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Cyclist diet - how to address

What is a good diet for cyclists?

Suggested Daily Eating Plan
  • Breakfast - Porridge oats/eggs.
  • Mid morning snack - Fruit/Yogurt.
  • Lunch - Wholemeal bread sandwich/jacket potato/left over pasta from the night before.
  • Mid afternoon snack - a piece of fruit/pack of unsalted nuts.
  • Evening meal - A piece of chicken/ fish/other lean meat with Rice/Pasta/Vegetables.





Big tours are phenomenal endurance and strength performances and place high demands on the riders who challenge them. On the one hand, the athletes need a lot of fuel to get 'around three and a half thousand kilometers' at an average speed of over three and a half thousand kilometers, 25 miles per hour. But on the flip side, they don't want to overeat to compromise their power to weight ratio, which is very important when cycling. (Dramatic Music) I came to the Giro d'Italiato to find out more, speaking to Nigel Mitchell, the EF Education First Pro Cycling Team's nutritionist, and has officially worked with Team Sky in UK cycling.

Nigel has worked with top athletes, who one day achieved enormous success in big tours, races, pretty much everything in top-class cycling. So he is an ideal conversation partner. I just want to know if the drivers can have pudding.

Let's find out. (relaxed music) Good afternoon, Nige. - Good to see you, Riley. - Yeah, so let's start the day. - Okay. - Breakfast.



What do the riders usually eat at the start, before the stage? - Yes, on a normal kind of stage a lot of people are surprised how normal the diet is, the food we make for the drivers. I We are so lucky because we have a fantastic cook with Olga and she is a really important one Is a member of the team. It is really very important.

She's one of the first people to get up and one of the last to go to bed, but it's super easy. We'll start you with porridge, we always have porridge - I love porridge. (Laughs) - You always have porridge and like we do, it's just a very simple recipe that Olga uses where it's made with just water So it's just very simple, very traditional - That's the Scottish way - Scottish way, yes, but we don't put whiskey in it.

We don't have whiskey and cream, which I think is more of a traditional Scottish guy, right? is when I'm in Scotland anyway. So we have porridge and we have omelets. Always have omelets.



Olga will count how many eggs she gets through in a big t Ours and it's hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds of eggs. And then have We only have normal muesli, we have cheese, we have jam.

It's just completely normal, simple stuff. - Yes. We try not to go too massive for breakfast, especially because then you only have the system with many, many , flooded with lots of carbohydrates and what you want to do is just replenish the system.- Right.- But so are you.

If you want something in there that will be, take some time to digest, and that's why those are Eggs great for breakfast because the eggs are digested pretty slowly, they also add some protein to the system so if they are racing it will help drivers recovery while they are going through - Constantly helping recovery - Yes, but it does is just normal, simple Food.- Yes.- People always go, 'No, it can't be that simple, it can't be that simple .'- Is there some kind of protein, carbohydrate, that kind of macronutrient you're trying to hit? - Yes ah, so what we're looking for from a protein standpoint is targeting about 20 grams of protein, worth 20 to 30 grams.



Which you just get with the food they have for breakfast, so you know, a couple of egg omelets, the oatmeal they eat, maybe some ham. That easily gives them the 30 grams of protein worth, and from a carbohydrate standpoint, we're really looking for a gram per pound of body weight, and again, that's easy to achieve without going into detail. Just with the porridge, one bit of fruit, it's really easy for them to do it without them even thinking about it and that's really the idea.

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I will try to think about these servings. Even if we shrink down a rod, things like the carbohydrates. We're trying to keep the amount pretty consistent.

That's about 20 to 30 grams of it with these meals. (Upbeat music) - And you mentioned that it's different for a shorter stage, like a TT - Yes - So how does that work? - So TT One of the critical ones Things, one of the really important things, one of the most critical things is stomach comfort, and of course that's an extreme position when you're on skis backwards so depending on when the time trial is, but you know, usually the guys get up when your time trial is at 2am and they'll have their standard breakfast but slightly lighter portions doing a bit of riding, exploring and then, three, four hours before the TT, there's the pre-race meal and the pre-race -We always have the same food. It's just rice and omelette - When we get out on the stage, what do the riders eat during a stage? - So during the stage we aim to achieve, depending on the intensity, and this is part of the training that the riders really have to think for themselves because you can't tell anyone you have to have that many grams of carbohydrates per hour because of the intensity they could be training so sometimes you can have people coming back and you look at the power files and they don't have to be really hard worked and you have other days where they just go full throttle all the time, so what are we? If you're riding relatively moderately, try to work on aiming for around 40 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.

