Inside Pro Cycling Nutrition With Kristen Arnold, MS, RDN, CSSD

All right. Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I'm your host, Coach Chris Newport, and I have a super fun guest today. I'm like, I am going to pee my pants, you guys. I'm so excited to talk to Kristen Arnold. She's a fellow dietitian. How did we meet? I think you emailed me maybe via the podcast. Like, I—

Yeah.

Like, maybe we fangirl each other, but Really? Okay, yay, cool. Yes, and she was gracious enough to come on. Actually, we— I usually, I like to meet with my guests first just to kind of get a sense of if they're a good fit and just, you know, do we vibe. And you were so gracious to come on and let Emily, our previous dietetic intern, come on too, and she got to Uh, sort of fangirl with me. So, um, let's waste no time. Let's jump right in. Kristen, give us a little background of how you got into cycling, how you got into nutrition, into sports nutrition. And then, um, we're gonna go, we're gonna have some fun with like pro female cycling, nutrition topics, all this stuff. So I'll let you have the floor. Go for it.

Um, well, first I wanna say thanks, Chris, for having me on. It, I, I feel that this podcast is so informative for practicing dietitians and nutritionists, but also athletes, especially athletes. So I just thought a lot of the topics were really good.

Cool.

Um, but for me, so I went to college at Ohio State University to become a dietitian. Initially, I was going to go into public health and, um, women's nutrition, but found a passion in cycling. in sports near the end of my undergrad. So, um, I had a family I babysat for that thought I should try bikes. And so they had a bike for me to borrow and I quickly got into road cycling, but also cyclocross and mountain bike and all these other disciplines. And that was all in Columbus, Ohio. So, um, got my—

Cycling until college.

It's true. It's true.

That is crazy.

I love that.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. For all the later in life athletes out there. Yeah. I didn't play sports growing up. I was in marching band and played the flute and that was my passion. And so it wasn't until I was 21 that I started formally training, doing sports. Wow. Okay.

So you're one of these like hidden athletes.

Yeah.

Like we, we see this sometimes, like oftentimes people have, uh, you know, they played various sports when they grow up, but then there's the random rogue athlete where you're like, oh my gosh, you're really good at this. And how have you not been doing this like all since you were knee-high to a grasshopper? So that's really inspiring. Very cool. So nutrition first, then cycling, and then where'd you go from there?

Yep. Yep. And then, uh, I got my RD at Ohio State University and Then went straight into my master's also at Ohio State in human nutrition. So was pursuing my master's that was primarily research-based. And during that time was training, uh, and racing with the Ohio State Cycling Club team and also for a local club, but ended up doing really well one season and coming out of my master's. I pursued professional racing while I was starting up my private practice. So I had a private practice nutrition business and I also started coaching cycling so I can make some money on the side while I was pursuing professional racing and training and racing full-time. Dang.

Okay. And then was this all in Ohio or, or did you sort of travel all over the place?

Yeah, I, it was, I was based in Ohio at that time, but fortunately back then this was about 10 years ago now, um, there was a much more robust cycling racing scene. So in the Midwest and on the East Coast, you could do a whole calendar. I did go to some of the big stage races in California, um, Colorado, but was primarily racing on the East Coast, Midwest.

So I know you mentioned 10 years ago that there was a more robust racing scene. Was it COVID that Uh, sort of broke the racing scene? Like what, what are your thoughts on that?

I've thought about this a lot, 'cause clearly I'm passionate about cycling and the sport in general and helping it to develop. I think COVID was a big kind of fork in the road for the sport, but one of the main barriers we have is in the US, it's just harder and harder to get permits for races. So it's harder and harder for promoters to put on races. And if there's no races, there's no teams. And if there's no teams, there's no riders. And culturally, it's just becoming less of an emphasis as a sport. But that being said, there are some really great bright spots that have been shining the last few years. There's a race that came back this year, the Philly Classic, that hasn't existed in— it's a UCI 1.1 race in 3 weeks at the end of August here, 2026. And there's more local clubs popping up, more junior development programs. So there is this revival that's happening, but there's still this lack of races that's Yeah.

Is it, uh, and maybe this is like a USAC sort of question, but I remember we had this amazing crit in downtown Raleigh and I mean, talk about spectator friendly. If you guys don't know what a criterium is, go look it up. It's freaking, it's like NASCAR on bikes. It's insane. But I think COVID probably killed that and then it never made it back and, you know, not having connected with the organizers or anything to see, is it a permitting issue? Is it a, you know, what's going on with that? But I think cycling is such an accessible sport and, uh, that's too bad that it's kind of, you know, what do you see as opportunities for growth both in just cycling in general and then also on the pro scene?

Yeah, locally, I, when I started racing 15 years ago, There was a clause in, if you were a USA Cycling registered club or team, you had to put on some kind of event. You had to put on a race, you had to put on a clinic, but it was, it was a requirement that was not actually enforced, but technically it was in the bylaws. And I think more grassroots community-run or, um, races and clinics and rides is what would really help because the promoters that are trying to make money on it, It's just really challenging to get enough sponsorship money. But when it's more volunteer run and there's more people that are engaged and invested in it, I think it can do really well. Yeah.

