Racers aim for first class honours
If you follow the social media accounts of many top bike racers, you will know the days of excess are long gone, with a strict diet and demanding training regime replacing beer and fags. What you might not know, though, is some riders are turning to university sports programmes for the competitive edge – using lab experts to help improve everything from nutrition to physical fitness. Loughborough University have been working with top-flight riders for the past 15 years and have now released a short film to their YouTube channel starring British Superbike riders Bradley Ray and Kyle Ryde, detailing the services they can provide. Offering everything from lab-based fitness testing, to nutrition advice and preparation for racing in heat, to sleep and travel plans, they aim to give teams and riders something extra over the competition.
Steve Harris is a performance physiologist at Loughborough Sport. He said: “Athletes have the opportunity to benefit from all of our performance services, working together to produce one plan for the athlete. This is something that really allows someone to be pushed forward to their maximum and improve their performance across the board.” The University staff have worked with 2014 World Superbike champion Sylvain Guintoli since 2007 and he swears by their system, saying: “Over the years, multiple tests, studies and meetings have significantly improved my understanding of my needs for the sport and how to improve my racing performance.”
See the film at youtube.com/user/LoughboroughSport