If you work harder, it's closer to 60 to 80, even up to 100 grams per hour. and the way we deliver nutrition on bikes is like a modular system. So we're working on some kind of 20 gram carbohydrate exchange, if you understand me.

Like rice cake with about 20 grams of carbohydrates, a bar is like 40 grams of carbohydrates, so that's two exchanges. Depending on the drink we're using, we might be using an 80-gram carbohydrate drink, so that's four swaps so we're just working on that type of system. I don't think the drivers always fully understand this. - Yes, but you are watching it. - But we know, so we go when you have a bottle of it - S o when you have an 80 gram bottle then this is enough for an hour, and we tend to use more of this liquid carbohydrate feeding when the stages are more technical, in the mountains when it is more difficult to eat, or later in the stages, So at the first start of the stage, depending on what the drivers are doing, we may only have a bottle of water and a bottle of racing drink in the bottles.

The racing drink is Scratch with 20 grams of carbohydrates. It may be that they'll be fathering their jobs early on, or they know they have to work, so we're going to be using 80 grams of carbohydrates in their bottles so we'll just titrate it by that little bit and we are very standard with the racing foods we use. So we use a combination of commercial bars and we also use the rice cakes.

It's the biggest, most popular, and most effective racing feed out there. (relaxed music) - Something I want to talk about is food residue. - Okay, yes - Because you mentioned something about driver avoidance of food that creates a lot of water retention in the intestines - Well it isn't so much water retention, there is more of the fecal matter poop, so basically in our colon, the bigger people are, the more there is, so you can have a few pounds of stool in the intestines.

I mean, you have to be pretty careful about the microbiome, the bacteria, it's important that we don't do it, that we don't play around with it too much, so sometimes we do it for certain stages and we don't do it all Time with all drivers, it really is when people are especially after something and we do, we support a low residue plan so we only remove food the body doesn't really digest, but what we do is still to be ensured That we're getting some of the soluble fiber to feed the bacteria, so we're not avoiding all of the fiber, but we're trying to avoid more of it - More o What we could think of the fiber that really makes up that mass Broccoli or something like that? - Yeah and, or oatmeal bread, so it's a really simple type of diet that is all about eating chicken and rice or fish and rice and then n there are vegetable juices to go with it.- Easier to digest.- Well, one of the other things about it is that, especially if you are on the last week of a big tour, the digestive system picks up.

To be tired, the drivers eat large amounts of lettuce, a lot more than what normal people would eat, and so with all the fiber you can get some ferment in the gut, so again with things like the vegetable juices, in fact, the nutrients concentrate and one Remove most of the mass. (Popular Music) - How has that changed since you got into professional cycling and nutrition? - Yeah, well I think there have been massive changes. I mean, I was pretty lucky when I was in World Tour Level cyc. came ling because i was joining a brand new team so i got into team sky where we had the opportunity to rewrite the rules and it was very little risk to the situation as we were not held back by some traditions, so we could try what we really tried and what we want to do which is currently working too.

Many of the practices we are doing with it now are what I introduced about 10 years ago. Things have moved on, but what we see now, most of the other teams have adopted a lot of those exercises as well, and so things in general just moved on, so one of the big ones used to be, things like pasta got really very strong in cycling used is used a lot more now. Again, all teams do this.

Things like juicing. You know you're racing in the restaurants and you see a lot of teams juicing now. Things like the rice cakes I can't take full credit for because it was actually Alan Lib who made a recipe from his grandmother about Doi.

He did something like that years ago, and it was Brad Wiggins who said to me, 'Oh Alan does these kinds of sticks' that are really good on a bike.' So we took some of those recipes and adjusted them and again all of the teams are doing this now and you know, Alan tells me that when he was professional cycling 15 years ago, people mocked him for walking around with his rice cooker. People took the Mickey and now each team has four or five rice cookers.

