Alex Pritchard interview: racing, resilience and adjusting to life with Type 1 diabetes
When a sudden weight-loss and unquenchable thirst sent Alex Pritchard from the peloton to A&E, the 28-year-old Rás Tailteann stage-winner emerged with a life-altering diagnosis: Type One diabetes. The towering rouleur shares his story.
“Shall I go from the start?” asks Alex Pritchard. The Rás Tailteann stage winner and former CTT Competition Record holder isn’t referring to his achievements, however, or the transition from time-triallist to road racer. Instead he is about to lift the lid on the realities of being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, not only at the age of 28, but as an elite cyclist riding for one of Britain’s biggest teams, DAS-Richardsons.
Diabetes shouldn’t stop you from being able to do the things you enjoy
“I was kind of bummed out for two days,” he admits, recalling how he was given the news of his diagnosis, a hospital trip just 24 hours after climbing off 30 minutes into the Danum Trophy confirming his suspicions. “I kind of had an inkling as to what was going on. I went to the doctors on Monday and they sent me straight to the hospital. And they were like, ‘Ah, Alex, you’ve got Type 1 diabetes.’”
Seemingly relaxed, Pritchard speaks about the subject with ease, giving the impression he is at peace with the situation two months on. “[I’m] out the other side and I’m feeling quite positive about it,” he summarises, the reasons for telling his story going beyond cycling. “I think it’s good to use this opportunity to bang that drum that diabetes shouldn’t stop you from being able to do the things you enjoy.”
Pritchard wins stage 1 of the 2024 Rás. Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
The months before diagnosis were tough for the Cambridge rouleur, an alarming episode the day before the Danum Trophy the peak of his issues. Coming off the back of a winter and early season disrupted by illness, Pritchard travelled to Nottingham to see teammate Pete Cocker, their plan to ride over to the Darley Moor racetrack in Derbyshire and ride the National B circuit race there. “Over the course of this week I’d lost around 5 or 6 kg, and I started to think this isn’t right. As we were riding over there I started to feel really crap, and during the race I started to feel really, really thirsty,” he explains, a ninth-place finish masking the issues he was facing. “After, in the café, I think I drank two litres of water in half an hour to try and quench this thirst; I just thought this doesn’t feel right, this thirst isn’t going away.”
Over the course of this week I’d lost around 5 or 6 kg, and I started to think this isn’t right
Now monitoring his blood-glucose levels and using insulin for the first time in his life, Pritchard quickly came round to adjusting to the changes the diagnosis brought. “I just felt I needed to kind of get a grip and make this work for me,” he explains, taking a week off the bike to discover how his body reacted to everyday life before resuming training.
“I just tried different intensities, like how does my body respond? And it sort of went better than I thought. I was hesitant for the first two weeks, but I wanted to get back into racing. On the third I did a crit in Leicester, and I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t too bad, all is not lost.’”
Pritchard’s biggest test of the past two months was a return to the Rás Tailteann. The scene of his biggest triumph twelve months ago, where he took the stage win and leader’s jersey on the opening day, this edition would be a voyage of discovery, and not just because he would be a guest for the TAAP-Kalas squad. “The big one is just the amount of carbs,” he points out with regards to the practicality of racing with diabetes. “For context, I’m two metres tall and 84/85 kg, and [I was] having 120 g an hour in a race. The big thing is working out how I still do that?”
Pritchard explains that the aim is to keep his blood-glucose levels within a particular range, the danger of it dropping too low, or spiking too high, paramount. “The big thing has been about making sure I take enough insulin before a race to make sure I can fuel the way I want to, staying in the range rather than spiking and going really high or really low—obviously if you go too low it’s dangerous, but if you go too high there are a lot more complications that can ensue.”
Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
However, the first stage threw a spanner in the works, the biggest stage race on many riders’ calendars bringing its own issues. “Because of the adrenaline you become less sensitive to insulin,” Pritchard explains. “So I had to not eat for the first hour and a half to wait for my blood-glucose to come down to a sensible range. It’s things like that; I can’t necessarily eat when I want to.