Having just come off of the triathlon that we just put on every year, y'all, those events ain't cheap.

Oh yeah.

We spent well over like that entire day, and this was for not even 125 athletes. That entire day cost us over $9,000. So, and I think some transfer, some degree of transparency is important for the community to know like, oh, okay, we have to. And if, you know, if we paid all the volunteers, we would be in the red. Like it just, you know, like we can't make that happen. So I'm sure it's no different in the cycling world. So, and then, um, police are not cheap, permits, all that kind of stuff. So.

Police and shutting down the roads, I think are the 2 main costs that just keep going up and, and that's where the grassroots community comes in because a lot of the time local ordinances, they might be more interested in providing permits or less expensive permits if it's more community run rather than somebody trying to make money.

Yes.

And so it just feeds back on itself in a really positive way.

Yeah. Love that. Very cool. All right. So you got into your private practice and by the way, what is your private practice called?

Uh, I call it Kristen Arnold and Team, but my website is sportsnutritionforwomen.com. Cool.

And what was your, what was your master's thesis in?

My master's thesis, I had 2 parts. So I did a clinical trial where I developed a dietary intervention to lower chronic inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women. Ooh. So not sports related, but very much related to a lot of the peri and postmenopausal athletes that I work with in my private practice. I, Just honestly love working with this population. I feel like it's such like a liminal time for a lot of women and it's a really good opportunity for them to get more in touch with their bodies, but it also can be really challenging. So having support there can be helpful.

So what were the markers you looked at? We gotta get nerdy.

We looked at interleukin-6, um, TNF-A receptor 2, and, uh, we looked at cortisol, but we didn't use it in our analysis because it wasn't chronic. It's not a chronic inflammatory marker.

Okay, cool. And of course, those things that you just mentioned, some of those have like genetic, um, pieces to it too. So, so cool. I love that you're studying this popular— or that you study this population and then bring it into your prior practice because like you said, it's such a pivotal opportunity in a woman's life where I feel like it's like, it's like You know, the next opportunity for them to discover their greatness.

Yes.

In a different way. So cool. Okay. So you got into your pro cycling, you had your, you got into coaching, you got into nutrition. We're like sisters from another mother, by the way, Kristen. So this is so cool. I love this. Then how did you get, how did you combine the nutrition pro cycling piece? Was it Like, you know, they discovered like, oh, you've got this amazing superpower from nutrition. Because I feel like especially about the time that you got out of school, we were still sort of pushing for nutrition to be important. I feel like now people get it. I feel like that's not the barrier anymore. But how did that all happen?

Yeah, I do feel like I've been through the gauntlet as far as What I feel, what I need to spend time explaining to athletes and what they already have bought into, right? Like, I like to tell people a lot of the recommendations they have changed, but minorly, and a lot of the recommendations have stayed the same. But just the amount of time I need to spend convincing an athlete that they have to eat 6,000 calories or they have to eat 5,000 calories, like this is not a conversation I have to have as much as. Many times, which is helpful.

Yeah.

But, um, yeah, I do feel like it's, especially for cycling, there is such an emphasis on nutrition right now. I mean, it's, it's believed to be the number, like, uh, nutrition and then equipment are the 2 main drivers of why they are constantly breaking speed records. Yeah. Um, in all of the races. So not, not max speed, but Yeah. The amount of time it takes to do 150 kilometers or 200 kilometer course is just consistently being broken. And nutrition is the main driver and then equipment as well.

Yeah. Crazy. And then of course the heat this year in some of the overseas races.

Oof.

Um, I'm excited to get into that too.

So, okay, cool.

So you're no longer having to convince people as much of like, let's make sure we're eating enough. Let's make sure we're eating at the right time. So that's no longer a barrier. What do you find is the barrier right now? Or is there one in nutrition, at least from your point of view? Because I think this is such an interesting aspect of bringing the dietitian's lens into how we can support athletes. And then, um, and I'm kind of asking a lot of questions at once, like how do, how does that get incorporated into like the coaching aspect? Do you have a lot of— well, let's back up a little bit. How did you get connected with, um, with educational, the EF team, right? So finally introducing that. So back us up, get us into that piece, and then we'll get into like, how do you work with the team managers, coaches, etc.? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, just to close out the story. So I raced professionally in the US, in Canada for 6 to 7 years, retired from racing in 2021, then became a team sport director. So for people that are unfamiliar with cycling, maybe you've seen Unchained, and this is a really helpful kind of like pop culture, uh, entrance into cycling that I've found. But essentially I am the coach that is helping on the radio, helping riders navigate the tactics of what we're doing in the race. So road cycling is very much a team sport. There's one person winning. Uh, that's on the finish line, but it is a full team effort for that person to get there, whoever it is. So that helped me. And I worked for the national team. I worked for USA Cycling with primarily the junior women's program and some of the elite in the U23 women's programs as well. But that kind of got me into like the, uh, pro continental European scene in cycling. So when that happened, I started to make contacts and eventually got connected with EF Pro Cycling, which is a World Tour team. We're one of the top 5 best teams in the world. So currently on the women's team, we have the current world champion, we have the current Olympic gold medalist for road cycling.

