From telegraph.co.uk
Anna Henderson said her only regret was that there are not more riders in the pro peloton who follow the same lifestyle
Britain’s first cycling medal winner at the Paris Olympics believes that going vegan made her a faster rider.
Anna Henderson took a surprise second place in the road race time trial on the wet, treacherous streets of the French capital.
The 25-year-old has been vocal about her choice to live a vegan lifestyle in the past and says it has benefited her cycling career.
Speaking in 2021, she said she used to be “one of the biggest meat eaters out there” before finally deciding to have a plant-based diet.
‘I feel better. I’m faster’
“I used to be like, ‘I’ll never be vegan, I love meat. But I think what happens is that we all dissociate from what meat is and what animals are”, she told Rouleur cycling magazine.
“I made that connection and then I couldn’t eat meat anymore or any animal products.”
However, Henderson said she had not felt any negative impacts since she gave up meat and felt quicker than ever.
She added: “I feel no difference, I feel better. I’m faster, I’m a bit leaner and I love it.”
Henderson rides for professional Team Jumbo Visma-Lease a Bike and she previously said they had been “really good” supporting her choice.
She added: “It’s super easy [going vegan], actually. I think riders are scared that it will be really hard, but in my opinion, I’ve been totally fine and it’s been a really good experience.”
Her only regret, she said, was that there are not more riders in the pro peloton who follow the same lifestyle: “All round for me it’s been such a huge positive change in my life. And I hope that riders will make the change soon.”
Speaking after the race, in which she finished behind Australia’s Grace Brown, Henderson said: “I didn’t realise how slippery it was out there until I was on the course.
“I thought ‘I could lose a whole Olympic Games on one corner here’, so really take control and gain all of the time in the straights.
“I did that and my coach did a really good job of keeping me calm and pushing until the end.”
Henderson clocked a time of 41min 10.7sec over the 32.4km course through the centre of Paris, 1:31 down on Brown’s gold medal-winning ride.
Henderson is not the only vegan cyclist in the world of professional cyclists.
Former Australian rider Adam Hansen, who completed a record run of 20 consecutive grand tours, has also claimed his vegan diet is critical to his longevity.
“Every time I got blood tests done with the team, they were always amazed at my results because I was the healthiest rider by far with my blood markers”, he said.
“The medics always said I had some of the best results they’d seen.”
Team GB’s Lizzie Deignan, who will be competing in this year’s road race alongside Henderson, is also a vegetarian after giving up meat at age ten.
During the Tour de Femme, riders consume around 5,000 calories a day to keep up with the gruelling demands of the race.
In order to keep up their calorie intake on a day-to-day basis, vegan riders are advised to simply eat more, and more often.
Riders can get healthy fats from nuts, seeds or avocado, and should also consume higher glycaemic-index carbohydrates in the four hours post-ride.
High GI foods include the cyclist staple of rice cakes, plus bagels and most breakfast cereal.
Stimulate recovery
Road cyclists also need high levels of protein, or amino acids, to stimulate recovery from long training rides.
The problem they face is that the protein content of plants is relatively low, and few provide all the essential amino acids the human body needs for growth and recovery.
Plant-based protein also has a lower biological value than its animal equivalent. This means that less is absorbed and so more must be consumed to meet athletic dietary protein guidelines.
To counter that, riders need to eat a large amount of whole foods such as grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.
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