Puncheur
DOB 02-05-2003
AGE OF DIAGNOSIS 20
YEARS WITH TEAM 2
Highs and lows are inevitable in life, sport and diabetes. How you respond is what matters.
PROFILE
Bailey McDonald was already a contracted professional when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. In January 2024 he was 21, riding for the Australian UCI continental team BridgeLane, and heading in the direction he had aimed at since he was a kid. The diagnosis arrived into a career already in motion and he kept going.
McDonald grew up in an extremely active family and started cycling early, racing at local club level before progressing to the Australian national road series. There he took a standout third place at Melbourne to Warrnambool, the second-oldest one-day race in the world, and the result gave him the belief he could make it as a professional. It earned him a contract with Team BridgeLane for 2024.
More racing followed, including in Europe. He had made Team Novo Nordisk’s talent ID camp a specific goal, and at the 2024 camp the Victorian impressed enough to earn a contract with the world’s first all-diabetes professional cycling team for the following two seasons.
His debut season in 2025 was a hard one, and a rewarding one: standout results at the Tour de Taiwan and a first appearance at the Tour of Denmark. He returns for 2026 as a puncheur who has already shown he can produce on the biggest days of the team’s calendar.