Yeah, Kristen Arnold, right? Or didn't she— Faulkner.

Yes.

Did I get that right? Okay. Yes. Kristen Faulkner. That's right.

And she's American, which is really cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And she's also not a spring chick in the standard. Okay, cool. And, and like, she's in her 30s, by the way.

So, yeah. Yep. Yeah. She's still in her 30s, but she, um, row— she was a rower in college, I believe. Um, you know, I should fact check that, but I'm quite sure I'm quite confident. And then She found cycling later, like after college.

So cool.

Pretty cool.

Yeah, definitely. Okay. So you got connected with the EF Pro Cycling team, which by the way, I was, um, in preparation for this, I was looking into their team. They have like the best pro cyclist photos.

Totally.

Like you, I mean, you, it looks like they love their job, like they're having fun. It looks like a great team atmosphere. Do you feel that on your end?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I haven't worked— this is the first opportunity I've had to work at this level. Like when I was working with the national team, I worked with World Tour riders, but I didn't work in like a team environment at this level. But I do, I mean, there's a really strong emphasis on team culture and Just making sure that we're supporting one another, that we can do our jobs well. And that's very much true in the nutrition department as well. We now have 6 of us, which is kind of insane. We have 6 nutritionists that work part or full-time with the team. So yeah, 2 of us for the women's program combined.

Okay, cool.

Correct. Yeah, 2 for the women's program, 2 for the men's program. Um, nutri— um, Anna Karslar, which is our director of nutrition. And then we have, like, we call Pascal our functional nutritionist, but the functional piece is not functional. It's, it's like logistics. So he coordinates with the soigneurs, he coordinates, um, with the packing lists, and he essentially puts all of our strategies and protocols in place to make sure that they happen appropriately.

Yeah, because there's only— there's so much that you can do on paper, but if it doesn't get into their mouths, it's a different story, right?

Yes, exactly.

Yeah. Uh, are these all, um, nutritionists from all over the globe, or primarily from a certain country, or—

Yeah, they're all Spanish.

Uh, are you the American? I'm the only—

I'm the only non— they're all like are, are Span— they are from Spain and most of them live in Spain.

Wow.

And then I'm the only American. Yeah.

Is there a language barrier there at all?

Uh, with most of them have, most of my coworkers have really good English and we are an English-speaking team. So every World Tour team has like a team language they speak. Some are French, some are Spanish, some are Dutch, some, um, but we're an Ameri— uh, US-based team, so we speak English, which is very helpful for me. But yeah, there can be a language barrier at times.

Crazy. Okay, so you made your way overseas this summer and you were there for kind of a long time. So tell us about that.

Yeah, this— so I started working for EF about this time last year, end of June 2025. And so now it's August 2026.

Mm-hmm.

And primarily I was brought on as a specialist. So I work with a handful of the athletes one-on-one, but I'm also part of the nutrition team. I participate in our weekly department meetings, our journal. I just, I just finished giving a journal club talk, um, right before this call.

Right.

So that was fun. We do monthly journal club meetings and I coordinate with the trainers, uh, and the directors and things like that. But I do less in-person work than some of the other nutritionists that live in Europe full-time.

Mm-hmm.

But this year I did get to go to the Giro d'Italia, the women's Giro d'Italia, which is very fun. Cool. Yeah. It's a, um, 10-day stage race in Italy. So we race 10 days straight.

Mm-hmm.

And I was the nutritionist on the ground there. And then I also did, um, an altitude camp that was for the pre-Tour de France. women's riders. So we had 5 out of the 8 riders there and we did testing, we did training, coordinating with the chef, all kinds of things at the altitude camp.

So fun. Were you able to ride with them at all or are you in the car? Like, how does that— like, I want a behind-the-scenes tour of, you know, if we stuck a GoPro on you. And I think we had this conversation prior to you leaving. I was like, you need to be posting on Instagram, like all about— you're like, is it that interesting? I mean, it's interesting for me, you know, what goes on behind the scenes. So like, give us a view at the, at the camp, at races. Like, what does that all look like?

Yeah. So as I've gotten kind of higher up in this sport and now I would say I'm at the tippy top of the sport, right?

Yeah.

The more and more specialized your job gets. So when I was like a team director for the national team, technically I was the coach, but I was also doing all of the logistics and coordinating. Like sometimes we only had so many staff members. So I was filling the bottles and helping clean the bikes and shuttling riders to and from the airport. Like I was, you know, I was kind of touching all of the areas of what needs to happen. But now at the World Tour level, like my job is very specialized, which is really awesome. Like I feel like My experience at the Giro is just seeing how good everyone is at their job, how organized everything is. Everyone can maintain like a really good calm atmosphere that's very positive because it's just so well run and everybody knows what they need to be doing when they need to be doing it.

Yeah. So I'm assuming that you're not shuttling riders to the airport anymore or cleaning bikes. So what does this Specialization look like for you?

Yeah, so for me, so at the Giro, a lot of my job involved executing the protocols. And this could look like we are doing morning. I'll just do, I'll just do a day in the life. I'll do a day in the life.

