Hannah Grant is one of the original WorldTour team chefs and the author of Eat Race Win and The Grand Tour Cookbook. She spent over a decade cooking for Saxo-Tinkoff and other top teams alongside the rise of professional cycling nutrition, and now consults across teams, brands and broadcast on what elite riders actually eat. Her work bridges the gap between Michelin-trained kitchen craft and sports-science fuelling.
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Hannah Grant, chef and nutritionist to World Tour cycling teams, busts the myths around weight loss and performance fueling that have plagued pro cycling for decades. From exposing the dangers of under-eating during races to revealing how teams like Jumbo Visma are using AI to personalise nutrition, this conversation covers the real science behind what elite riders eat—and why amateur cyclists are often making costly mistakes by obsessing over marginal gains while ignoring the basics.
"When they see these guys being so strict that it almost ruins marriages in terms of diet plan... retired pros all give the same advice to amateurs: chill out."
"You don't try to lose weight when you're on the bike—that's outrageous. That is where you have to eat and get the fuel."
"Most people tend to major in the minors—they spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the one percent benefits that maybe being in ketosis could bring them, but they have much easier gains to make in other areas of their life."
UAE Team Emirates currently employs approximately eight team chefs — illustrating the scale at which World Tour nutrition has industrialised since Hannah Grant started in 2011 when employing two team chefs was considered excessive.
Source: Hannah Grant, World Tour team chef
Most amateur club cyclists carry approximately 5-10kg of excess weight over their genuine racing weight, with significant fueling and lifestyle changes — not extreme restriction — being the appropriate intervention.
Source: Hannah Grant clinical observation across amateur athletes
The single highest-leverage performance change for serious amateur cyclists asking about fine-tuning is reducing alcohol intake — Grant ranks it ahead of supplementation, ketone strategies, or other nutritional interventions.
Source: Hannah Grant, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
Expert opinion within World Tour nutrition (UAE, Jumbo-Visma, etc.) remains divided on whether exogenous ketones meaningfully improve performance, with feedback from pro riders themselves split between enthusiasts and those reporting no perceptible benefit.
Source: Hannah Grant, citing pro rider and team nutritionist conversations
Retired professional cyclists overwhelmingly advise amateur riders to "chill out" — Grant reports the same answer from every retired pro she has asked, citing the cost to family and social life of pro-emulating strict regimes for non-professional outcomes.
Source: Hannah Grant survey of retired pro cyclists
“When I talk to retired riders I always ask them what would your advice be to amateur riders and I get the same answer from all the pros and that is chill out. They say when they see these guys being so strict that it almost like you know ruins marriages in terms of diet plan like the strict exercise regimes.”
“The first thing I ask them about is what is your alcohol intake like because honestly if you want to fine-tune everything alcohol is the first thing that needs to go before you start thinking about ketones and everything.”
“Depending on the rider depending on their stomach depending on their race like physiology how big they are and you know muscle mass and so on I mean they take in between 60 to 120 grams of carbs you know per hour. It's so much food on the bike.”
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