“The first four days I was playing about with my insulin dosing and was doing everything on 50 g [of carbohydrates] an hour, and I felt OK, but you just don’t have that reliability. On stage 5, I was like, I’ll take more insulin before the stage start, which brings me low, but then I was able to eat as normal throughout the race, like 90–100 g per hour, and I was pretty comfortable with it, so it’s been a bit of an experience.”
It’s one of those things where unless you talk about it, people don’t tend to mention it
Pritchard says that he is “building confidence and momentum as he goes” with regards to his diabetes, and has been helped on his journey with support from the close-knit domestic scene. “It’s one of those things where unless you talk about it, people don’t tend to mention it,” he says, having been put in contact with a number of people with the condition since his diagnosis. “One of my teammates, Si Alexander, he used to ride in Essex with Andrew Kerr, who’s set up an organisation – ‘Enhance-D’ for people with type one diabetes, and a lot of them are very sporty.
“Tom Martin put me in contact with Hamish Armitt, so I was able to have a phone call with him and ask, like, how have you been able to do these things, or how do you approach your training and fuelling? Similarly, Mitch McLaughlin put me in contact with Liam O’Brien, an Irish track rider who was diagnosed in November, and he was really useful in the sense he’s recently gone through the same thing. The big thing for me is getting as much information into me as possible to be able to try things and understand what works with my body.”
Prior to joining the Richardsons team in 2024, Pritchard was best known as a time-trial specialist, his journey in road racing consisting largely of regional races with the Nottingham-based RPD and OVB teams, before signing for HUUB-WattShop in 2022. It was here he would win a Regional A race, but also receive widespread acclaim when setting the CTT 10-mile Road Bike Competition Record with a startling time of 18:35.
“I was talking about this in February with my coach, Jacob Tipper, and we were looking at how feasible we think it is,” says Pritchard, when asked if he had any designs on reclaiming the record from current holder George Fox. “It’s something I definitely want to have a go at again, but with the diagnosis it’s been put to the side for a bit. I think there’s still a fair chunk that can still get taken out of it, so it would be good to give that a go.”
2023 British National Road Championships. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Pritchard has spent the majority of the last 18 months with a renewed focus on road racing, his move to Andy Lyon’s squad one of the most intriguing in the peloton. “I needed that accountability to go and race,” Pritchard explains, a surprising admission from a rider with such pedigree in individual efforts. “I’d enter events, but just do it as and when. I needed that structure and a calendar, things to aim for, because I was struggling to set myself goals. And it’s given me that purpose to go out and do it. Last year was my first year, my first full season of prems and I really enjoyed it; I learned a lot. It’s been a fun experience, really.”
Pritchard’s biggest win to date is the opening stage of the Rás Tailteann in 2024, a race he went into expecting a “trial by fire”, the closed roads and large bunches something he was still adjusting to. “It is quite different to racing a Nat B,” he reveals. “You don’t have as much to think about in the sense of you can’t go on the right-hand side of the road!
“The first stage was a case of, oh I’m a bit jittery, let’s just get settled in. It was a bit cold and spitting with rain so I had a gilet on. I dropped back to the car to give my gilet back and ended up going straight through the bunch, followed by Paul Kennedy and Dom Jackson. I didn’t expect it to stick, but I remember Andy driving next to us in the team car saying you’ve got four and a half minutes, so I was like, ‘let’s race for it, let’s go!’”
With the trio working well together, and Jackson all-in for the GC, Pritchard was able to get the better of his companions in the sprint for victory in Kilmallock, taking the leader’s jersey into the second stage.
The thing I’ve definitely struggled with is backing myself. To find the confidence in myself again has been tricky
“It was pretty awesome to be up there with it,” he reflects, opening up on the struggles with confidence he has had, the nature of the current crop of National Road Series races not particularly suited to a rider of Pritchard’s skillset. “The thing I’ve definitely struggled with is backing myself. To find the confidence in myself again has been tricky; that stage was pretty flat and rolling, there aren’t exactly many prems like that. I’d love to say bring back Stockton, it’s a bit more rolling than the other prems, but we’ve got to feel lucky with the calendar we’ve got, to be honest.