Yeah, let's go.

And just to preface, like we don't have nutritionists at every single race. We prioritize the nutritionists going to the Grand Tours, um, which there are 3 Grand Tours. There's the, um, Vuelta a España in Spain, there's the Giro d'Italia in Italy, and then there's the Tour de France. So those are the main Grand Tours. But because of that, a lot of the protocols and things that we do are typically done by other staff members like the team doctor or, um, the soigneurs. But when the nutritionist is there, they can do some of those tasks. So I'm gonna go over some of the tasks I'm doing, but I'm not— we don't always have the nutritionist doing them.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so first thing we do is we measure the specific gravity of the urine of the riders to do like a hydration measurement in the morning.

Yep.

Cool. And we'll provide recommendation. Yep.

Drop it on a little.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

This is so fun.

Yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes we use a refractometer, sometimes we're using strips. And then I'll usually check in on breakfast and coordinate with the chef. So at the team, at the Grand Tours, we always have a chef and this is like very luxe treatment in my opinion for the riders. The food is exceptional quality. The chefs are also all great people to work with. So it's, it's a really fun part of the job is coordinating and making sure the menu is set. There isn't anything additional needed, um, that everything is according to, um, like health code.

So.

Coordinating that. We also use a program called Hexis for— oh, go ahead.

Well, I was just gonna say, are they cooking on the bus? Like, where are they cooking? Where's their station? Because you guys are all, you know, grand tours, you guys are all over the place. So.

Yeah, they, we have food trucks.

Ooh. Okay. Yep.

So they are, they are cooking in, in a, in a food truck. Wow. And then they're serving the food in the dining room of whatever hotel we're in.

Okay. All right, cool. And then that's just part of like the team train that goes out, like the bus, all the cars, plus the food truck.

Yep.

Yep. Is this like the standard food truck that we think of in America, or does it look a little— okay. All right, cool.

I mean, it's branded, um, and it looks a little— it's probably more similar to a European food truck, but it has a big window. Like you could technically, you know, you could order at the window if you wanted to.

Okay. Okay, cool. All right. So coordinating, um, with the chefs, which is amazing. And then, um, urine specific gravity. So making sure they're hydrated prior and then coordinating all that. And then what else?

Yeah, so we, we have a lot of protocols in place as far as foods that are available to the riders either on the bus, foods that are available to the riders at the dining hall. We also have something called the food room, which is usually In one of the staff rooms or somewhere else in the hotel. So we always have places where athletes have access to like a fueling station, right? You would call it the fueling station if you were in a collegiate program, but we have fueling stations everywhere for the riders. So I'm making sure that those are all stocked and we're not missing anything, or if we need something in addition, we'll get that sorted. Yeah. And the, the chefs. Primary, they do kind of, they do more operate by themselves, which is really helpful for their logistics. So they just go from hotel to hotel. They don't travel to the race. We'll have packed post-race meals. So we have curated post-race meal recipes and those get made, put on the bus. The riders will have their post-race meal on the bus and then they'll have dinner at the hotel after the race.

And it sounds like you're using this super cool software, Hexis. To be able to draw, which I met with them maybe a couple of weeks ago and I was like, holy moly, this is unreal. So you guys have some amazing access to really being able to map out exactly what a writer needs. So that is so cool that they developed that. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, we use Hexis and it's a really new platform, as you figured out. But that's, it's both a, I would say it's mostly positive. Uh, there's some negatives to it being new. Yeah. But generally, I mean, it is, there are so many features that are automated and then there is, you can hyper-personalize everything. So we don't, not all riders track and period. And then not nobody on the team tracks 100% of the time. So I just want to make that clear. Like, we don't have— we personalize our prescription in the way we work with individual athletes. So some athletes aren't tracking at all. We're just providing nutrition education, making sure they understand what they need. And then some athletes are tracking everything for certain periods of time throughout the year.

Is that for their own Peace of mind, or what have you found in that variability of whether they track or don't track?

Yeah, it, I, I would say as a tool, we use it to make sure that the athletes are getting what they need when they need it, right? Like as dietitians, we know by the book there's so many protocols and specific strategies we can put in place as far as grams per kilogram of certain nutrients, how we can leverage certain foods for certain times and And really getting in the nitty-gritty of the prescription. And so for riders that are engaged in that process and really value it, it can be incredibly helpful, um, for their peace of mind, like you said, but also their performance. I mean, they do benefit from dialing in all those pieces.

Yeah.

Um, but for certain riders, it just becomes more stressful than it is helpful for them. And at certain times too, maybe some times of the year Or at certain points in races or seasons, they're engaged in the process and they wanna kind of remind their— themselves, like, where's their intuition lining up with the prescription? And a lot of the time it lines up. Like I've, I'll have, I, I call it an audit and I do this in my private practice as well. Like I'll have people track for 3 days or 5 days, different training days. And a lot of the time what they do intuitively lines up really well. With the recommendations.

Mm-hmm.

And then if there could be gaps too that we're finding, and then they don't need to continue tracking to fill those gaps, they're just doing it in their regular habits. Yeah.

