The Quiznos Pro Challenge stage race will have some representation from the Southeast. In addition to the BMC team with riders such as George Hincapie, John Murphy, Chris Butler and Brent Bookwalter in its ranks, Atlanta based Team Type 1 – sanofi aventis will be lining up as well.

Team Type 1 is the world’s only professional cycling team with a roster that includes riders who have Type 1 diabetes. In 2009, Team Type 1 won 55 races, finished fourth in the NRC standings and captured the King of the Mountains title at five races, including the Tour of Missouri. In two seasons, the squad has registered 100 victories and 219 podium (top three) finishes.

“We’re happy that Team Type 1 – sanofi-aventis has been invited, and our squad that lines up will be among the strongest at the race,” says Team Type 1 founder Phil Southerland.

The team has posted some solid results in Europe included a fourth place by Jure Kocjan in the Italian race the Montepaschi Strade Bianchi.

Team Type 1 had hoped to be invited to the upcoming Giro d’ Italia, but when the list of teams was announced the squad was not included. In an January interview with VeloNews.com the Giro race director Angelo Zomegnan stated that the team was under consideration for the Italian national tour.

Southerland told CyclingNews.com, “We were hoping that the Giro d’Italia would give us an opportunity to show our talent as a team so that we could get the invitation to the Tour de France in 2012. Now we are just putting all our eggs into applying for a ProTeam license so that we automatically get the invitations to all the major races.” That seems to have paid off.

Also making the Quiznos Challenge cut is the UnitedHealthcare team. The team’s roster includes Asheville, North Carolina resident Davide Frattini. Frattini is from Italy but this former Baby Giro winner now calls the Southeast home. Another expatriate living in Asheville is Australian Jonathan Clarke.

General Manager and Directeur Sportif of UnitedHealthcare, Mike Tamayo, said, “We are excited about competing in the Quiznos Pro Challenge. It is going to be intense as many of the world’s top teams will be racing against each other for the first time in Colorado. We are going to have our guys ready and we are looking forward to the challenge.”

Other invited teams include Team RadioShack, HTC-Highroad, Team Garmin-Cervélo, Liquigas-Cannondale, Team Leopard Trek, Skil-Shimano, and Team Spidertech Powered By C10.