“Maybe if there were some different prems then the Nat A win could come, but ultimately you’re only as good as you are on that day against the people that are there on that day. It would be wicked, but realistically, whether that’s the case I don’t know, but I dare to dream and believe that I can do it.”
Upbeat and positive, Pritchard ends the interview talking as a cyclist, not a cyclist with diabetes – a small distinction, but an important one. Evidence that, as he says, “diabetes shouldn’t be a barrier to doing what you enjoy.”
“Shall I go from the start?” asks Alex Pritchard. The Rás Tailteann stage winner and former CTT Competition Record holder isn’t referring to his achievements, however, or the transition from time-triallist to road racer. Instead he is about to lift the lid on the realities of being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, not only at the age of 28, but as an elite cyclist riding for one of Britain’s biggest teams, DAS-Richardsons.
“I was kind of bummed out for two days,” he admits, recalling how he was given the news of his diagnosis, a hospital trip just 24 hours after climbing off 30 minutes into the Danum Trophy confirming his suspicions. “I kind of had an inkling as to what was going on. I went to the doctors on Monday and they sent me straight to the hospital. And they were like, ‘Ah, Alex, you’ve got Type 1 diabetes.’”
Seemingly relaxed, Pritchard speaks about the subject with ease, giving the impression he is at peace with the situation two months on. “[I’m] out the other side and I’m feeling quite positive about it,” he summarises, the reasons for telling his story going beyond cycling. “I think it’s good to use this opportunity to bang that drum that diabetes shouldn’t stop you from being able to do the things you enjoy.”
The months before diagnosis were tough for the Cambridge rouleur, an alarming episode the day before the Danum Trophy the peak of his issues. Coming off the back of a winter and early season disrupted by illness, Pritchard travelled to Nottingham to see teammate Pete Cocker, their plan to ride over to the Darley Moor racetrack in Derbyshire and ride the National B circuit race there. “Over the course of this week I’d lost around 5 or 6 kg, and I started to think this isn’t right. As we were riding over there I started to feel really crap, and during the race I started to feel really, really thirsty,” he explains, a ninth-place finish masking the issues he was facing. “After, in the café, I think I drank two litres of water in half an hour to try and quench this thirst; I just thought this doesn’t feel right, this thirst isn’t going away.”
Now monitoring his blood-glucose levels and using insulin for the first time in his life, Pritchard quickly came round to adjusting to the changes the diagnosis brought. “I just felt I needed to kind of get a grip and make this work for me,” he explains, taking a week off the bike to discover how his body reacted to everyday life before resuming training.
“I just tried different intensities, like how does my body respond? And it sort of went better than I thought. I was hesitant for the first two weeks, but I wanted to get back into racing. On the third I did a crit in Leicester, and I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t too bad, all is not lost.’”
Pritchard’s biggest test of the past two months was a return to the Rás Tailteann. The scene of his biggest triumph twelve months ago, where he took the stage win and leader’s jersey on the opening day, this edition would be a voyage of discovery, and not just because he would be a guest for the TAAP-Kalas squad. “The big one is just the amount of carbs,” he points out with regards to the practicality of racing with diabetes. “For context, I’m two metres tall and 84/85 kg, and [I was] having 120 g an hour in a race. The big thing is working out how I still do that?”
Pritchard explains that the aim is to keep his blood-glucose levels within a particular range, the danger of it dropping too low, or spiking too high, paramount. “The big thing has been about making sure I take enough insulin before a race to make sure I can fuel the way I want to, staying in the range rather than spiking and going really high or really low—obviously if you go too low it’s dangerous, but if you go too high there are a lot more complications that can ensue.”
However, the first stage threw a spanner in the works, the biggest stage race on many riders’ calendars bringing its own issues. “Because of the adrenaline you become less sensitive to insulin,” Pritchard explains. “So I had to not eat for the first hour and a half to wait for my blood-glucose to come down to a sensible range. It’s things like that; I can’t necessarily eat when I want to.
“The first four days I was playing about with my insulin dosing and was doing everything on 50 g [of carbohydrates] an hour, and I felt OK, but you just don’t have that reliability. On stage 5, I was like, I’ll take more insulin before the stage start, which brings me low, but then I was able to eat as normal throughout the race, like 90–100 g per hour, and I was pretty comfortable with it, so it’s been a bit of an experience.”