So cool. Cuz I was gonna ask if you, I mean, you know, let's not pretend that, uh, cycling is not a somewhat weight-focused sport. You know, we've got watts per kg and, you know, how much can they produce, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe I feel that more on the men's side than I do on the women's side. That's probably just a, Yeah. A belief or something like that that I'm assuming, but do you find that there is any leaning towards disordered eating patterns, especially with such a weight-focused sport? Have— or have you noticed that by using the strategy that you are engaging, that that reduces the likelihood of some sort of, um, disordered eating pattern?

So anytime there's a history of something, that trickles down or through, right? So we— I would not say— I would say that there is— I wouldn't say there's a pattern of it, but there's definitely notions within the sport that are— that lean towards the lighter is faster mentality.

Mm-hmm.

And it's up to like the individual's of staff, the individuals of riders, but also our team culture, what we stand for, how we operate, that can really tip the needle on this conversation.

Right.

And I think there's some really positive conversations that have happened in the last few years. There's some negative ones with regards to this, but it is totally a reality, Chris, like something that we have to manage. But that being said, like, you know, I also believe that You can't ignore it in the sport of cycling. You can't ignore that watts per kilogram is a factor in the sport, but that doesn't need to happen at the expense of somebody's health, somebody's long-term health. Some, like for female athletes particularly, um, but male athletes as well, like bone density, hormones. So these are the foundational strategies on our team. We will not even approach the con— the the notion of doing any kind of weight management if the athlete isn't maintaining their health and performance. So primarily the health, we, we do blood work through the UCI, we're required to do them every quarter. But we'll do it more regularly if we need to. But we're very closely monitoring both the physical health, but also the mental health, even if somebody is physically healthy. But we don't feel that they can mentally be successful in having healthy relationships with food and their bodies. while doing a weight management plan, we won't engage in it.

That is amazing that I feel like the sport has come so far from being this sort of like waif-thin thing to— I mean, it, it appeared to me, at least certainly from the women's side, that everyone looks healthy and they glow a little bit more. So, um, good job, Kristen.

Yeah.

To be part of that.

I know. I mean, honestly, working for EF is totally a dream job for me.

Yeah.

I feel like we're all dedicated to this mission of having athletes that are both the top, top of the sport, but also healthy.

Yeah.

As healthy as they can be while doing it. I don't think every team operates like that, but we have really worked hard to cultivate and we're still working at it. It's not like it's perfect on our team, but we're still Working to cultivate both our processes and like the way we operate in that way.

Yeah, that is so cool. Um, so did we miss anything in terms of the day in the life? I know we got through like the morning protocol, but did we get through like what happens during racing? Um, and where are you through all this process and then afterwards?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, um, we do, depending on the temperature, we'll do, we have a heat protocol.

Mm-hmm.

Right. So I would, I would assume most teams have some kind of heat protocol where if it's a certain temperature, they engage in some strategies. So if the nutritionist isn't there, this is usually in charge by the team doctor. But if the nutritionist is there, they can help with things like slushies. We'll make slushies for the riders. We have different things available for the riders at the feed zones, depending on the temperature and the day and the tactics and the course itself. So we have certain protocols where we'll have like certain types of gels or certain types of bottles, um, ice socks or no ice socks depending on the temperature and some other factors of the tactics. Yeah. And the course duration and how difficult the course will be that day. Yeah.

Um, and when you say ice socks, are you meaning like the, the pantyhose, uh, filled with ice? Or not a literal sock, like taking my Hanes socks and stuffing 'em with ice. Yeah.

Yeah. This is a really like antiquated, um, niche strategy that I think is specific to cycling. It, it exists in triathlon as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it does.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so essentially we take pantyhose and they're just regular pantyhose. I'm still amazed there hasn't been a company that developed like Ice socks for this purpose.

Right. I'm also amazed that pantyhose are still sold and a thing because they're the worst for their actual purpose. But no, I digress.

That's true. Yeah. So yeah, we fill 'em with ice and then the, the riders will put them down their jerseys and it essentially serves as an ice. And when it melts, it's just this teeny tiny little flap of fabric that is comfortable and just fine. Yeah.

Insertion, and then you don't feel it. No chafing, no extra weight to carry. That's awesome. I heard, I don't know whether it was more on the women's side of things, but I heard some issues with feed bag handoffs and crashes more in some of the Grand Tours, cuz these feed bags are getting heavier. At least that's what the commentators are saying. So I'm like, I'm gonna ask Kristen about this and get the real story. Is that actually because of the heat? And maybe things that are iced down, is it making those feed bags harder to grab or, I don't know, is it, do you feel like it's an issue?

Um, there, there are a couple factors. I don't think it's just because the bags are heavy. So that could be one is we, so there's something called a musette bag where it's essentially a little satchel bag that the staff will put bottles and ice socks and nutrition. And then there's one, usually one, maybe 2 riders that will take them and distribute them to the other riders in the peloton. So I, I would say one of the main drivers is that as of last year, I think it was last year or the year before. So before, teams could decide where they were feeding their riders as long as it was after 30K and before 20K kilometers to go. So, um, teams and staff could choose exactly where on the course they wanted to feed their riders. But now in the last year or two, the UCI has specific designated areas for where the teams are allowed to feed. And I would say, and I think a lot of the team directors and the riders would say that those areas are not always chosen very well.

