Climber
DOB 21-12-1988
AGE OF DIAGNOSIS 22
YEARS WITH TEAM 14
“When racing or training gets tough, I remember that I’m not pedaling alone, every situation has its purpose and if we can help someone’s perspective about living with diabetes then we know we are making a difference.”
PROFILE
David Lozano has raced professionally for 14 seasons with Team Novo Nordisk alone. Early in his career, a team ended his contract because he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Everything since has been an answer to that.
Lozano was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as a child, and his father encouraged him into sport to burn off the energy. It worked: by eight he was racing mountain bikes, and through his teens he dominated the Spanish circuit, eventually collecting eleven national championships across mountain bike and cyclocross. He turned professional at 18 with the Spanish team MSC Bikes and was regarded as the best mountain biker in the country.
Then he began to lose vision in his right eye. At the hospital he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He wanted to keep racing, but when he told his team manager about the diagnosis, the team broke his contract immediately.
The diagnosis landed hard at home for reasons beyond cycling. Lozano’s father also lived with type 1 diabetes and had found managing it difficult, and his mother was distraught, fearing her son faced the same struggle.
Soon afterward, Lozano contacted Team Novo Nordisk CEO Phil Southerland on Facebook. The two met in Barcelona along with Lozano’s mother, where Southerland explained what the team exists to do: inspire, educate and empower people living with diabetes and invited him to join. His mother was grateful for the opportunity, knowing her son could have a full life and a career.
The transition from cyclocross to the road took time, and 2018 was the season it paid off. Lozano soloed to victory on Stage 7 of the Tour du Rwanda — only the second win in the team’s history at that point — and added three second places and a third at the same race. He finished the year with eight top-five results, including fifth on general classification at both the Tour of Estonia and the Tour du Rwanda, plus eighth on stages at each. He followed it with an equally strong 2019: the mountains classification and a top ten overall at the Tour of Taiyuan, sixth on general classification at the Tour du Rwanda, and six top tens across the season. Earlier career highlights include the king of the mountains classification at Cholet Pays de Loire in France in March 2014 and sixth on Stage 3 of the Tour de Korea in 2015.
In 2020 he came close to another jersey, taking the climbers’ jersey on Stage 1 of the Tour de Hongrie and holding it to the final stage before losing it on the last climb. 2023 brought a run of results almost identical to his 2022 season: the KOM jersey at the Maryland Cycling Classic in the United States, a ride in the breakaway against WorldTour opposition at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in Canada, a top ten at the Tour of Hainan, and leading the team at the Japan Cup in October.
He enters 2026 in his 14th season with the team, still climbing and still leading. He’s the rider younger teammates measure a career against.
Off the bike, Lozano spends his time with his wife, his daughter and the family dogs.