Recipes and expert advice to help time-poor cyclists get moving, stay energised and recover well. This is portable, practical, performance food.

'If you're hungry, it's too late' is the cyclists' mantra to avoid hitting the wall with an all-consuming loss of energy. To professional peloton, club riders and weekend peddlers alike, portable foods are as essential as a pump and a spare tube.

Armed with a host of simple-to-prepare, savoury and sweet recipes, Alan Murchison creates a range of on-the-go snacks, unique dishes and smoothies to enable riders to ditch the processed energy bars, sugary drinks and takeaways, and enjoy real food full of flavour.

On-the-go food must be appealing enough to encourage snacking when appetites are blunted and robust enough to withstand being grabbed from a musette. These energy-boosting recipes – including mouth-watering snacks such as pressed parmesan and rosemary polenta, date and macadamia 'Snickers' bars and cherry bakewell balls – restore strength and are downright delicious.

Alan also devotes sections to dishes that can be prepared quickly before and after a ride. The fill-the-tank dishes – including carby corn cakes, 'Full English' breakfast frittatas and 'full gas' lasse – are all easily digestible and provide the energy to begin your ride. Instead of impatiently raiding the fridge after a hard day on the saddle, his post-ride refuelling suggestions – including white chocolate miso blondies, frozen yoghurt protein berry bites and chocolatey cardamom protein muffins – offer irresistible protein-rich recovery alternatives.

As a respected cyclist and pro-cycling team nutritionist, Alan has road-tested his own recipes and cooked them for elite cyclists. His well-thought-out meals and snacks are illustrated with stylish photography and accompanied by breakout sections of advice, information and anecdotes, all well seasoned with Alan's now familiar wit and wisdom.