Ex-Navy SEALs put the world's first all-diabetes pro cycling team through 36 hours of hell to toughen them up as they vie for their first Tour de France invite

How do you make a team better? It's an intriguing question that comes up a lot, especially in business and sports.

Recently, Team Novo Nordisk - the first pro cycling team of its kind, made up entirely of athletes with diabetes - took an unusual approach to up its game. General manager Vassili Davidenko sent his riders to California to take part in what normally would have been just another offseason training camp, where they typically get their new bikes and gear and pedal a bunch of miles while getting to know one another in a casual, laid-back atmosphere. But to their surprise, they were awoken on day one at 4 a.m. to take part in a series of rigorous team-building exercises with retired Navy SEALs and Special Ops personnel.

William Hart, cofounder of Acumen Performance Group, which teamed up with Novo Nordisk for the camp, greeted the stunned cyclists bright and early: "You guys are all professional cyclists and have a lot of coaches and trainers that make you some of the best in the world at cycling - us former retired Navy SEALs, we're the best in the world at getting through things that suck."

Over the next 36 hours, the cyclists would be pushed to their absolute physical and psychological limits in exercises designed to be taxing but empowering. This week, Business Insider caught up with Davidenko to learn more about his unique team, what the riders were put through - and how they fared - and how this hardcore camp fits into the big goal to ultimately get the team into the world's largest annual sporting event, the Tour de France.