ALAN MURCHISON ON FUELLING FOR PERFORMANCE | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

Alan Murchison has this rare combination that I find incredibly useful: he is a Michelin-starred chef who also happens to be obsessed with cycling nutrition. So when he talks about fuelling for performance, he is not just reading from a sports science textbook — he is thinking about flavour, texture, and whether you will actually eat the thing when you are tired on a Wednesday night.

That last point is where we started. Alan made the case that the biggest gap in most riders' nutrition is not knowledge — it is execution. People know they should eat well. They know protein matters, carbs fuel hard efforts, and vegetables are important. But when Tuesday rolls around and they have been at work for ten hours, they reach for whatever is easiest. His fix is brutally practical: two hours of batch cooking on a Sunday gives you five days of meals that require zero thinking.

We got into race-day nutrition, and Alan was pretty blunt about how many riders sabotage themselves by experimenting on event day. If you have not practised eating 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrate per hour in training, do not try it when there is a number on your back. Your gut needs rehearsal just like your legs do.

I asked about the supplement question because I know it comes up constantly. Alan's position is that simple whole foods — rice, eggs, oats, tinned fish — handle most of what you need. Supplements are for specific deficiencies diagnosed by blood work, not as a substitute for eating properly.

Hydration was another area where he sees club riders consistently dropping the ball. Not during the ride — most people are decent about drinking on the bike — but in the hours before. Showing up to a ride already behind on fluid intake means you are chasing hydration for the entire effort.

If you want to eat better without making it a second job, this episode is for you.

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