What Do Pro Cyclists Eat During The Tour De France?

Any Grand Tour is a massive assault on your body and the Giro d’Italia is no different. Fail to eat or fuel up properly and your performance will suffer. So just what are the pros doing to make sure they get enough food and energy onboard for three weeks of full gas racing? Conor caught up with Tim Podlogar, World Tour nutritionist at Bora Hansgrohe, to find out!

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[gcn]

What is your favourite riding snack? Let us know 👇

[larter_larter]

The fact that Conor, a recent professional cyclist, learns so many new things about nutrition on and off the bike in this video says a lot about how quickly the sport has developed and further professionalised in recent years. The power of research! Curious to see what the future brings.

[evanskosgei]

I'm a nutritionist in Eldoret Kenya the home of long distance athletes. It is the same nutrition for the marathoners as cyclists albeit with slight differences here and there. Interesting fact- most of the elite athletes eat the normal food, very minimal supplements. Fear of doping also a factor to consider.

[ZENmud]

I can tell what Greg Lemond, Bernard Hinault, J-F Bernard, Steve Bauer (and the rest of the 1987 Red Zinger team) ate, the night before the Vail Hill Climb TT; I suggested it.

They ordered 16 plates of "Angel hair pasta with chicken & shrimp" ~ 5kg of buttered pasta(!), 8 baguettes, 5 gallon salad (garden salade tomatoes, etc) ~ and 8 bottles each, of red & white wine.
😂🎉🎉😂
They kicked ass after enjoying our restaurant ~ in the TT, they finished something near 1, 2, 4, 7, 11 (etc)...

I was stoked...

[hanneskannes]

Primo: Spaghetti Carbonara
Secundo: Saltimbocca con Ichnusa
Dolce: Tiramisu
Espresso

[chrisridesbicycles]

Really useful information. I tried to make use of it in my last event and managed to get in 120g/hr (just on the edge of starting to feel sick). I had power throughout the whole 4hrs despite a hot start with a lot of closing gaps. And the best, I did not fall into the big hole after the event or the day after. It just works.

[iconhotel]

Good Q&A with a lot of ground covered. Great job

[durianriders]

Nice vid gang!

Backs up what I’ve been preaching the last 15 years here in YouTube❤🎉

Next thing Tim needs to deep dive into is adaptative thermogenesis.

The main reason I stay 5% body fat year round is I NEVER do CICO. I just listen to my bodies carb cravings and keto fat intake as low as possible.

[TylerKTanaka]

One of the best nutrition videos I have ever watched 👏 Kudos to this gentleman and Connor, this was an excellent conversation, filled with valuable knowledge. The expert provided useful information in a very simple and easy to understand way that we can all put to good use. Well done! 🙌

[xmarcika]

For me one of the mos valuable information. As I'm struggling a lot with the nutrition when I'm cycling a lot. Thanks a lot!

[richardanderson]

The most informative video on nutrition I have every seen, thanks Tom and GCN

[Ali_Kurt]

This was a great episode just before the grand fondo season for us amateurs, I learned a lot from him, thanks!

[stevestewart-sturges]

When I was racing in the 80's, we were getting hand ups of panini full of cream cheese and jam, maybe figs and dates, or homemade rice cakes with raisins. Drinks were water and that last hour can of coke to bring it home. Later on, Powerbars were hugely popular, but they made me ill, then we discovered CytoMax, it literally brought you back from the dead..

[larsthorwald]

I'm sure this is valuable information if I ever find myself racing the Giro.

[andrewhayes]

As always incredibly informative & have enjoyed the 2 episodes with Tim. Well done GCN 👍

[matthewj]

I handle 100-150 grams of oats in the morning with Bananna and Fruit… if you can handle the digestion tiredness for 30-45 minutes then it’s quite beneficial. Remember this nutritionist is referring to racing..

[robflel]

Would love to see a real-time blood glucose data if consuming this amount of carbs while riding.

[simondavis]

A great insight, many thanks for sharing.

[Mamilian]

Would it be possible to comment on the use of bicarb when combined with caffeine? I haven't been able to find much research around this, but what I have seen indicates that the performance gains from bicarb aren't additive to caffeine. So if you use caffeine, there aren't gains on the table from bicarb.

[telkmr]

Very insightful, thanks for the variety of topics!