8th April 2025
Written by Caroline Lievesley
TASS practitioner Dan has started a second year working with British Cycling, delivering extended support alongside his core TASS role. Here we discuss visibility, building relationships and the creative ways he engages riders across multiple cycling disciplines.
Q: You’re known for being extremely approachable and visible within the British Cycling environment. Why is that so important to you?
Dan: For me, being present is everything. I don’t want to be the person who just turns up for an hour, delivers a workshop, and disappears. When I started, Georgia (Georgia Impson-Davey – Lead Performance Nutritionist at British Cycling) said, “Come in whenever you want — don’t limit yourself to the one-hour slot.” I took that literally.
I’d arrive hours early, sit in the office, watch track sessions, or stand with coaches during training. When the athletes see me in their environment, they’re more comfortable stepping into mine later. It breaks down barriers straight away.
Q: How has that visibility shaped your relationships with the coaching staff?
Dan: Massively. In the first year, Georgina helped coordinate a lot of things, which was helpful. But once the coaches saw me around – hot-desking next to them, watching sessions, asking questions – they started coming to me directly.
One coach didn’t book sessions for ages because he thought I wouldn’t want to work weekends. I said, ‘I work weekends all the time!’ Sometimes you just need to be proactive and show you’re flexible. Now, sessions get booked quickly because the coaches know my face, not just my email address.
Q: You usually work across many sports. What has it been like focusing so heavily on a single sport like cycling?
Dan: It’s been refreshing. Normally my day jumps from hockey to rugby to ice dance — and each has completely different terminology and rhythms. With cycling, you’re using the same language, the same context, the same environment.
It means I can relax into the sport more. You’re not mentally switching codes every hour. And you start picking up nuances you’d never get without immersion — the flow of a track session, how BMX riders prepare, what mountain biking looks like on race day. That kind of depth helps the quality of your delivery.
Q: You’ve delivered some very creative workshops for the riders. Can you give us a few examples?
Dan: One of the most memorable was with the mountain bike group. Instead of doing another classroom session, we held the workshop on race day in Bradford — in the British Cycling tent, in a muddy field, between races. No phone signal, no screens, just talking to riders and parents as they drifted in and out. Before we knew it, 40–50 people were listening in. It really grounded the session in the reality of what they deal with on a competition day.
Another great example is the BMX group. I knew they all pick up lunch from Asda before training, so I told them to bring in their “perfect camp meal.” They each had two minutes to pitch it to me. One rider even held up a chocolate bar and said, “It’s part of my 20% fun foods!” – to me, this showed how engaged they were — they weren’t just repeating information. They understood it.”
And this year we’re going even more practical. We’ve partnered with Manchester Met to use their teaching kitchens. Riders will shop for ingredients, cycle into town, and take part in a MasterChef-style meal-prep challenge. Same cost as a classroom session — but far more memorable.
Q: Why do you think these more hands-on, creative approaches work so well?
Dan: Because cycling athletes are active. They don’t want to sit for an hour staring at slides. If you can turn education into lived experience – tasting food, cooking it, seeing what others bring – the learning sticks.
You also get much closer to their real habits. Anyone can nod in a classroom. But if they’ve actually built a meal, justified it, cooked it and eaten it, the understanding is deeper. And the engagement skyrockets.
Q: What have you learned from working alongside British Cycling’s high-performance staff?
Dan: You definitely raise your game. When you’re delivering next to really experienced practitioners like Georgina, you want your work to hold up. I’ve picked up new ways of structuring content, planning delivery, and being clearer with my rationale.
It’s professional development you don’t always get when you’re the sole nutritionist on a site. Here, you’re part of a bigger system, and you get that feedback loop that pushes you to be better.
Q: Looking back, what do you think has made your support with British Cycling so effective?
Dan: Approachability. That’s the bit I’m most intentional about. If athletes see me standing trackside, or chatting to coaches in the office, or helping hold riders at the start line, they know I’m not just here to tick a box.
Visibility builds trust. Trust builds engagement. And once engagement is there, the actual nutrition work becomes so much easier.
Dan Richardson is a Performance Nutritionist across four TASS sites: University of Nottingham, University of Manchester, University of Worcester and the RNC.
How this support works
TASS facilitates this extra practitioner support through the additionality budget. All National Governing Bodies can access this budget once they have met the minimum nomination requirements. It can be used in a variety of ways, but is most commonly directed towards bringing TASS practitioners into camps and competitions to deliver targeted support.
TASS covers the practitioner’s day rate, enabling them to be fully integrated into the NGB environment for the duration of the camp or event. While there must be TASS athlete presence, other athletes in the group will often benefit from the support.
If you would like to talk to someone about your NGB’s additionality budget, please contact grace.harrison-iley@tass.gov.uk