So there have been these changes and I think the focus on the quality of the food is much stronger than it was 10 years ago. All teams now have a cook. The teams now employ someone with a nutrition role who is responsible for both the strategic and operational activities of food and nutrition within the team.

The quality of the nutritional products has really increased in my opinion, but I think the intelligence in using the products has improved as So I don't think people are just racing, we have to use these bars, we have to use gels , have to use these drinks, we are now thinking what is actually the most reasonable solution to what we want to do, so we think about what the problem is and how to approach this problem, not what we have to do that we are just throw at it and try to get it to work. (Popular music) - Are there things that are blacklisted that you can't have? - My way of working is that I don't really like a didactic approach, good, bad. What I like to try and do is Too Okay, we believe this supports a performance environment, supports a performance diet, and thus the food we don't offer drivers, if that's something they really want then they can get it but we don't forbid it - yes. - If you know what I mean.

So if a driver sits there and eats or drinks, we won't judge him for it. That's our choice, so I think the only one of the things we really avoid as a team, apart from the mountain stages, so straight off the bike, we avoid things like soft drinks. You know colas.- They have been very popular in the past.- Yes, no, no, I mean they are super popular, but the reason we avoid them is because drinks are very low in pH and what we try to protect the drivers' digestive systems during the race and when we have a lot of acidic food it can affect the way our digestive systems work a can of lemonade but the reason we don't give it to the drivers is because that what we're trying to say this doesn't support what we want to achieve hotel, they might say 'oh god i really need a can' so go and get one but we don't offer it as a team, but we use the small comes on mountain stages because that can be mentally almost lifesaving for some of the riders, even if it doesn't overall support what we're doing, but in this situation it supports the boys' performance and there is only so much that you ka We can say that you can't. - Yes, right.

Well, thank you very much for that. Great conversation with you as always and yes, really interesting. - Okay. - Thanks a lot for this.

Thanks to Nigel for his insight into what the pro riders eat. I think it's really interesting and I think the takeaway messages are that you will eat a lot of variety, a lot of real food that is easy to digest, but also practical when you have to remake things in strange places or on your bike. It's also really interesting to see that the trainers and nutritionists take into account the physical demands of each day because the days are often different and also the performance data and the tailor's food based on it is intact.

And to see more articles on nutrition for cycling, click on the big pink EF Education First truck behind me.

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What do cyclists eat on long rides?

Recommended calorie sources: Start with solid foods, including sandwiches, homemade rice bars, and sports nutrition bars (we recommend ProBar Bite). Save the chewables and gels for the last third of the ride. After the ride: Sit down to a substantial meal within 60 minutes of finishing the ride.

Refueling is one of the easiest things you can do, but it has a massive impact on your performance. And the longer your journey, the more important refueling becomes. Mile ride, or the big huge sport you've been preparing for in a long time, or just a couple of long summer rides, we'll show you what to eat and when to eat it, but before we do, make sure that you subscribe to GCN if you haven't already, and also click the bell icons for notifications and support the channel. (Dramatic Music) - The first thing to know about refueling for a long ride is that your refueling doesn't start when you get it on your bike.

You need to think about your diet before driving, and that starts with your meal the night before. You want to have a solid meal that is high in carbohydrates. Maybe something with pasta, rice, or even quinoa Make the classic mistake of overeating.

While topping up carbs is a good thing, you'll want to replenish those carbohydrates served, but eating twice what you would normally eat will just leave you feeling bloated and sluggish the next day. Try to eat a little more carbs than you normally would; you really want a hearty, low-fat, low GI breakfast. So something like porridge, a Bircher muesli or overnight oats would be ideal as they are carbohydrates with low GI, which means that the energy is released slowly.

So you will feel the benefits longer. And you want to avoid fatty foods as they delay the absorption of much-needed carbohydrates into your system. Deep-frying may not be the best option before a big trip. (slow techno beat) - Simple things first.

If you are going on a long drive, bring two bottles with you. Now 750ml bottles are really useful when you can fit them into your frame. This is actually a 500, but the 750 won't fit every frame, especially y if you have a smaller bike.