Pritchard says that he is “building confidence and momentum as he goes” with regards to his diabetes, and has been helped on his journey with support from the close-knit domestic scene. “It’s one of those things where unless you talk about it, people don’t tend to mention it,” he says, having been put in contact with a number of people with the condition since his diagnosis. “One of my teammates, Si Alexander, he used to ride in Essex with Andrew Kerr, who’s set up an organisation – ‘Enhance-D’ for people with type one diabetes, and a lot of them are very sporty.
“Tom Martin put me in contact with Hamish Armitt, so I was able to have a phone call with him and ask, like, how have you been able to do these things, or how do you approach your training and fuelling? Similarly, Mitch McLaughlin put me in contact with Liam O’Brien, an Irish track rider who was diagnosed in November, and he was really useful in the sense he’s recently gone through the same thing. The big thing for me is getting as much information into me as possible to be able to try things and understand what works with my body.”
Prior to joining the Richardsons team in 2024, Pritchard was best known as a time-trial specialist, his journey in road racing consisting largely of regional races with the Nottingham-based RPD and OVB teams, before signing for HUUB-WattShop in 2022. It was here he would win a Regional A race, but also receive widespread acclaim when setting the CTT 10-mile Road Bike Competition Record with a startling time of 18:35.
“I was talking about this in February with my coach, Jacob Tipper, and we were looking at how feasible we think it is,” says Pritchard, when asked if he had any designs on reclaiming the record from current holder George Fox. “It’s something I definitely want to have a go at again, but with the diagnosis it’s been put to the side for a bit. I think there’s still a fair chunk that can still get taken out of it, so it would be good to give that a go.”
Pritchard has spent the majority of the last 18 months with a renewed focus on road racing, his move to Andy Lyon’s squad one of the most intriguing in the peloton. “I needed that accountability to go and race,” Pritchard explains, a surprising admission from a rider with such pedigree in individual efforts. “I’d enter events, but just do it as and when. I needed that structure and a calendar, things to aim for, because I was struggling to set myself goals. And it’s given me that purpose to go out and do it. Last year was my first year, my first full season of prems and I really enjoyed it; I learned a lot. It’s been a fun experience, really.”
Pritchard’s biggest win to date is the opening stage of the Rás Tailteann in 2024, a race he went into expecting a “trial by fire”, the closed roads and large bunches something he was still adjusting to. “It is quite different to racing a Nat B,” he reveals. “You don’t have as much to think about in the sense of you can’t go on the right-hand side of the road!
“The first stage was a case of, oh I’m a bit jittery, let’s just get settled in. It was a bit cold and spitting with rain so I had a gilet on. I dropped back to the car to give my gilet back and ended up going straight through the bunch, followed by Paul Kennedy and Dom Jackson. I didn’t expect it to stick, but I remember Andy driving next to us in the team car saying you’ve got four and a half minutes, so I was like, ‘let’s race for it, let’s go!’”
With the trio working well together, and Jackson all-in for the GC, Pritchard was able to get the better of his companions in the sprint for victory in Kilmallock, taking the leader’s jersey into the second stage.
“It was pretty awesome to be up there with it,” he reflects, opening up on the struggles with confidence he has had, the nature of the current crop of National Road Series races not particularly suited to a rider of Pritchard’s skillset. “The thing I’ve definitely struggled with is backing myself. To find the confidence in myself again has been tricky; that stage was pretty flat and rolling, there aren’t exactly many prems like that. I’d love to say bring back Stockton, it’s a bit more rolling than the other prems, but we’ve got to feel lucky with the calendar we’ve got, to be honest.
“Maybe if there were some different prems then the Nat A win could come, but ultimately you’re only as good as you are on that day against the people that are there on that day. It would be wicked, but realistically, whether that’s the case I don’t know, but I dare to dream and believe that I can do it.”
Upbeat and positive, Pritchard ends the interview talking as a cyclist, not a cyclist with diabetes – a small distinction, but an important one. Evidence that, as he says, “diabetes shouldn’t be a barrier to doing what you enjoy.”
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