenge of racing with Type 1 Diabetes.

Lozano is an accomplished mountain and cyclocross racer from Spain, with 11 national championships between the two. I recently had a chance to catch up with Lozano to learn more about his cycling exploits, how the switch to road racing has been, and what it is like racing with Type 1 Diabetes.

Bike World News: Tell me about your career, and when you found out you had Type 1 Diabetes.

David Lozano: I was professional in mountain bike, and also doing a little cyclocross.  I had some top 15’s in World Cups in cyclocross. I was 16^th in the (2010) world championships (U23) in cyclocross. I was 4^th in European (championships) in mountain bike. So I was in a good position at that point. Yet suddenly, I started to feel bad and couldn’t really compete. On one day, my vision was really bad, so I went to the hospital and they diagnosed me with diabetes. From that point, I started to chat with some people and I had the chance to meet Phil Southerland (CEO and co-founder of Team Novo Nordisk). He came to visit me and my mother in Spain and after meeting him, I chose to move to this team.

BWN: Many riders have switched from cross to road, or race both. What was it like moving from cross-country to road?

DL: It’s hard to switch from the mountain bike to the road. I know many riders like (Peter) Sagan, Alexis Vuillermoz, (Cadel) Evans, and all these guys. Sagan, who is so good at everything, was so good in cyclocross and mountain bike. When he switched to road, he had already won the European Championship and was second in Worlds. He’s the only one I know that switched and in one year was winning races. Evans had a really hard introduction to the road. Even Miguel Martinez, who won the Sydney Olympics, when he switched to the road, he couldn’t finish two races that first year. He was an Olympic champion! He was strong!

BWN: What is the biggest challenge in the switch?

DL: The change from mountain bike to the road is completely different. I was used to training 2.5 hours, 3 hours maximum. And now this would be my shortest rides on the bike. I have had to get used to it, because at the end of the race and the end of training, you feel empty. But every day, I feel a little bit better. I hope to do as well as I was doing in mountain bike.

It was hard to recover, because in mountain bike, you race Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday, and have six days between where you can train and rest. So it was super easy to recover. Now you have a five-day race and then two days to travel, and then another race.

BWN: Do you miss riding mountain bike?

Yes, I miss riding mountain bike, because it was my way to chill out. The road, every day is the same. You always have the same roads. You cannot have fun in the flats and downhills like you can in mountain biking. Now I have to think to chill out. In mountain bike, you have the single track and you can have fun. It’s super different. When you are training hard in mountain biking, in one day you can recover, just with a super nice slow ride on the mountain bike to recover.

BWN: How have your mountain biking and cross skills transferred over to the road in sketchy situations?

DL: I feel a little bit scared right now riding in the bunch, because I don’t always trust the other riders. I know I have skills to go fast in the downhill, to jump if I find a squirrel or a dog the middle of the road. But I can’t always trust the other riders because I’m just not used to riding with so many other people at once. I don’t always have the confidence to be in the bunch. Everyday I’m learning from the others, and it’s getting better, but I know that I still need more confidence.

BWN: What is your goal for the season?

DL: My goal is to, first of all, learn, and that’s getting better day-by-day. I’m working to get into the breaks, and trying to take KOM jerseys. I focus on helping Javi (fellow Spanish teammate Javier Megias) ride for the GC and stage wins. I’m also hoping the day will come where I’m in a good breakaway and I can fight for the win too. I know I have a long way to go until I win races like I was winning in mountain biking, but still, if I could win in mountain bike, I can win someday in road, so I don’t give up.

BWN: What was one of your favorite moments on the road so far this year?

DL: It was a race in France at Cholet – Pays De Loire. We started attacking and attacking, and we got a break of 26 riders. And then, from the first GPM (king of the mountain) of the 10 GPM, I started to take points, points, points, and then I won the KOM jersey by a lot of points. It was nice.

BWN: When you were diagnosed, you were set to go to London. Is 2016 something you are working for?

DL: There is a very good chance. Last year, I was doing some mountain bike too, after the Tour of Colorado and before China. I was doing races with all the guys still racing at the big races and going to world cups. I was ahead of them. This meant I still have the level in mountain biking, but you need to get some points. Yet it isn’t just having the points and performance, but it’s also political. I need to have the approval of the Spanish coach. He believes in me, but if you do not race, you cannot go. In the end, people will ask, “why is this guy from road going, and the guys from mountain bike are not going?” You need to fight for your place, and I agree with this. If I have the chance to ride mountain bike again, like half road and half mountain bike, maybe then I can go.

BWN: In mountain biking and cyclocross, you don’t really have teammates like you do in road racing. Do you like having them? Is it different?

DL: Yeah, it’s super different. Before, I was happy when I was winning races, but now, I’m happy when my teammates are winning too. You feel great when they do great. Then you’ve shared everything. You share more time together than in mountain bike, because of all the hours and traveling on the road and places, so it is super different, but I feel very comfortable with it. There was a point where I was scared to travel and be away from home so much.

BWN: How has it helped being on TNN with other riders with Type 1?

DL: At first, it helped me a lot, because I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about diabetes since I was newly diagnosed. So you can share a little bit. It’s not about guidelines, because everyone is different, but you just share this condition together.  I was training, and feeling a little tired, and they can share some information about what helped them. Everyone has the same problem, but everyone is different. Everyone needs to learn from himself and with his doctor.

Team Novo Nordisk is a completely different team, and it is special for all the riders to have the same condition, so they help you with everything. It’s not just about the food. When someone asks me what is the difference between having diabetes and not having diabetes, I don’t know, I feel the same. At first, sure I had to adjust like everyone else. Even for someone without diabetes, when you train this hard, you get tired. That was my biggest challenge of all of this, switching to the road and learning that racing. Once I got used to it all, it’s been no problem.