But ultimately, the drinking strategy you choose will depend on the conditions in which you are driving. - When it's really hot, focus on having electrolytes in your beverages to replace the essential minerals you are losing by sweating, and if possible, schedule at least one point on your ride to pop your bottles A pro tip is also to take an electrolyte tablet and a bag of mixed drinks with you in your pocket or saddlebag, when you refill your bottles in the summer I like to have water and electrolytes in my bottles to make sure that I get through the sweat replenish lost minerals. But in winter I like to fill the bottles with carbohydrate mix and use some kind of special product, a bag of carbohydrate mix, you can actually get the maximum amount of carbohydrates your body can absorb in an hour.

The reason for this is that they have the right blend of sugars that will allow you to get the maximum amount of carbohydrates per hour, which can be massive to help you fuel up. (Techno music) - Take real food with you whenever you can on long bike rides. So these can be flapjacks, rice cakes, bananas, or maybe even small sandwiches.

If you're getting your fueling strategy right, and you're feeling tired, hungry and maybe blowing, then one of the best things to eat is an energy gel. Because energy gels only contain what you need: fuel, sugar. And that is what they are really easy to absorb into the body.

With this in mind, it's always good to take a few energy gels with you on long journeys. But you won't want to eat energy gels all the time. They have a lot of them and they can! starting to be pretty sickly.

But in terms of trying to make up for the dreaded bonk, speak to a seasoned cyclist who will tell you there is nothing like it. (Techno music) - It's a bit of a cliché, but when you start with that? If you're hungry on a long drive, it's really too late. It's not the end of the world on short trips, but if you run out of fuel you're probably not too far from home, but take it off my hands, you really, really don't want to run out of fuel halfway on an epic ride .

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It's no fun. An intense drive consists of consuming carbohydrates every 20 minutes or so. That could be half an energy bar, a gel or a rice cake or something like that.

And what I tend to do is pretty geeky, I'll do and plan how much food I need and then pack my bags accordingly. But then always add an extra bar or a couple of extra gels in case I need it. For example, if the trip is a little more intense than your planning, or you start to have the feeling that you are not doing well, this is your insurance policy, these are your reserves, your emergency rations.

Hope you found this look at food useful on long journeys. And if yes? , then please give the article a big thumbs up. Now you have no excuse if you accept your next six-hour epic.

And if you want to stay hydrated in style, why should you? Don't go to the GCN shop and get GCN Camelback water bottles. And if you'd like to see another how-to article, click here.

Are bananas good for cycling?

Bananas are the number one cycling food. They are perfectly balanced to replace the electrolytes lost through sweat, particularly potassium as well as providing 25g-30g of carbohydrate to supply energy to our cycling muscles.

First on our list is porridge or oatmeal. This is a firm favorite, especially among proteins, for good reason and that is because oats have a very low glycemic index and what it basically means is that they provide a slow, steady release of energy that is great to start with Day is when you don't want to have sugar spikes so perfect for the long drive or other strenuous activities and they don't have to be boring either, I could spice up some raisins and fruit with a little brown sugar and our own Simon Richardson is up to us Its perfect recipe given for about a year Fish is an absolute superfood for us cyclists, not only contains high-quality protein for rebuilding our muscles or for tuck training, but also contains essential fatty acids and don't let the name put you off, these are good fats, which your body needs and on top of that you will get a big hit with vitamin B and selenium if you get jema In the breakfast room of a team of professional cyclists, ls finding a discovery for a lifetime that, along with their oatmeal, which is likely to be consumed from there or some other form of eggs, is a great source of protein to start your day with, and You can even add some extra healthy ingredients like tomatoes and even better Tinkoff saxons. Hannah Graham showed us how to make the perfect omelette and you can check out this article by clicking the description below The fact that cycling goes hand in hand with Inkoffee may not be a coincidence after all of the caffeine one one of the few tried and true counter-remedies and it is abundant in coffee abundance, just be a little careful, although some of the great drinks you can buy in modern cafes today contain more calories for a whole meal, so stick with smaller ones, Stronger Coffee If You Don't Want Fiercer and Better Performance Nitric Oxide has become a buzzword in the world of sports as soon as it appears that performance enhancing studies have shown it can increase your stamina and improve your blood flow wherever you can get it good when you are in the us You can find it inbeat when you lick your UK.