Mm-hmm.

So you'll get an area where, yeah, okay, it's flat and it's open, but they're literally going 40 miles an hour through that section.

Yeah.

And if you can imagine going 40 miles an hour and trying to grab Like a bag.

Yeah.

It's really unsafe. Right. And, and so there's 2 things that can happen. One, a lot of the time nobody will take a feed. And so you have this feed zone, the riders are counting on nutrition and it's just not possible for them to slow down enough, get a feed, get back on the group and not lose minutes or risk getting dropped. Or you have riders that are trying to get feeds, they slap bottles and It's just really unsuccessful. So I would say that's probably the main driver rather than the musettes being heavy.

All right. So what's in, what's in the bags? I know prior to recording you were mentioning some sponsors and I think it's interesting the company that you mentioned, if you're okay mentioning it, of some of like the products or brands that you guys use because You know, transparency is fun. So, and do you feel like that makes your job easier having some of these more specific brands or products that are used for the team?

Yep. Yeah. So we use Amac is the name of the company. A-M-A-C.

I think they're, are they a Spanish company? Maybe. I think they're European. Yeah, it might be European.

Yeah. It's definitely European.

They're harder to get here. I feel like you can get them through the feed, but like our local running store doesn't have them.

Yep. So yeah, so you can get them on The Feed. Um, I think they have some kind of arrangement with The Feed that they're the only distributor.

Oh, oh, okay.

Is my guess. Uh, but, um, I mean, on it, like, I don't have to, I don't feel like I need to, I'm not, yes, I need to promote their products, but I also feel really confident in them.

That's cool.

Um, what I was telling Chris before the podcast was that in, in my opinion, like I've worked with a lot of brands, right? Not worked, but, um, I've worked as a sports dietitian for 10 years. So of course Chris and I have been exposed to hundreds of brands by athletes being like, have you heard of this company? What do you think about this product?

It's, it's bananas. I don't know how the average human does it. Like it's just, it's too much. It's too much.

Too much.

Yeah.

It's too much. Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, but Amex products, in my opinion, are very like practical and evidence-based. So they have a line of gels, um, energy chews, bars, and all of those products are a certain amount of glucose to fructose ratio and also have exactly 30 grams of carb. So it's super practical and they have different forms. So riders that don't do well with gels, they can do chews. Riders that don't do well with chews can use bars and And they also have like 3 different types of bars, but they're all like a specific ratio and they have 30 grams of carb.

Cool.

So super helpful. And then they have a line of, they're called Turbo and they're a higher fructose to glucose ratio and they're all 40 grams of carb. So it's really easy for athletes to be like, okay, I need 2 gels and whatever, I need 2 energy products and a Turbo product to get me to my prescription for the day. It's just Practically a very good line of products, and they also have good flavors. The riders seem to like them. I've used everything at least once, uh, in my limited endurance exercise these days.

You're behind the scenes more so than—

I'm a little bit more behind the scenes. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, so, and then they have a line of supplements as well, which it's, it's just amazing to me, this company, like They have iron, they have beta alanine, they have creatine, they have vitamin D, they have all like the, the quintessential specific supplements that we would recommend. And they don't have a lot of strange like proprietary blends of different things.

Hate a proprietary blend. I'm like, come on. But I get, I get it, right? It's so easy to copy a supplement and throw it out to the world. So, yep. Crazy.

Yeah.

Um, okay. So had some good success with that in terms of carbs per hour. Good Lord. I know we talked about this last time, priority meeting of, um, not having to convince people as much to fuel during events, but now I feel like it's tipped almost like too far in the like overdoing it category. And now all I hear from people is I'm doing 100 grams of carbs, 120 grams of carbs, or I'm trying to push it Over that, I'm like, okay, how's that going for you? And they're like, oh, I didn't feel so great. I'm like, everybody has a different strategy. You know, you can find your tipping point. Do you guys lean into metabolic testing or a certain way that you help the riders prescribe things? Because women obviously are not men and they're smaller. Um, although the men cyclists are not that big either. But, um, what's your strategy of what you can share of how to help the riders land on their goal for racing? And is it the same across all races or does it matter? I asked you a lot of questions. You're welcome.

What is our carb strategy? Yes.

Okay. That would've been the easier way.

What are the answers people wanna Uh-huh.

Yeah.

So yeah, depending on how closely we're working with riders and what the race is, we will do an individual prescription per the race. And the prescription will depend on things like duration. Um, so like shorter races, shorter races, you don't need as many carbs. Like this is something I've seen a lot of the times they're eating for a 2-hour race the same they would as a 5-hour race and like Those carbs are not even getting to where they need to go that quickly. Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so yeah, it'll depend on duration, intensity, but even things like tactics. I think that's a really fun part of the job is the sport directors will make a race strategy and that will influence our nutrition recommendations for that stage based on, um, the course, but also like when the athlete, when the rider needs to be doing certain things during the race.

