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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

#201

Post by lmm »

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

PBP still runs every 4 years if that's what you want - there are official food/rest areas (there have to be with that many people) but no motorised support allowed. Sports cycling races are for an audience that cares about the racing and athleticism rather than random luck, and I don't blame them for it.

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

#202

Post by mvdtnz »

bell-cot wrote: post #88
wasmitnetzen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If that budget is for an 8-man team, in a sport with a 3 1/2-week season... An (American) NFL team has 53 "active" players (plus a practice squad, plus ...), and plays a 5-month season. And has a lot of "maintain a major stadium"-type expenses, which (my guess) cycling teams don't have. Based on your figures, and trying to scale... no , the cycling team budgets really aren't peanuts by comparison. NFL Data: https://s…

> a 3 1/2-week season

This year's UCI World Tour season runs from January 16 to October 20. Where are you getting "3 1/2 week season" from?

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

#203

Post by [deleted] »

philshem wrote: post #124

> "The food I make is all transparent," says (chef) Blandy. "There are no rich sauces, it's all plain, simple cooking with a light amount of seasoning, light amount of oil, fresh herbs and citrus. That’s some top-notch nominative determinism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism

[deleted]

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

#204

Post by lormayna »

NoPicklez wrote: post #71
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…

The performance difference between cheaper bikes and top end bikes won’t make the difference in being a successful cyclist. Anyone can pick up a bike and start training and racing in competitions and be talent scouted in the same way that you would in football, it’s what happens here in Australia. Yes a football is cheaper than a bike, but it’s not 0.0001% type stuff like Formula 1. Where you legitimately need to pay…

In my team there is an ex professional cyclist from 80s. Sometimes he come in the Sunday group rides with one of his 80s bikes and he is able to overpass everybody.

At the other side, I tried climbing the same hill at same power with my 2017 bike and with my 2023 bike. There was a 4% of difference in the time, probably because better wheels and improved position.

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

#205

Post by lormayna »

Angostura wrote: post #15
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

Maratona de Dolomites, probably the most beautiful amateur cycling events in the world, has more than 50k subscribers and they selected only 9k.

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

#206

Post by taeric »

hinkley wrote: post #108
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…

Runners also warn about high fiber being bad. I keep being drawn back to our friend the Banana. I think pectin is easier on the stomach than insoluble fiber, but I have a lot of gaps in this part of my knowledge. The cheeseburger calls to us all. Some of us are just "better" at resisting the call.

I'm intrigued by the mention of a banana. Is there something specific about banana fiber you are referencing?

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

#207

Post by hinkley »

taeric wrote: post #206
hinkley wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Runners also warn about high fiber being bad. I keep being drawn back to our friend the Banana. I think pectin is easier on the stomach than insoluble fiber, but I have a lot of gaps in this part of my knowledge. The cheeseburger calls to us all. Some of us are just "better" at resisting the call.

I'm intrigued by the mention of a banana. Is there something specific about banana fiber you are referencing?

No, it’s just that amateur cyclists swear by bananas. Starch, potassium, biodegradable wrapper. Jerseys have handy pockets that can carry several. Walkers and runners often don’t.

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

#208

Post by bbarn »

burningChrome wrote: post #128
hinkley wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Runners also warn about high fiber being bad. I keep being drawn back to our friend the Banana. I think pectin is easier on the stomach than insoluble fiber, but I have a lot of gaps in this part of my knowledge. The cheeseburger calls to us all. Some of us are just "better" at resisting the call.

>> The cheeseburger calls to us all. One my trainers when I was in college told me that when you crave foods, its not your lack of willpower, its actually your body telling you it needs certain nutrients. He told me when you crave chocolate its because your body needs carbs, so if you get some carbs, your chocolate cravings will go away. I'm guessing the idea you crave a cheeseburger is the same thing, his body was i…

There are days on the bike where I would probably commit a crime to get a cold Coca-cola, and I almost never drink sodas otherwise.

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

#209

Post by fbdab103 »

hinkley wrote: post #119
fsckboy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the long history of cheating at the highest levels of every sport indicates that if there is not mechanical doping in cycling, it's because the mechanical technology is not as good at hiding yet as it needs to be. We are talking about human beings here.

I really, really want someone to commercialize the mechanical doping tech they've been using. Get caught and go straight please. Give me a bike that looks like a normal bike and gives mere mortals like me an extra 5 mph (power law makes that a lot worse for pros).

Assuming the pros are cheating, the professional assistance is unlikely to be of use to a regular human. At the professional level, a 1% gain could be huge, whereas a normal rider could gain far more than that by better techniques/breathing/equipment/whatever.

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

#210

Post by taeric »

hinkley wrote: post #207
taeric wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm intrigued by the mention of a banana. Is there something specific about banana fiber you are referencing?

No, it’s just that amateur cyclists swear by bananas. Starch, potassium, biodegradable wrapper. Jerseys have handy pockets that can carry several. Walkers and runners often don’t.

Ah, makes sense. My naive view of bananas would be that they are also relatively high in fiber.

This whole thread really underlines how little I understand about a lot of this. :D

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