What does leadership in a disrupted world look like? Refuelled after our ride with good food and coffee, I enjoyed hearing the insights of Sarah Lloyd (Qantas), Jason Tuendemann (Amazon Web Services) and Anthony Seibold (England Rugby) at my first Breakfast with the Bunch hosted by the International Cycling Executives (ICE) Sydney branch.

With a range of alcohol free beers to choose from, you are bound to find a new favourite to satisfy your thirst without the hangover.

When it comes to energy drinks, there are many brands, all with different flavours, ingredients, unique properties and nutritional composition. How do you determine the best carbohydrate energy drink to fuel your cycling?

Often my clients KNOW what to do when it comes to nutrition, they just aren't doing it. What I love most about my job is NOT telling you what to do - but giving you the skills to make better food choices for life and actually apply you nutrition knowledge in practice.

The UCI World Championships in Wollongong is going to be SUCH an interesting race, the course is nothing like any other UCI world Champs courses I've seen. It's technical, it's lumpy.. actually it is more than lumpy. There is one particular section on the crit course which is near vertical, I checked the Ramah Rampage strava segment and saw gradients exceeding 25%. Ouch!

Have you tried something new on race day and had it go terribly wrong?

This has been the theme of the day with today's 1:1 client calls - where people have decided in the heat of the moment to use a gel, bar or energy drink mid race that they’ve never tired before and it went horribly wrong.

If you aren't already, I HIGHLY encourage you to start recording your menstrual cycle to help understand the unique patterns and challenges that you experience and how they can influence your food choices and intake.

How does a professional cyclist fuel the Vuelta? Professional cyclists adapt their carbohydrate intake both overall and in grams per hour to suit the demands of that stage (and what's on the cards tomorrow). Different days have different nutrition needs - whether that's in a training block or competition racing something epic like the Vuelta. Not every day is high carb or low carb.

If you are a female cyclist who wants to avoid these top 3 nutrition mistakes and learn more about how to fuel around your training for better health, recovery, body composition and performance, then this masterclass is for you!

Are you focusing on the right things when it comes to nutrition as a female athlete?

99% of the nutrition problems I see in female athletes can be solved by addressed the foundations of nutritional needs in the following order:

You only have one body - nourish it well.

Don't punish yourself for imperfect eating habits, or guilt trip yourself that you should do better or need to skip a meal because you overate earlier on.

Wondering what the best energy bar to use as a cyclist is? If you eat the same thing every ride, it’s pretty easy to get flavour fatigue fast. Keep your on-ride nutrition fresh by mixing it up. There are so many energy bars out there - which is your go-to energy bar as a cyclist?

There is no such thing as a perfect diet as a cyclist. The best diet for you is the one you can stick with when life gets chaotic.

Energy gels are a popular fuel choice used by cyclists in races and events. From an energy and carbohydrates perspective they can vary a lot in amount of carbohydrates, type of sugar used and how rapidly they are absorbed and available to fuel your effort. The only way to know which one works 'best' for you is to test it out in training.

Repeat after me.

I do not need to earn my food.

Even if you didn't do any exercise today, or your food choices weren't ideal earlier in the day, or your weight isn't where you want it to be, your body still needs and deserves food.

International recommendations suggest that free sugar intake should account for no more than 5% of daily energy intake. But what are free sugars, just how much sugar is that, and what does it mean in day to day life?

Superfoods are super popular these days. Black rice, buffalo berries, Queensland plums, pichu berry, kamu kamu have all been touted the hottest superfoods along with quinoa, blueberries, eggs, turmeric, chia... Apparently even chocolate and genetically modified purple tomatoes are considered superfoods these days. 

But what are superfoods and are they really that super?

Watch this conversation between Advanced Sports Dietitian Dr Gemma Sampson and Global Triathlon Network to discuss the best pieces of nutrition advice for triathletes.