Yeah.

So those, all those factors. But this year we have, well, this season we've integrated some performance testing where we're actually measuring the oxidation rate of the carbohydrates the athletes are taking in, the riders are taking in. And, and this is, yeah, so this is super, super fascinating and incredibly helpful for us. Um, so we contract with a company called, I'm gonna say it wrong, so I'm not gonna say it right now.

I'll put it.

So I think analytics.

Is it like a foreign, is it a British sound?

It's, it's British. It's a British company.

Oh, okay.

Um, ExoAnalytics, I believe is the name. And so essentially we use—

Is it a carbon tracer or like something that they're inject? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

We use a breath test, so we send them breath samples and then we also do metabolic cart testing to assess like their, um, yeah, their oxygen to carbon dioxide output.

Yep.

Um, so through that we can see how many grams of carbohydrate the rider is actually oxidizing in that time period. So we'll give them 120-gram or 160-gram bottle of carbs and see how many of those carbs are actually oxidizing. And Chris, it is, it is like super, super interesting. Yeah. Um, the main driver we found, and this isn't like This is, this is common knowledge in the literature, but one of the main drivers to how many carbs people can take in is gut, gut training.

Mm-hmm. Right?

So if somebody 2 or 3 times a week for 2 to 3 weeks is practicing taking in higher amounts of carbs, they will be able to oxidize more. So we'll do that. We'll do a gut training regimen and then have them Do the, um, the carb oxidation testing. But some riders, like they are taking in 120, 160 grams of carb in the, uh, in this specific formula. And they might only be oxidizing like 75. Yeah. Of those grams.

Yeah.

Other athletes, we've seen up to 170 grams of carb oxidized.

Dang. That is insane.

Yeah.

So the, the variability rider to rider is massive.

It's massive. Um, and it's beyond even what we understand in the literature, in my opinion.

Yeah. So cool. Oh my goodness.

Wow.

That is so great that you have access to that kind of stuff. Cuz I mean, from what I've seen, I've only seen it in the literature of like, yeah, have this, uh, very specific carbon tracer that you're gonna ingest. Um, dang, I wonder, I wonder how I'm like thinking to myself, I'm like, how would we be able to get that? But also we don't work with any pro athletes. Right.

So yeah, it's not their job necessarily.

No offense, y'all, but I don't wanna help you with that. Like, that's, that's, mm, I know you wanna do well in your races, but is that the next level to go to? I guess it depends on your goals, right? So, yeah.

I think there's a couple like important pieces of context here. Like first off, gut training is like, does help. So like if you are planning to try to take to push the limits, you need to do the gut training. You can't just do like whatever in training and then try to go to a race and do a bunch of carbs.

Yeah.

Um, but also, I mean, these athletes, I think even I didn't fully understand the gap between how, like the, the performance of an amateur to a professional. I mean, some of the men's riders are burning 1,200 kilojoules an hour, like on a regular ride.

Like they're just, Uh, we, we've been having this discussion in our coaches meeting, kilojoules to kilocalories, which so many people are like, is, is kilocalories a calorie? Kilocalories, yes, is a calorie in the general mind, but not big C calorie. So it's a little different. But, um, can you give us an idea of kilojoules to kilocalories or what calories burned? Yeah.

So, yep. Yeah. And so kilojoule, um, we, we, the, one of the reasons I, I specifically did say this number is because it's used based on power meter data. So in cycling, if you have a power meter, you can measure the watts, the wattage that you're putting out, and that can translate into a kilojoule number. It does, it can get really complicated very quickly as far as how all these calculations are made. And I will tell you, like, at the high level, we, we try the best we can. We're constantly learning and changing how we do it based on the formulas that different things use. But Like TrainingPeaks will use a different formula than Hexis that will use a different formula than the power meter that will use a different formula than the head unit that the power meter data is going into. So you have all of these inputs as far as how this data is getting calculated. Um, but that being said, um, when you have the raw number of a kilojoule, it's almost a 1-to-1 for the kilocalorie. But one important factor is the efficiency factor of the rider. Do you use this, Chris?

We, we're just getting into this piece of data. Yeah. Yeah.

So what we do know for sure is that athletes that are really well trained are more efficient. So that means the number of calories they're burning is going to be a lot closer, um, to the kilojoules that they're actually putting out, because when you put out a certain number of kilojoules, The body is also giving off heat and all these other factors.

Basically, the amount of energy you put into your pedals to produce the work is like hardly anything. Always reminds me of that. Have you seen that track athlete? And I feel bad that I don't remember his name, who just puts out this like massive quantity of— he's basically sprinting to try to power a toaster. And the amount of effort that he has to put in to power this little itty bitty toaster.

Yeah.

It's like.

Unreal.

Right. So yeah, I'm so sorry you guys that all of your work is not translating into forward motion, but we keep writing, right?

So we keep writing. Yeah.

So looking at efficiency and how well they're oxidizing carbs and, um, kilojoules, kilocalories, how does that all translate?

Wow.

This is so fun.

