Aussie sprint champion defies experts to gold

Australia's first sprint cycling champion Ryan Bayley eats all the wrong food according to nutritionists, yet still beats the world's best.

Australia's first Olympic sprint cycling champion Ryan Bayley eats all the wrong food according to nutritionists, yet still beats the world's best.

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The 22-year-old Aussie won gold with an electrifying come-from-behind victory over world champion Theo Bos in the men's sprint final on Tuesday.

Bayley pipped the Dutchman with an exhilarating final lap surge to catch him metres before the finish line after levelling the final with a last-ditch lunge to take the second race. He had lost the first in the best-of-three decider.

But madcap Bayley is not your typical sporting hero: he boasts of a food intake consisting largely of fried chicken, chocolate biscuits and Coke.

Sports nutrition experts warn Bayley's junk food tastes could be putting him in harm.

Nutrition expert Tim Crowe, of Melbourne's Deakin University, said Bayley was at risk of iron and calcium nutrient deficiencies, which for athletes is going to do a lot of harm.

But that does not concern the uninhibited Bayley, who has brought gasps from the Velodrome crowd this week with his furious pumping of his bike's pedals hurtling around the track at speeds of 70kph.

"Most people do the right thing and eat the right food but I just do what I want to do," said Bayley, who says his favourite meal is pop corn chicken combo, upsized. "And it seems to be working for me."

He seems to have converted his girlfriend Katrina Purcell, a nutritionist who has given up trying to change his fuel of friend chicken washed down by Coke.

Purcell has just finished a degree in health science that she agrees has been made to look less valuable than it should.

"I'm probably going to have to recommend chocolate biscuits to more of my clients," Purcell said with a shrug.

She reveals that a normal day in the life of her Olympic champion usually involves a late-night drive to the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken shop in Australia's capital Canberra.

"He'll start dinner with steak and chips then chocolate ice cream and chocolate topping," Purcell said.

"Later on he'll do what he calls his KFC run just before the shop closes."

During his years at the Australian Sports Institute Bayley has always had one of the lowest fat count of any athlete - around eight percent.

"He's just got this amazing metabolism," Purcell said.

Australia's track coach Martin Barras said Bayley had come of age as a champion cyclist.

"Ryan Bayley has come of age today, you've seen a young guy become more of a man today, he is more of a man actually, he is the man," Barras said after his victory.

"Between the first and the second ride Ryan came back into the pits and he was that bloody angry, so I had a few choice words with him and just left him to his own devices just to simmer a little bit.

"I knew he was going to take care of his part and it was going to take something very exceptional from Bos to beat him."