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ENTITY · PERSON

DR DAVID DUNNE

Performance nutritionist with a PhD in behaviour change, design thinking, and technology innovation in sports nutrition from Liverpool John Moores University. IOC alumnus. Co-founder and CEO of Hexis, a personalised sports-nutrition platform; has worked with athletes across World Tour cycling, Premier League, NBA, Super League, and Ryder Cup Team Europe.

The nutritionist Anthony reaches for when the conversation is about how to actually translate a fuelling plan into something a serious amateur will follow on a Tuesday morning. David's work is the bridge between what the lab says and what shows up in your bottle and back pocket.

CANONICAL NAME

Dr David Dunne

ROLE

Performance nutritionist; co-founder & CEO, Hexis

AFFILIATION

Hexis

ROADMAN PODCAST APPEARANCES

2 episodes

WHY DUNNE’S WORK MATTERS TO YOUR CYCLING

David Dunne is the performance nutritionist whose work has shaped most of how Roadman talks about fuelling. He holds a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in behaviour change, design thinking, and technology innovation in sports nutrition — which is a long way of saying he studies why athletes do or don't actually follow nutrition advice, not just what the advice should be. He came through the IOC sports nutrition diploma, has worked across World Tour cycling, Premier League football, the NBA, the Super League, and Ryder Cup Team Europe, and is now CEO of Hexis, the personalised sports-nutrition platform.

The Hexis principle, and the one Anthony comes back to most often, is carbohydrate periodisation. Most amateur cyclists treat their daily intake as a flat number. The better approach, and the one elite teams now use, is to match the carbohydrate intake to the training demand — high-carb on a threshold day, lower-carb on a rest day, deliberately moderate on a long aerobic day. The wins are obvious once you see them: better adaptation on the hard sessions, no excess on the easy days, and a much cleaner body composition arc over a season than any calorie-counting app will ever produce.

David's work is also why the Roadman in-ride nutrition guidance lands where it does. The 90 g/hour target most serious sportive riders aim at is real, but it has to be trained for — gut tolerance is an adaptation, not a starting condition. And the behavioural piece — the rehearsal of fuelling under race conditions, the pre-event meal practiced on long rides, the gel that has to actually agree with you on hour four — that's where most amateur fuelling plans collapse. The science of what to eat has been mostly settled for years. What David has done is the harder work of understanding why it doesn't get done.

If you've read any of the Roadman fuelling guides linked below, you've read his fingerprints.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

CYCLING NUTRITIONCARBOHYDRATE PERIODISATIONIN-RIDE FUELLINGBODY COMPOSITION FOR ENDURANCESPORTS NUTRITION BEHAVIOUR CHANGEPERSONALISED NUTRITION

NOTABLE POSITIONS

Positions Dunne is publicly on the record for. Each one is something the rest of the Roadman content network leans on.

Daily carbohydrate intake should be periodised against the training day, not held flat — high-carb on the hard sessions, lower-carb on the easy and rest days.

The core Hexis principle, and the answer to "should I do low-carb riding?" — the answer is yes, on the right days, never the hard ones.

Most amateurs under-fuel intensity sessions and over-fuel easy sessions. The result is poor adaptation on the hard days and unnecessary calories on the easy days.

A pattern David has documented across the elite and amateur athletes Hexis has worked with.

Race-day nutrition is a behavioural problem more than a physiological one. The science is mostly settled — what fails is the athlete actually doing it under pressure.

The behaviour-change focus comes from his PhD and is what makes his work feel different from generic nutrition advice.

90 g of carbohydrate per hour is achievable for most trained amateurs, but only after a deliberate training block of building gut tolerance.

The Roadman in-ride nutrition guidance directly cites this principle.

Body composition work has to follow performance, not lead it. Lose weight by training hard and fuelling smart, never by under-fuelling to lose weight.

A position that runs counter to most amateur weight-loss advice and is the basis of Anthony's "fuel for the work required" framing.

ON THE ROADMAN PODCAST

Every appearance by Dr David Dunne on The Roadman Cycling Podcast 1 episode in total.

TRAIN WITH THE KNOWLEDGE

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