Team GB on what makes a winning diet
The main diet question for the Olympic cyclist is the same as for the enthusiastic amateur, says Nigel Mitchell, nutritionist with Team GB’s cycling team. “You want to keep lean and keep fuelled at the same time.”
Dietary principles for elite athletes have changed subtly over recent years, according to both Mitchell (who is seconded from the English Institute of Sport to advise Team GB’s cyclists) and Peter Slater, one of the people behind the team’s nutrition supplier, Science in Sport (SiS).
“In the past, the focus was on quantities of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Now quality is what you look at more,” says Mitchell.
Slater agrees: “In the 80s, it was about glucose energy drinks, complex maltodextrins in the 1990s, and now gels are top of the list. And the recovery side has massively picked up.”
Mitchell underlines: “Cycling drains the carbohydrate stores in the body, so after a three or four-hour ride, your muscles will be low in glycogen – traditional advice is that a lot of carbs will increase those glycogen stores, whereas now we would look at a mix of carbohydrates, quick and slow release – a risotto and a banana for example – rather than just anything starchy you can lay hands on.”
Eat little and often
“The timing and frequency of meals is important,” says Mitchell. “One of the mistakes we all make is going too long without eating, craving foods and then over-feeding on quickly absorbed carbodydrates.”
The GB cyclists’ diet is based on six or seven small meals a day. Breakfast might include porridge – quality carbohydrate, protein and B vitamins – followed by a mid-morning snack of a glass of milk or a skinny latte with a piece of fruit to keep the blood sugar up.
Lunch could be a baked potato with chilli, tuna or cheese, and salad for the micronutrients, with a mid-afternoon snack of, perhaps, a yoghurt with a piece of cake or a flapjack. Dinner is a quality protein source – fish, chicken or steak, 100-200g, with low-GI (glycemic index) carbohydrate such as basmati rice, and lastly, a pre-bed snack, such as a bowl of cereal.
The diet is melded into the training process; breakfast may be reduced on days when training is not intense, as food can be consumed on the bike. Much attention is paid to in-motion nutrition when the cyclists train on the road: they aim for 20-40g of carbohydrate per hour, depending on body weight and training intensity – some of this coming from gels and sports drinks.
Road to recovery
Mitchell says many cyclists still do not drink enough. To avoid dehydration, GB cyclists force down large quantities of liquid – perhaps 800ml per hour in winter, a litre per hour in summer. “Amateurs have to bear in mind that dehydration affects you in other areas, such as brain efficency,” says Mitchell. “So if you are riding to work, drinking a coffee or two, and working in an air-conditioned office, your wellbeing may suffer if you are not hydrated.”
Eating for recovery is increasingly important as well. “You need to make sure your body gets the right amino acids immediately after training.” Hence, in Beijing, Team GB track cyclists had bottles in their hands as soon as their races were over. “You don’t see that with other nations,” says Slater. “It’s one thing that helps them go faster in their next event two hours later.”
Popular misconceptions
• If I do enough training I can eat and drink whatever I want
It takes a lot of exercise to burn up a single pound of fat. Roughly speaking, it’s 3,500 calories, which means a seven-hour ride burning 500 calories per hour.
• Not taking anything to eat or drink when I ride my bike will toughen me up
Your body’s glycogen stores will run out within two to three hours depending on the intensity and you could start to dehydrate after 45 minutes.
• Fats are bad
“It’s not that simple,” says Mitchell. “Think about good and bad fats; most vegetable-based fats such as olive oil, are good in moderation and some, such as fish oils, are essential.”
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