Nutrition for Pro Cycling: From Plate to Performance - Dr. Dana Lis & Nicki Strobel

On this episode of We Do Science, Dr Laurent Bannock welcomes back Dr Dana Lis, registered dietitian and performance nutrition practitioner, alongside chef and nutritionist Nicki Strobel, to discuss their paper Plate to Performance: Culinary Nutrition Support for Professional Road Cycling, part of the UCI Sports Nutrition Project.

Drawing on years of experience in elite cycling, Dana and Nicki explain how the culinary nutrition team of nutritionists, chefs and soigneurs turns evidence into food riders will actually eat across Grand Tours, Classics and training camps. The conversation covers the chef–nutritionist relationship, on-bike fuelling, menu planning around stage demands, and how power meter data, doubly labelled water and continuous glucose monitors inform daily decisions.

Laurent, Dana and Nicki also discuss educating riders in a decentralised sport, building buy-in across the team, planning for illness, crashes and kitchens without power, and where the journey from science to plate most often breaks down. With lessons that apply well beyond cycling, this episode offers sports nutritionists, chefs, coaches, students and athletes a practical look at how performance nutrition is delivered in the real world.

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Read the paper:

Plate to Performance: Culinary Nutrition Support for Professional Road Cycling

https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/36/3/article-p335.xml

Connect with Dana:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-dana-lis/

Connect with Nicki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-strobel-44b41347/

Connect with Laurent:

Website: https://www.laurentbannock.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurent_bannock

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

03:13 Welcoming Dana and Nicki to We Do Science

04:31 Bridging the gap between science and practice

06:35 Dana's background and career

10:08 Nicki's journey from Michelin-star chef to pro cycling

15:20 How the Plate to Performance paper came about

20:38 Why chefs and nutritionists need a shared language

23:18 Cooking on the road: chefs, hotels and logistics

26:27 Prioritising nutrition interventions

28:41 The chef–nutritionist relationship

33:12 On-bike nutrition and the role of soigneurs

38:02 Keeping the evidence intact across the team

42:01 Planning menus around race demands

45:15 Day types, fuelling time points and daily adjustments

49:56 The data behind fuelling decisions

52:55 Energy availability and RED-S in the field

56:16 Turning precise numbers into real meals

59:36 Rider education in a decentralised sport

1:04:06 Building rider buy-in

1:07:11 Working through the rider's support network

1:11:04 Establishing yourself in a new team

1:15:25 When things go wrong on the road

1:17:26 Planning for illness and injury

1:22:09 Where the science breaks down in practice

1:24:47 What Dana and Nicki have changed their minds on