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Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#11

Post by matsemann »

I'm a bit sad that a topic I find so interesting mostly gathers knee-jerk reactions here on HN.

Yes, doping, blah blah we get it. But the logistics of TdF is insane. With a new city every day, things need to move fast and preparations start early. For instance Uno-X team has a small trailer with 800 kgs of ice they travel around with, after having trouble sourcing enough ice in the small villages they stay at.

Actually having your own chef source stuff is one way to avoid accidental doping scandals.

I've read the Velochef book and like the recipes there. One thing I've never appreciated before is how hard it is to actually get this amount of calories down. Especially since much of it must be consumed on the bike so needs to be easy to transport/store/eat on the fly. And eating while working out can be tough on the stomach. EDB finally got his break through when they managed to nail a nutrition he didn't get cramps from eating.

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#12

Post by sdfgtr »

Ekaros wrote: post #3
bell-cot wrote: post #2

> Not so long ago, the professional cycling world's approach to fuelling was remarkably basic. [...] > These days, it is an entirely different prospect, with vast sums spent on custom-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and meticulously planned meal regimes all in the name of performance enhancement. > For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing sustenance to power their team's riders over 2,170…

Sometimes I wonder should we go to basics in many sports. With things like banning any equipment including clothing and shoes... Or with cycling giving one standard mass manufactured piece. And then a pile of standard replacement parts and standard tools. All bought from cheapest supplier randomly distributed to participants.

Lookup Japan's Keirin racing. I think it's pretty much that. IIRC at the top levels they also require the racers to stay onsite under observation for several days before a race.

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#13

Post by wasmitnetzen »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

> Not so long ago, the professional cycling world's approach to fuelling was remarkably basic. [...] > These days, it is an entirely different prospect, with vast sums spent on custom-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and meticulously planned meal regimes all in the name of performance enhancement. > For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing sustenance to power their team's riders over 2,170…

A UCI WorldTeam has a budget of about 10 to 60 million euros. That's peanuts in a lot of other sports.

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#14

Post by nradov »

Ekaros wrote: post #3
bell-cot wrote: post #2

> Not so long ago, the professional cycling world's approach to fuelling was remarkably basic. [...] > These days, it is an entirely different prospect, with vast sums spent on custom-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and meticulously planned meal regimes all in the name of performance enhancement. > For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing sustenance to power their team's riders over 2,170…

Sometimes I wonder should we go to basics in many sports. With things like banning any equipment including clothing and shoes... Or with cycling giving one standard mass manufactured piece. And then a pile of standard replacement parts and standard tools. All bought from cheapest supplier randomly distributed to participants.

That would essentially kill cycling as a professional sport. Much of the team revenue comes from equipment sponsors. And while many of the equipment innovations get a bit ridiculous, some of them have really benefitted amateur cyclists. I would hate to still be stuck with a 10-speed drivetrain on a steel tube frame with mechanical friction shifters just because that was "standard".

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#15

Post by Angostura »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

> Not so long ago, the professional cycling world's approach to fuelling was remarkably basic. [...] > These days, it is an entirely different prospect, with vast sums spent on custom-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and meticulously planned meal regimes all in the name of performance enhancement. > For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing sustenance to power their team's riders over 2,170…

25,000 people took part in last month’s Ride London. It was awesome

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#16

Post by eloycoto »

Nowadays, some riders use glucose monitoring devices during training with relation to how long it takes from ingesting and getting into blood. They are now measuring more and more things, and food is a crucial role.

Glucose monitoring is banned during races, but I guess that is why you don't see some cyclist collapsing like as 15 years ago is because they understand their glucose levels.

For sure, doping it's still a fear, but these guys cannot climb Galibier at that speed only with storoids/drugs, it's insane the effort that they did over the year.

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#18

Post by cangeroo »

Ekaros wrote: post #3
bell-cot wrote: post #2

> Not so long ago, the professional cycling world's approach to fuelling was remarkably basic. [...] > These days, it is an entirely different prospect, with vast sums spent on custom-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and meticulously planned meal regimes all in the name of performance enhancement. > For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing sustenance to power their team's riders over 2,170…

Sometimes I wonder should we go to basics in many sports. With things like banning any equipment including clothing and shoes... Or with cycling giving one standard mass manufactured piece. And then a pile of standard replacement parts and standard tools. All bought from cheapest supplier randomly distributed to participants.

It's impossible to take technology out of the equation. I.e. that one person may have superior insights in their physiology/glucose levels, or a superior diet before the race. And so on.

Similarly in football, by studying your opponents in previous matches, so that you can identify weaknesses during the match, even if playing in isolation.

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#19

Post by knallfrosch »

Jean-Papoulos wrote: post #9

Note for everyone that will come in here to say the secret is drugs : In cyclism taking drugs is not considered a secret, it's common practice.

And since everyone is taking them, they're not the discriminator between the world class champions and the merely Tour-de-France participants.

Re: Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road

#20

Post by nemo44x »

nradov wrote: post #14
Ekaros wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I wonder should we go to basics in many sports. With things like banning any equipment including clothing and shoes... Or with cycling giving one standard mass manufactured piece. And then a pile of standard replacement parts and standard tools. All bought from cheapest supplier randomly distributed to participants.

That would essentially kill cycling as a professional sport. Much of the team revenue comes from equipment sponsors. And while many of the equipment innovations get a bit ridiculous, some of them have really benefitted amateur cyclists. I would hate to still be stuck with a 10-speed drivetrain on a steel tube frame with mechanical friction shifters just because that was "standard".

It’s the same problem in golf. Equipment has gotten so powerful that the strategy of the game has fundamentally changed. They can not realistically continue to make courses longer. So they’re “rolling back” the ball which will limit drive distances a bit but nothing regarding clubs.

And the reason why is the pro game makes a lot of money on endorsements. If a top pro is forced to use a club that is different from what amateurs need then the gravy train could stop.

But yes, golf is really hard and for amateurs the innovations help make the game more enjoyable. But for pros it’s just too much.

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