You can find it in Beattroopstrouble. You have to eat a ton of it if you want a performance advantage, so either buy it before two or just make something yourself just like we did in this article here, not dissimilar in quality to fish are nuts and see They are also a great source of protein and essential fats. Good examples include almonds walnuts pumpkin seeds and pistachios but try to use an undercooked raw version of the product.

Even almond butter or peanut butter can be helpful if you are given too many organic additives, but use them sparingly when using them as snacks as they are high in calories. Trending especially in the US right now, this coconut water is high in potassium, very low in calories, and more effective than regular old water, which now might not be to everyone's taste, but we know there are plenty of World Tour teams out there that do Have large stocks of it on their team butters and ore and eaten at the right time after races Rice is a great way to promote regeneration. Some teams store it and use it during a race combined with fish or some kind of eggs it is the perfect post-workout meal each Yours greens is something many of us will remember that our parents told us as kids that unfortunately they were right Vegetables contain so many vitamins and nutrients that we need and they are also a great source of carbohydrates as opposed to sugary fruits also make it very difficult to eat too many vegetables, but in the end definitely not one un His favorite underbite foods, flapjack, are easy to eat just slip in your pocket while driving and taste great to boot and provide exactly the fuel you need for your ride, and there are lots and lots of fuel recipes out there, but why not start with one of your very own salmon wealth?

Are eggs good before cycling?

High-Fat Breakfast Meats and Eggs

Eggs are a great nutritional choice in general, but if you're pressed for time, give the fatty and protein-packed meals (i.e., anything made up of bacon and eggs) a pass.
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What do cyclist drink while riding?

Bring a water bottle or an electrolyte-rich drink along for the ride. While on medium-length rides ranging between 1 and 3 hours, cyclists should focus on carb replacement. Instead of drinking water during the ride, grab a few bottles of a carb-rich sports drink like 1st Endurance's EFS Electrolyte Drink.

What should you not eat before cycling?

In the 2-4 hours before, riders should try to limit the following, as these are well known causes gastrointestinal distress (diarrhoea, bowel upsets): Excess fibre, excess fatty foods, unusually spicy foods, excess caffeine intakes, and more obviously, alcohol!

Why do cyclist eat bananas?

Bananas are the number one cycling food. They are perfectly balanced to replace the electrolytes lost through sweat, particularly potassium as well as providing 25g-30g of carbohydrate to supply energy to our cycling muscles.

Why do cyclists drink Coke?

'Caffeine has been shown to reduce the perception of effort and increase endurance, as well as improve concentration so you feel sharper,' says Bean. 'A 70kg cyclist needs around 200mg of caffeine to feel the effects. That would mean drinking rather a lot of Coke.

Do cyclists drink alcohol?

Or should you, for the sake of your cycling, stop drinking alcohol altogether? At the start of the year, it was revealed that riders and all staff from WorldTour team Lotto-Soudal have been banned from drinking during key blocks of training and races (except for small amounts following a victory or birthday).18.07.2020

Do cyclists put bananas down their shorts?

Acting as a balm, utilising its natural vitamins, the banana absorbs the aggravation and heals your private wounds away from public knowledge, thanks to the modern cyclists' shorts with their elasticated legs. If you suffer, try the remedy.

What should I eat on a meal plan for a cyclist?

You must eat a variety of different meats/fish, complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables every day, and drink plenty of water. This plan is based around sustained slow released low glycaemic carbohydrates to help provide energy for exercise sessions.

How to get a personalized cycling diet plan?

Find what will work for you with this 60-sec quiz approved by experts and get your personalized cycling plan & diet created by Cycling Diet coaches and nutritionists.

What do you need to know about nutrition for cyclists?

1. Consume the right amount of calories Good nutrition for cyclists means replacing calories Carbohydrates an an important part of nutrition for cyclists Add carbohydrates to your meals Fat is healthy when it’s the right type. Drinking through your ear: not a marginal gain. Eat well after a ride

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