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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

#191

Post by wnolens »

vlachen wrote: post #186
wnolens wrote: post #160

I recently participated in an 85 mile race, and all the nutritional advice boiled down to.. drink a water bottle with a ton of pure sugar and some table salt every 10-20 miles. Bananas and gummies etc. were had, but mostly because they're pleasant to consume.

Interestingly, that same advice was offered to recruits in U.S. Marine Corps boot camp for the final series of tests and challenges, known as The Cruicible. We were directed to put the salt and sugar packets from our MREs into our canteens and chug them. Disgusting, but effective.

Fastest possible carbs to process and electrolytes. Works surprisingly well

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

#192

Post by WalterBright »

hinkley wrote: post #105
eloycoto wrote: post #16

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…

I haven't been a cyclist since about the time that the market of energy drinks first exploded. And at the time there were a number of articles that said that really all you need is Gatorade, that most of these new drinks were advertising more calories per liter, but Gatorade was already tested out on absorption rates and dialed in to the maximum calories per liter of water that the average human stomach can absorb. T…

On the Netflix TdF documentary, they mentioned that the difference between the winner and last place is 2%. There was one stage where the winner won by 4 inches.

It also said that doping made a 20% difference, so either none of the current competitors are doping or all of them are.

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

#193

Post by mvdtnz »

If you think you have no interest in cycle road racing I strongly recommend watching the Netflix series Tour de France Unchained. I watched it on a whim with no interest whatsoever in road racing and I found it addictive and it got me hooked on the sport (to the extent I can be hooked - UCI is a garbage organisation that makes it as difficult as possible to actually watch it).

Start with series 1, even though it's 2 years out of date. They explain how the sport works, and they skip over this in series 2. It's important information.

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

#194

Post by WalterBright »

11235813213455 wrote: post #175

I wish these races were without any assistance at all, and without food/liquid at the start, a bit like in the past, if you're hungry try to spot a fruit tree, if you've a flat repair yourself, thirsty stop at next fountain

I'd get rid of the radio communication with the rider. In Formula 1, too.

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

#196

Post by rfergie »

WalterBright wrote: post #192
hinkley wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been a cyclist since about the time that the market of energy drinks first exploded. And at the time there were a number of articles that said that really all you need is Gatorade, that most of these new drinks were advertising more calories per liter, but Gatorade was already tested out on absorption rates and dialed in to the maximum calories per liter of water that the average human stomach can absorb. T…

On the Netflix TdF documentary, they mentioned that the difference between the winner and last place is 2%. There was one stage where the winner won by 4 inches. It also said that doping made a 20% difference, so either none of the current competitors are doping or all of them are.

> so either none of the current competitors are doping or all of them are

The drafting effect in cycling means that a clean cyclist can finish very closely behind a doped cyclist

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

#197

Post by lormayna »

frereubu wrote: post #159
AndrewOMartin wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, I'm sure he knows that - he lives in Andorra - but I read it as him being surprised that of all the tasty things they weren't allowed to eat (as the article makes clear the food during the Tour tends to be pretty bland) the first thing they'd crave is a salad.

I remember Fabio Aru saying that he was allowed to eat a pizza once in an year, at the end of the season. This is one of the reason why several modern cyclist had a mental breakdown like Tom Dumolin

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

#198

Post by hervature »

WalterBright wrote: post #195

Watching the TdF, I wonder how the cyclists cope with the motorcycle/car right in front of them spewing exhaust in their faces the whole race.

They obviously breathe in exhaust occasionally but the caravan tries to stay far enough that there is no slipstream and the wind would make it a non-issue. Those dunces that light flares during mountain summits are probably much worse.

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

#199

Post by mvdtnz »

fuzzylightbulb wrote: post #70
flosstop wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I found that podcast terrible. At the time I knew nothing about road cycling and that podcast left me with the impression that it's a pervasive problem and a grand conspiracy. It wasn't until I spoke about this with some real road cycling enthusiasts that I realised I had been taken in by a bullshit conspiracy theory.

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

#200

Post by lormayna »

bluecalm wrote: post #188
matsemann wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an app where you have to give your whereabouts for one hour every day. If you don't fill it in or are unavailable at the location for that hour, you get a strike. Three strikes in a set period and you will get a ban as if you had been doping. One problem with the system is that it relies on countries being strict with their athletes, which they aren't incentivized to do. Also, it's easy to "be available" but…

Like Spain when there are legal problems with testing on weekends.

Guess why only Basso and Ulrich get disqualified after the operacion Puerto and why Spain dominate in almost every sports for more than a decade.
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