My mother told me that whenever she’d try to breastfeed me as a baby I’d push her away. Me and my brother had hyperactivity issues as kids and she blamed it on her divorce and E numbers in our food. When we were at the dinner table we’d act up. When I was 16 I wasn’t cycling so much. I’d started working at Barclays, got quite chubby and was called “the fat banker”. Lunchtime was half an hour and I’d buy a prawn butty and a bag of Walkers crisps. Later, when I was 20, six months after becoming world champion, I sat around in a place I shared in Cheadle [with track sprinter Craig MacLean] and I’d eat a big multi-bag of Walkers, then, when I’d finished them, go to the petrol station for another multi-bag and repeat. I was emotional, in a bit of a dark place. I have a fondness for junk food – it still calls me, sometimes. I think any professional athlete who says they stick to a strict diet and weigh their food out every time is either lying or they’re sick. I’m not going to put diesel in a petrol engine and obviously I do watch my diet, but to do just that and not live a life isn’t for me. I’m not going to make the sacrifices I do and then not enjoy myself sometimes. If it looks and tastes real good and is worth the calories, then I’m on it.

I met my wife Peta [an ex-Page 3 model and now food columnist for the Sun] on Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles and our first date was at Ago restaurant on Melrose Avenue. Ago is owned by Robert De Niro and chef Agostino Sciandri, whose son Max won us a [cycling] bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He taught me how to cook Tuscan food. I started getting into decent food after I got a house in Tuscany, near the British cycling academy’s training base. For a cyclist, the area is incredible, with the flats of the basin of Florence, the heights of the Apennines and the small climbs around Chianti. The locals like cyclists but best of all is their food – “peasant food” with simple ingredients, really well made, with heart but without extravagance. I love raw vegetables with just a little oil and vinegar.

Since we married, Peta’s taken over a lot of my cooking and she’s incredible. She’ll do different meals for me and the kids, depending on my regime. If I name 10 ingredients she’ll change the recipe every day. It’s only in the last year that I’ve learnt what proteins to eat and when to retain muscle while losing fat. Before I understood more about nutrition I used to prepare for big races by getting really skinny. I’d do 800-to-1,000-calorie days which really stripped me down. I used to starve myself. It wasn’t like a mental sickness – I knew what I was doing – but I’d always get ill after a race.

I’ve had tea with the Prince of Denmark, who’s a big cycle fan. Then I got invited for a sit-down lunch with the Queen, which was dead good. Me, the head of the Prudential Bank, the curator of the Imperial War Museum, Mary Berry and a few others. The Queen’s like a little grandma who won’t hold back and I love her. She was dead funny and proper on-it during the langoustine starters and the lamb.

Mark is the winner of 26 Tour de France stages, as well as gold medals at the World and Commonwealth championships. Athletes benefit from National Lottery funded nutritional advice; thefoodchampions.org

Cav’s mountain climb cherry and fig flapjack

Photograph: Heather Wilkinson for the Observer

Benefits: post-exercise refuelling



Makes 8 bars

manuka honey 6 tbsp

rapeseed oil 2 tbsp

organic peanut butter 3 tbsp

porridge oats 280g

flax seeds 3 tbsp

dried cherries 1 tbsp, chopped

dried figs 4, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. In a large saucepan place the honey, rapeseed oil and peanut butter and place over medium heat – mix well until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until all of them are combined.

Place the mixture into a lined baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes. Once cooked, allow to cool before slicing and serving.

Recipes created by The Food Champions, a collaboration between the National Lottery and sports nutritionists from the English Institute of Sport