Cyclingflash
"Otherwise my season would have been over": why Brennan didn’t drink his beer after Kuurne

"Otherwise my season would have been over": why Brennan didn’t drink his beer after Kuurne

It was a striking sight on the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne podium on Sunday. Luca Mozzato and Matteo Trentin drank their beer in one gulp, but winner Matthew Brennan didn’t take a single sip. There is a reason for this: the Brit suffers from gluten intolerance. "If I had drunk it, my season would have been over," Het Nieuwsblad quotes him as saying.

It has been a traditional moment for years on the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne podium: the first, second, and third place riders receive a glass of beer from sponsor Kwaremont. The winner even gets presented with an impressive three-liter glass, but Brennan was not tempted to take a sip, let alone drink it to the bottom.

This all relates to an intolerance to gluten, also known as Celiac disease. It is a chronic autoimmune disorder where eating gluten (found in wheat, rye, and barley, among others) causes damage to the lining of the small intestine. This can cause a wide range of symptoms such as diarrhea, fatigue, abdominal pain, and weight loss.

Brennan was diagnosed with gluten intolerance as a junior rider. Since then, the Visma | Lease a Bike rider has followed a strict gluten-free diet. "The impact on my career is massive," he tells Het Nieuwsblad. "As a rider, you sometimes burn six to seven thousand calories a day. The question then is: how do you replenish that with only gluten-free food?"

"Even a single breadcrumb can cause serious damage"
However, his team has found a solution. "At Visma | Lease a Bike, we work with Amacx (a sports nutrition producer) who provide products that support my specific needs well. That’s one key factor. But it’s also about nutrition off the bike. When I arrive at races, our chefs pay extremely close attention. Because even one small breadcrumb can cause serious damage."

"It can take a month to recover from that. As a rider, you travel a lot, often staying in hotels unfamiliar with this issue. When we start the classics, we need to make a plan: okay, how do we manage nutrition? How do we stay safe? It also impacts my life outside cycling. I can’t just walk into any restaurant. I have to research to be sure it’s safe."