Endurance

Alex Wolf is the Head of Strength and Conditioning (S&C) for the English Institute of Sport where he leads a team of 60 plus S&C Coaches. Alex also spent five years as lead S&C for GB Rowing, and then wrote the book ‘Strength and Conditioning for Rowing,’ which is a great read for all athletes, not just rowers! Alex sits on the Board of Directors for the UK Strength and Conditioning Association.

Alan is a Michelin starred chef with over 25 years of experience in some of the worlds best kitchens. He is also the author the superb book ‘The Cycling Chef’.

Outside of the kitchen Alan is an ex-international endurance runner, multiple ITU World & ETU European Duathlon Champion, 2018 National 100 mile time trial team champion. Alan is one of the few athletes who has run under 30 minutes for 10k and also ridden a 19 minute 10 mile time trial. He is also team chef for British Cycling at major events

www.performancechef.com

@performance.chef on Instagram

Dr Sophie Killer is the Lead Performance Nutritionist for British Athletics and Rebecca Dent is a High-Performance Dietitian with a keen focus on adventure and endurance sports.

Dr Sophie Killer is Performance Nutrition consultant in elite sport, having worked as the Head of Performance Nutrition at Tottenham Hotspur FC and as a senior member of the English Institute of Sport Performance Nutrition team. Sophie was the Lead Nutritionist for British Athletics, supporting the Olympic and Paralympic Track and; Field team throughout the Rio 2016 Games and continues to work in Athletics in a consultancy role in the lead up to the Tokyo Games. Sophie has gained a wealth of experience working with a wide range of elite athletes from cyclists, runners, ultra endurance athletes, triathletes and extreme sports athletes through to team sports, including leading the nutrition service for British Basketball during the London 2012 Olympic Games and having spent 5 seasons working in Premier League Football.

Sophie completed her PhD in Exercise Metabolism & Performance Nutrition at Loughborough University and continues to engage in research through numerous collaborations. She holds a Visiting Fellowship in Sports Nutrition at Loughborough University where she is involved in PhD supervision and sessional lecturing. She has 15 publications to date, sits on the Editorial Board of the BioMed Central Nutrition Journal, is a Review Editor for Frontiers in Nutrition and is an invited reviewer for the EJSS, IJSNEM and IJSPP.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sophie_Killer

Rebecca describers her job as helping you choose the right foods to eat based on your lifestyle choices, sporting endeavours or epic adventures, but above all to help you achieve your best health.

@sophie_killer and @Rebecca_Dent on Twitter

Pav Bryan is a Performance Director at Spokes, and heads up the coaching team at Spokes, responsible for ensuring the products and services they offer is market leading and always at the forefront of innovation.

Pav developed the ‘Truly Personal Coaching’ methodology, which has provided countless successes not just with his coaching, but within the industry that has now adopted it.

Pav recently released a book, ‘The Guide to Truly Effective Cycling’ and takes the reader on a journey from the initial planning of their goals, through to implementing their strategy at their event.

Spokes.fit.com

@spokesfit and @pavbryan on Instagram

Cliff Harvey is a leader in the field of carb-appropriate nutrition, mind-body healthcare and the achievement of success in health and performance. He is an author, clinician, researcher and speaker – as well as one of the founders of NuZest nutrition – and he describes his WHY as helping others to learn simple, effective methods to be healthier and happier.

Cliff describes health and happiness are flip-sides of the same coin. A healthy body is a happy body, a healthy mind is a happy mind, and a healthy spirit is a happy spirit…and vice versa. Amongst lots of other national sporting bodies and elite athletes, Cliff has worked with National cycling associations in New Zealand.

www.cliffharvey.com

Twitter: @CarbAppropriate

Christine Wellington OBE needs little introduction to most, a legend in the Ironman world, having won every iron-distance event that she entered as well as being a four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion. She held all three world and championship records relating to iron-distance triathlon races: firstly, the overall world record, secondly, the Ironman World Championship course record, and thirdly, the official world record for all Ironman-branded triathlon races over the full Ironman distance.

Dr Andrew Kirkland worked with Chrissie on her training book. Andy is a lecturer in Sports Coaching at Stirling University here in Scotland and passionate cyclist. In Performance Coaching he works with grass-roots sport through to Olympic level.

Book – To the Finish Line & A Life Without Limits

Twitter: @chrissiesmiles and @andykirkland71

Mike Griffiths was the Logistics Manager on the Around the World in 80 Days and organises teams on the legendary RAAM (Race Across America) every year.

In 2016, he formed Leadership Challenges; an organisation that plans adventure-based challenges to deliver leadership capacity building, and life-changing experiences to individuals from all walks of life. Mike has also guided elite teams, wounded, injured and sick military veterans to success in RAAM, one of the world’s toughest and respected endurance cycling events.

Mike is a British Army veteran who served for over 26 years in operations around the world, including the Balkan states, Angola, Canada, the Falkland Islands and extensively in Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

www.leadershipchallenges.org

James Lowsley-Williams, known to most as Hank, was a domestic professional road cyclist from 2012-18 and is now a presenter for Global Cycling network. Hank is a boy racer who has always craved the big adventures, so jumped at the opportunity over the last few years to take his enthusiasm and bike skills into some ultra-endurance challenges, testing his mind and body beyond.

These have included recreating the first stage of the 1903 Tour de France, a 300 mile ride from Paris to Lyon on a vintage single-speed and climbing to 6893 meters up the worlds highest volcano and freeriding 300km through the Atacama desert to the Pacific. This episode is a fascinating insight into what it takes to transition from road racing to adventure and endurance cycling.

@jamesl_w on Instagram

Bike design has come a long way in the past decade, and most bikes are now designed for the Mark Beaumont’s of this world as opposed to the Mark Cavendish’s! That means comfort for endurance and great handling, rather than purely for elite racing. This conversation happened between Scotland, Holland, England and the US – and explored bike design and bio-mechanics.

Gerard Vroomen is a Dutch-born mechanical engineer and the owner of Open Cycle. He is best know as the co-founder of Cervelo bikes. Vroomen co-founded Cervélo in 1995 when their design for a new time trial bicycle failed to garner interest from traditional bicycle manufacturers. Today, Cervélo is the largest triathlon bike manufacturer in the world.

Doug Golenz co-founded and runs StudioWest near Boulder, Colorado – world famous for cutting edge bike design. The team are passionate creativity and have over 100 patents to their names.

John Dennis is someone I (Mark Beaumont) have worked with personally as my bike fitter before the Around the World in 80 Days. John has worked full time in elite sport for over a decade, including as lead physiotherapist with British Triathlon. As an expert in cycling biomechanics, he has since worked with a multitude of pro cycling teams including Team Sky. Analyzing sports injuries, movement patterns and working with clients at his business Physiohaus near Newcastle in England with the best chance of a quick recovery and individualised bike positional work.

Dr. Richard Burden is the Head of Biosciences and Physiology Technical Lead at the English Institute of Sport.

He has worked across three Olympic cycles including with the GB Rowing Team, the British Olympic Association's Intensive Rehabilitation Unit, and individual Olympians and Paralympians. His interests include biomarkers of training adaptation, recovery and the female athlete. He has a number of research collaborations with academic institutions including St. Mary’s University, University College London, Loughborough University and Harvard University. He is also Senior Consultant Editor (Elite Sport) for the journal Experimental Physiology.