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This theme of familiarity, comfort and keeping athletes happy, as well as fuelled, is core to Sports Nutritionist Renee McGregor鈥檚 work at the University of Bath. She works with athletes across many sports including the UK Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team. Providing support and care for the athletes is critical when the team is aged between 16 and 18, many away from home for the first time, surrounded by the rigours of training. Food鈥檚 emotional hook has to be managed as much as the necessary nutritional content.

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Homely, if not quite healthy - the velodrome cake!

When Renee says 鈥渢he athletes want food鈥� it takes me a second to work out that she means food, as opposed to supplements. 鈥淵ou get different types of athletes - some of them are very much about supplemental types of food. Because I'm a dietician at heart I will always try to use food before supplements. Most of my athletes would rather have food 鈥� they want to eat - they want to enjoy food.鈥� When you鈥檙e eating pasta for breakfast it can easily become just another part of your training kit.

To keep things interesting she adapts recipes to increase both flavour and nutrition. Her 鈥�sweet potato brownie鈥�, made for runners, is a perfect case in point. From a basic recipe Renee 鈥渞educed the amount of sugar, increased dried fruit and used walnut oil instead of butter.鈥�

The brownies have slow release carbohydrate from the cocoa, fast release carbohydrate from the fruit, essential fatty acids from the walnuts and walnut oil (good for recovery), and cranberries 鈥渢o give it that tart/sweet thing鈥�, vitamin C and more fast release energy.听 These are perfect before a race to fuel up, or with a glass of milk after the race, for recovery. Translating scientific knowledge into tasty dishes is a real skill, and vital to keeping the athletes engaged and happy.

Milk, in fact, turns out to be the best recovery drink going. In skimmed milk 鈥測ou鈥檝e got the right proportions of carbohydrate to protein for recovery, 3:1 鈥� hydration, there鈥檚 lots of water in skimmed milk, and electrolytes, replacing some of the salts you've lost. It鈥檚 the perfect recovery drink,鈥� says Renee.

Back in the Tour de France, riders preload on carbs for breakfast: pasta, rice, omelettes, cereals and toast to top up their glycogen levels for the day ahead. Glycogen is a type of energy that鈥檚 easily accessible to the body and used up in exercise - it runs out after about 90 minutes of hard exercise. To keep glycogen levels up on the move, riders need sports drinks and carbohydrate-laden gels to keep going. Supplements have their place. If glycogen is not topped up the athletes will be exhausted. In running, it鈥檚 known as 鈥榟itting the wall鈥�, in cycling it鈥檚 politely termed 鈥榖onking鈥�.听 鈥楤onking鈥� can be seriously dangerous: if you鈥檙e lucky you鈥檒l just lose your place in the pack (the peloton). More likely is that you crash: into other riders or barriers, or you career off a mountain.

Once the day鈥檚 stage is done, recovery within 15 鈥� 30 minutes of finishing is vital (we鈥檙e back to the milk), followed a few hours later by proteins and more carbs. As the tour ploughs mercilessly on, the riders will get visibly depleted, as they struggle to replenish the calories and nutrients lost and repair the muscle damage inflicted by each stage.

Their food needs to be restorative, both psychologically and physically.听 S酶ren and Renee instinctively know that their role is to restore and build the athletes, using food and its emotional resonance and power; wrapping up the nutrients with care and attention and actively supporting the athletes, so they can thrill the world.

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Chef S酶ren Kristiansen posts pictures daily of the .

Renee McGregor's sweet potato brownie recipe

Velodrome cake recipe