Yeah, we do the best we can, honestly. Um, and, and another takeaway here is that none of these numbers are 100% accurate. Right? Like we are all, as scientists, as medical professionals, as nutritionists, we're doing the best we can with the data we have, but it's still at the end of the day, we're like estimating how many body, how many calories the body is actually burning. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, Kristen, we have so many more things to go over, so I'm, I'm gonna be so curious to see how our audience reacts and what additional follow-up questions we might have. Or even getting more into like having a separate session just on perimenopause, menopause.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. I love that idea.

All, all good things. Um, and just real quick. So we're, we're recording this on a Tuesday and the Tour de France Femmes just finished. Um, and, and you're in Colorado, right?

Right now. Yes.

Right now. Okay. Does that mean you're going someplace very soon?

Yeah, I travel a lot for work, so it's really exciting, but I am based in Colorado.

That is so cool. Okay, where are you going next?

Next, I'm going to the Philly Classic, which is in Philadelphia, so I'm doing some domestic travel, and that'll be fun. EF will be there, but I'll actually be working with a composite team, which is like a fun side project I'm doing with Jakroo, which is a cycling clothing company that is sponsoring a women's team. to do this race.

Very cool. So exciting. What do you think, uh, what do you think we need to do as spectators or athletes to be able to support women's cycling?

Oh, that's a great question. I mean, it's, it, I would say it's a relatively easy sport to follow. Like you can look up results online for free and the main platforms that stream cycling are Peacock and Flow Sports or Flow Bikes. And so a lot of people already have a Peacock subscription. Yeah. Either for the Olympics or other sports. So in addition to that, like following the teams on social media and as best you can show up to the races in person. Uh, that is also a fun thing about cycling is it's free to go to the races. Like you might not see a ton of it, but it's, it's free to go.

Yeah. Any plans for the Olympics? I know that's a little bit away, but maybe, or like maybe—

We will see.

Okay. Yes.

I mean, I will definitely be working with athletes individually for the Olympics. Like I have a handful of athletes that are likely going to be selected.

Yeah.

But I don't know if I'll like go in person, although my brother does live in Long Beach in LA. Oh. So I would have an in there.

Yeah, I've heard some of the, some sports are getting pricey already. So hopefully, uh, cycling and certainly triathlon too are not as expensive. But, um, and I've always toyed around with this, like how fun would it be to go to the Tour de France? Like where, where should we stand? Where are the coolest places? It looks like the finish line is neat, but like insider's view, where should we go?

Insider's view. So I know in 2027, the Grand Depart, so the beginning of the Women's Tour starts in actually in, in the UK. Oh, okay. So that's a fun fact about the tour is it doesn't, it's not always in France. The Tour de France is not always in France the whole time. Um, this year the women's race started in Switzerland.

Yeah. Geneva, right? I think it, yeah.

Cool. Geneva area. And I mean, if I, if I were gonna do it, I would First, look up the courses and see if there's side trips I wanna do that are near the race.

Yeah.

Um, as a spectator, like usually the most fun places are going to be on the, the main climbs of the queen stage or the hardest stage of the race. So this year for the women, it was the Tourmalet, which was, um, near the end of the, the race. And so the, the major climbs when The riders are going slower.

There's—

that's where you see a lot of those photos where there's fans like swarming the road and there's thousands of people.

And those people have such chutzpah. I would be terrified to get in a rider's way. Like, that would stress me out. So I don't know if I could run alongside them like half naked wearing a flag behind me. I mean, good on them, but I couldn't do it.

Yeah, I think, uh, I, I think the women's race has a quite a bit more like respectful, uh, fans than the men's races.

Okay.

Okay. Well said. So that would be a reason to go to the women's Tour de France, uh, as opposed to the men's. It's, it's a little bit lower key and more manageable. You don't have to camp up on the Tourmalet for 3 days to get a spot. You can go there the day before, the day of, and, um, and make it a really fun experience and do a side trip in likely a really beautiful area. Because that's, that's one of the things about cycling, about road that's so wonderful is it's always in these incredibly beautiful areas. Love that.

Such great tips, Kristen. This was such a fun conversation and, uh, I hope to have you back. Yes.

Very excited. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.

Yes. Awesome. All right. So if people wanna get ahold of you or they wanna follow you, you also put out a really great newsletter. It's got like fun little recipes and it's not like It looks like your photography too. Like, here's the thing I'm eating right now.

It's very homemade.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

So how can people get a hold of you?

Yeah, so I think the easiest way is my website, which is sportsnutritionforwomen.com. And I have 3 other practitioners that work with me in my practice, which is really fun. So I work with EF Right now as one of my jobs, but I also work with clients privately in my private practice. And we also have an e-course, a Sports Nutrition for Women e-course, and have some modules specific to different life stages and different sports. So quite relevant for primarily endurance athletes, but we have some other sports in there as well. And then, yeah, my website is the best way to get ahold of me.

Very cool. Kristen Arnold, thank you so much for all of your insights into behind the scenes in the life of a dietitian, of a professional cycling, um, dietitian, as well as an ex-professional cyclist. And, uh, this was super inspiring. Thank you so much.

Yes, thanks, Chris.