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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

#61

Post by AndrewOMartin »

frereubu wrote: post #34

The part about not eating too much fibre because it irritates the gut reminded me of an amusing anecdote in Dan Martin's autobiography, where he talked about coming (I think) third in The Tour and was sitting with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas from Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers) after the finish in Paris. He was looking forward to a big burger and chips, and Froome and Thomas were discussing how they were really l…

Salads can be really good in Paris! :D Martin might just be imagining a slice of tomato on a leaf of lettuce, Froome and Thomas might have been imagining a range of herbs and roasted nuts with a delicious oil or vinaigrette, chunks of an interesting cheese or two and some powerful olives and garlic. Or thereabouts.

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

#62

Post by Jean-Papoulos »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #43
alistairSH wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In professional sports taking drugs is not considered a secret, it's common practice Fixed. Cycling has one of the strictest out-of-competition testing regimens. Which isn't to say doping doesn't exist - it does, no question - only that it's WAY better now than during the Armstrong era. Some details... https://lanternerouge.com/2023/03/26/how-clean-is-cycling-an...

They're still fighting a losing battle. The business of cycling dictates that they remain ever vigilant and attempt to catch dopers and keep the sport "clean", while the science of what the atheletes are trying to do suggests they should just accept the reality and not police legal vs. illegal. It's like a drug-free body building contenst; what's the point?

Admiring what human dedication does, not what human drugs do.

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

#63

Post by cptcobalt »

flosstop wrote: post #59
deff wrote: post #25

Regarding drugs, yes it´s most likely still happening, but nowhere near the levels it used to be. Riders are tested a lot and have to provide year-round whereabouts for random testing. They also have a frequently updated blood passport to detect sudden changes in values caused by PEDs. It can never be fully waterproof, but at least serious efforts are made.

They have moved on from pharmaceutical doping due to the extensive testing to what is referred to as "mechanical doping". Motors are hidden in hubs/frames and the organisation is busy doing everything they can to pretend that it isn't a problem.

Really, hidden motors in the tour? That would be an interesting read.

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

#64

Post by pyrale »

skhr0680 wrote: post #45
skeeter2020 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're still fighting a losing battle. The business of cycling dictates that they remain ever vigilant and attempt to catch dopers and keep the sport "clean", while the science of what the atheletes are trying to do suggests they should just accept the reality and not police legal vs. illegal. It's like a drug-free body building contenst; what's the point?

> It's like a drug-free body building contenst; what's the point? The point is to not die or be in a wheelchair by the time you’re 60

Also to make it a sports contest and not a pharma contest.

It's the same reason there's a minimum weight for bikes used in the race: people tend to disregard security when making lighter bikes, and the cost of experiments means that some competitors exit the sport because they can't compete on funding.

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

#65

Post by durkie »

matsemann wrote: post #11

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. Actual…

reminds me of an anecdote from Le Ride (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Ride ) that talks about in one of the early Tours de France, a rider was disqualified because he broke his crank, hobbled to a nearby town, found the blacksmith, and the rider welded his own crank back together, but the blacksmith's son operated the bellows and this was seen as too much external assistance.

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

#66

Post by 1992spacemovie »

Ekaros wrote: post #40
jamil7 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing because they don't meet the criteria to participate, what's your point?

That adding a motor would be upgrade and tinkering of a bike. So why should it not be allowed? Isn't it entirely in same spirit?

You’re being disingenuous and down right annoying. By your logic why not just use a F-18 and win the race in 10 minutes? Stop being asinine.

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

#67

Post by shermantanktop »

secondcoming wrote: post #38
n4r9 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the point is that in cycling - relative to other sports - money gives you an easy edge. You can afford much better equipment, nutrition, coaching etc... . Compare that to (say) football in the UK: you just need a £5 ball and a few friends, and if you show promise you can track into your local team's programme and get top quality coaching at minimal cost. It depends on the culture as well. From what I read abo…

I've never seen so many young people on bikes in the UK as I do now. Sure, the bikes are likely stolen and the kids up to no good, but at least one of them has TdF potential

The kids may be doping, too.

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

#68

Post by timeon »

n4r9 wrote: post #22
NoPicklez wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a sport of the 0.0001% when anybody can go buy a bike and ride. At the top level of any sport and in the top race or competition of that sport, it is going to represent the pinnacle of that sport.

I guess the point is that in cycling - relative to other sports - money gives you an easy edge. You can afford much better equipment, nutrition, coaching etc... . Compare that to (say) football in the UK: you just need a £5 ball and a few friends, and if you show promise you can track into your local team's programme and get top quality coaching at minimal cost. It depends on the culture as well. From what I read abo…

Peter Sagan started career winning on Tesco bike that he took from his sister.

But I think most accessible sport is running. You just need some shoes. Open the door and you are good to go (run). For games like football you also need the ball, playground and other people.

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

#69

Post by matthewowen »

knallfrosch wrote: post #19
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.

There is a common refrain about the Armstrong era "all the top guys were taking them so it's fair" but it's not really accurate. Because yes, the people at the top were all taking them, but that's because the clean guys that _would_ have been at the top otherwise aren't there: the prevalence of doping meant that you had to dope to even be in the conversation at that level, and so the clean athletes that might have won otherwise aren't coming in 18th, they're at home on the couch or they're racing at the pro-conti level.

For example, Greg LeMond won the TdF in 1990. In 1991 he came 7th, and then never completed it again. There is some complication here because of the hunting accident he suffered in '87, but he also said "The speeds were faster and riders that I had easily outperformed were now dropping me", and the guy who won in 1991 was Indurain who was basically the first mega-doper.

Without EPO and blood doping becoming prevalent, does Greg LeMond compete for a few more years? Do other guys with similar talent who aren't willing to dope also make it to that top level. I think the answer is probably yes, and so all those guys who doped are responsible for excluding those clean athletes from the top level.

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

#70

Post by fuzzylightbulb »

flosstop wrote: post #59
deff wrote: post #25

Regarding drugs, yes it´s most likely still happening, but nowhere near the levels it used to be. Riders are tested a lot and have to provide year-round whereabouts for random testing. They also have a frequently updated blood passport to detect sudden changes in values caused by PEDs. It can never be fully waterproof, but at least serious efforts are made.

They have moved on from pharmaceutical doping due to the extensive testing to what is referred to as "mechanical doping". Motors are hidden in hubs/frames and the organisation is busy doing everything they can to pretend that it isn't a problem.

Mechanical doping, a problem so wide-spread that only one person at the elite level has ever been found to have been doing it. To date, no one has ever provided hard evidence of another rider using a motor. I am not saying that this doesn't happen at the amateur level (it certainly does) but to imply that this is a pervasive problem in elite cycling is little more than a baseless conspiracy theory until someone shows up with some actual evidence of motors being used in major events.

Ghost in the Machine [1] is a great podcast on this topic.

[1] https://play.pocketcasts.com/discover/podcast/de6ba1d0-9132-...

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