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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

#241

Post by bell-cot »

jamil7 wrote: post #37
Ekaros wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not then allow motorcycles? They are just bikes upgraded with motors... Would make competition lot shorter too and interesting. Seeing them driving around without speed limits.

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

I assumed it was a reference to this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_doping

From a bit of reading, it sounds like there's a fairly widespread impression (or at least suspicion of) cheating. And that enforcement is quite weak, because the authorities care more about preventing public scandal than about preventing actual cheating.

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

#242

Post by bell-cot »

SonicScrub wrote: post #56
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…

At the top level of any sport, the expense comes from the coaching, exercise science, travel and other support over the course of years. That's true whether the game is cycling, or football. A $20,000 bike is peanuts in comparison to this cost. Unless you are at the top 0.001 percent of cyclists, better/more training has a much bigger impact than gear. $1,000 gets you a competitive road bike that you can win your loc…

At least food-wise, the article claims that cycling was (until recently) far less spare-no-expense optimized:

> Not so long ago, the professional cycling world's approach to fuelling was remarkably basic.

> Options for riders barely extended beyond a monotonous menu of pasta, rice or whatever fare that night's hotel kitchen decided to serve up.

> These days, it is an entirely different prospect, with vast sums spent on...

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

#243

Post by pandaman »

tpm wrote: post #234
pandaman wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a steel frame bike which will be lighter than the UCI weight limit with modern technology. It's just nobody cares to make one because the "unracer" crowd who believe steel frames are magic, won't be spending a couple grand on a light steel frameset and the actual racers are fine with the carbon frames, where it's much easier to control properties of different parts of the frame through fiber layout.

That's not really true, if you can make a ultralight full-featured steel-framed bike there will be buyers. There is a not so small crowd of "weight weenies" and/or steel frame fans willing to spend big.

How do you know? Do you believe weight weenies are only into steel and this is why they don't buy ultralight carbon bikes (there are few under 3kg carbon/composite bikes that had been made but nobody bothers with industrial production of 100K bikes somehow).

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

#244

Post by mhh__ »

WalterBright wrote: post #194
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.

They tried to make it such that the drivers could not be "coached" over the radio during F1 races but it just became a farce with drivers getting stuck with (say) a loud alarm blaring the whole race because they obviously don't know every page on the screen (let alone at 190mph).

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

#245

Post by prmoustache »

matsemann wrote: post #95
prmoustache wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is usually a point where you can't get those gel inside. It is nice to mix with other stuff.

After my longest ever bike ride, 300 km, I didn't touch a gel for years, heh. Got so sick of 3+ gels per hour for those ~8 hours.

I don't understand how you manage to do 300km only with gels. That would have been atrocious.

I did a similar ride a few years ago, I mixed gels, energy bars with bananas, nuts, sandwichs, nuts and pastries bought along the way.

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

#246

Post by TomMasz »

I try to make sure my pre-ride meals and in-ride fueling and hydration are adequate after I faded badly on my first 100K ride but this is more than one step beyond. I'm sure I could do better but it wouldn't have the effort vs. results that pro riders demand. I'm just happy to be able to ride.

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

#247

Post by vgt »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #236
vgt wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Powdered sugar is 50/50 fructose and glucose, a close to perfect ratio for absorption. A dash of Gatorade powder for taste and you got yourself a drink that's inexpensive and gets you all the carbs you need.

Tour de France teams don’t care about the cost savings from cheaper sugar, they do care about the time and weight effects of drinking more water to absorb the glucose.

I think that goes without saying. My advice is for the layman.

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

#248

Post by hombre_fatal »

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…

Just sounds like a convenient lie to tell yourself while you eat junk food.

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

#249

Post by hinkley »

bbarn wrote: post #208
burningChrome wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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.

Unfortunately my taste buds get more intense with exercise and not less like some people. I just had to throw out a smoothie this morning I bought as a treat for finishing a race. I forgot how sweet this beverage was on a normal day and it was like candy to me.

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

#250

Post by hinkley »

rfergie wrote: post #196
WalterBright wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Do you suppose there are stats on number and success of breakaways out there? Could be my imagination but this year seems less dramatic than the ten years or so around Armstrong’s rein.

Did anyone else feel like there was more drama around the end of the Indurain era?

I feel like doping could show up as more intense struggles for first without necessarily increasing the spread of placing. Also people who drop out don’t count right?

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