nutrition

No doubt you’ve seen, heard of or tried beetroot juice as a sports supplement. It’s been around for a few years now. Mark Cavendish coined the hashtag #pissingrainbow to describe the effect it had on his urine (it goes an orangey-pink colour, which is normal and harmless), and professional cyclist Jade Wilcoxson founded Pure Clean […]

For as long as competitive cycling has been around, riders have been looking for ways to improve their performance, to gain an edge over their competitors. One popular method is the use of sports nutrition supplements. In this first part of a two-part series, sports nutritionist Alan McCubbin takes us through the life-cycle of sports […]

So often the mentality in nutrition (and particularly sports nutrition) is “if some is good, more must be better”. If one protein shake helps recovery, then three will make my recovery three times as good. Fluid prevents dehydration and improves performance, so let’s guzzle down as much as possible. But as sports dietician Alan McCubbin […]

Summer might be finished here in Australia but staying hydrated on the bike is as important as ever. In fact, for years we’ve been bombarded with messages about hydration and performance – “lose more than 2% of your body weight and your performance will decline by x%”, or words to this effect. It’s become burnt […]

The café is a social highlight of many a bunch ride. Very few cyclists don’t like coffee, and even fewer will publicly admit it to their mates. But what effect does all that caffeine have on your cycling performance? As well as coffee we’ve got access to Coke, caffeinated gels, sports drinks, tablets and energy […]

For decades the use of carbohydrate in a cyclist’s diet has been a given. We know from research findings that carbohydrate is necessary for improving both high intensity and endurance performance. But recently this theory has been challenged by a number of endurance athletes and researchers. In this first part of a two-part series, Joe […]