Off the bike, pro cyclists are notoriously lazy. Obviously, part of the reason for this is that they spend so much time training that they’re tired a lot of the time.

But the main reason is that pros know far better than anyone the power of recovery. If you want to be at your best on the bike, you need to dedicate as much of your time off it to conserving energy and letting your body get itself back to a state where it’s fitter, stronger and ready to go again.

Almost everybody knows that if you want to be a good cyclist, you need to train. But what a lot of people don’t realise is that it’s not during the training itself that the improvements happen.

Training is a stimulus, and causes the body to adapt but these adaptations happen during the recovery phase. What that means is that if you neglect your recovery, you won’t find yourself getting better. One of the key parts of recovery is nutrition and, more specifically, protein. But isn’t protein for bodybuilders, we hear you say? Well we’re very glad you asked…