PLANT-BASED DOMESTIC PROS

Rising young cyclo-cross star Cameron Mason, 19, on his motivations for going vegan in his mid-teens

CAMERON MASON: CYCLO-CROSS WUNDERKIND ‘It’s about being the best version of myself’ When did you go vegan, and why?

I went veggie when I was 13 or 14, about six years ago, after a close friend had gone vegan. I was still eating eggs, cheese and dairy until three or four years ago, when I started to subconsciously reduce the amount of dairy in my diet, after seeing things about the environmental impact. Doing more research opened my eyes up to the fact the problems go beyond just meat – it’s the whole industry. I realised Cameron Mason made a gradual move to a vegan diet that if I wanted to be the best version of myself, in terms of the environment and being truthful about loving animals, going vegan was the best option.

Have you noticed any effect on your cycling performance?

I get asked that a lot, and I don’t know whether I can comment at all, as it was a gradual transition to being vegan. I slowly stopped eating cheese, milk and eggs, and now I’m totally fine with it. Whether it’s caused physiological changes, I really can’t say. I know from the research that it can reduce your chance of heart disease, but I haven’t seen any massive impact on my riding.

Is it harder to keep on top of energy demands on a vegan diet?

Oh yeah, that’s definitely a thing. Foods without animal ingredients tend to have less calories in them. While I was growing and developing, I needed a lot of food – vegan or not – and there were times when I definitely wasn’t fuelling the quantity I needed, so that was something we did have to work on.

How do you keep on top of fuelling as a vegan?