Rohan Dennis is the latest to speak up about eating disorders in cycling, saying he was on the slippery slope towards developing one just last year.
The Australian world TT champion
abandoned the Tour de France last July and never raced again for his team at
the time, Bahrain-Merida.
He went away and trained alone in the period after the Tour, coming back to win the world title in Yorkshire for Australia in September.
In an interview with the Adelaide
Advertiser, Rohan Dennis has now said leaving Bahrain-Merida was the right
thing to do and he was very pleased to be a Team Ineos rider.
He said last year for him was marked by “fighting within the team and then obviously it would come home and it was affecting me".
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Because of that he said he reflected on
his happiness and what impact his cycling issues were having on his family.
Looking back, he said he’d now be
kicking himself if he hadn’t stepped away from Bahrain-Merida and probably would
not have raced the Worlds.
He also revealed that his eating habits,
guilt associated with food and drink and his weight began to impact how he ate.
Some of that related to the fact he was
being touted as a Grand Tour general classification rider, though he now said
that plan is shelved.
“I’ll be honest with you, I started to
eat and not eat and was on that slippery slope of a complex or disorder,"
he said of trying to become a Grand Tour contender.
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"It got to a point where I was
putting on weight, I would have one beer but then feel guilty and wouldn’t eat
at training the next day.
“So then I couldn’t train properly, I
wouldn’t do a good session, eat minimal and bonk again. Then you think you’re
shit, you feel down and you keep going."
He said that due to stress his weight dropped to 68kg before the worlds. He would eat 100-300g of chocolate per day as well as consuming creatine and whey powder to bring his weight back to his TT level, which is 70kg or 71kg.
“I’m still lean at that weight but I’m not
looking in the mirror and thinking ‘you’re too skinny’, and that’s where I was
before worlds."
He also said his aspirations to ride for
the general classification were stood down last year.
"I pulled the reins on that a fair
bit earlier last year, it’s not worth having a disorder. I am not someone who
is naturally really skinny,” he said.
“I’m not sure if it’s really worth going
through the stress of trying to match (riders like Egan Bernal).
“I’m more comfortable with still having
a life off the bike and being the best in the world at something."
In recent months pro rider Jani Brajkovič has spoken about his bulimia.
A leading dietician in the UK last week also said she had noted a significant rise in the number of male cyclists coming to her for assistance last year due to eating disorders.
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