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Why don't you see Pro's eating bananas?
Just wondering! Too difficult to peel? Slippy skins a danger to the peloton?
And what real food do you like to eat on the bike? Soreen for me. Difficult to chew in winter and I must like quite the plonker biting huge chunks off the full loaf as I cycle, but it's tasty and does the job nicely. Especially when it sticks to the teeth!
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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I'm trying to remember what Peter Van Petegem said he ate during the Tour of Flanders, I think it was a bar of chocolate, 3 soft cheese sandwiches and 6 small plum pies.
He also had a bottle of cold tea, of which he said he drank half as he didn't sweat much and didn't need fluids.
Banana and soreeen (cut into manageable chunks) blueberry jam sandwiches
There is a Blanco rider eating a banana right now in the Amstel Gold
The Feed Zone Cookbook has some good things in it, and they mention that the riders like to have 'normal' alternatives to gels and energy bars to eat while on the bike.
In that vein I made a nice little rice cake last week.
Cooked medium-grain rice mashed up with banana and bacon bits, flavoured with a little maple syrup and then mix in a beaten egg and bake to set.
Sounds good, maple syrup aside! How long do you bake them for, might have to give this a go.
@sm 20-30 mins in a medium oven should do it.
They're yummy, easy to digest, and the banana-bacon-maple combo is great, as anyone who has had the full US Diner experience will know.
Bananas,raisins,sultanas,thick rice pudding,branded bars,you name it,this one will scoff it.Years ago my Mum used to keep me in Bikey cake,a fruity rich stick to the ribs job.Horses for courses eat what you like,youve still got to pedal the bloody thing.
Who was it that said they were given a bag of Haribo during a race and that they were like crack for cyclists?
I'm also still confused as to what relevance Rule 16 regarding champions jerseys has to bananas?
Yellow. Tenuous, but still...
None.
It has no relevance to anyone except some sad muppet who likes rules for rules' sake. Those people should take up golf instead of a sport, it would be much more to their liking.
As for bananas, they are fab but I prefer to eat them at home. I don't care if the pros eat them or not, just like I don't need to copy their other dietary practices, their clothes or model of bicycle. But I do like the photos tweeted by @teamskychef of their food!
Magnus Backstedt was commentating on a race (might have been the tour of Oman?) and said that he hated energy products, and avoided them as much as possible. He'd just eat a sarnie early in the race and chow down the gels nearer the end when he needed that fast glycogen boost.
One typical ripe banana contains about 30 grams of carb. If you have ripe, soft bananas most of that carb will be a 50:50 mix of glucose and frustose, with protein, water and potassium for electrolytes. So a banana makes a reasonable alternative to a bar or gel.
The only advantage of bars or gels is weight, bananas have more 'filler' per gram of carb, however that 'filler' makes the carb more acceptable to the body. High carb gels and bars can be hard to digest, especially in combination with energy drinks, and a banana makes a tasty change.
To answer the original question you rarely see pros eating early on in a stage. Earlier on many pros do have more normal food, including fruit, cake and chocolate, keeping the gels and drinks for later when they need fast absorption, weight matters and coincidentally the cameras are running.
There are lots of interviews with soigneurs out there about what goes in musettes, and bananas are in there, often sliced or in sandwiches or wraps.
And brown ripe bananas don't infringe on rule 16
they contain too few grams of carbohydrates.
Couple of Christmases back, I went for a few rides wearing a Santa hat taped on top of my helmet. During those rides, I always took mince pies to eat.
Thought about riding with bunny ears this Easter, and taking hot cross buns with me, but I got ill and was in bed instead.
I'm tempted to try some riceballs and egg but can never be bothered to make them in the first place!
Good ideas rob, might try some of them out. My Mrs makes a cracking nut / fruit / choco chip mixture for when we are out walking, slow release energy
forgot the home made flapjack with nuts, cherries and raisins. Only problem is it's seriously sticky, and cannot be eaten without gluing your gloves to your bars afterwards.
Rule 16.
Voeckler was leading at the time
Mate of mine cuts malt loaf into chunks then mashes them into bite size balls which wrapped in squares of greaseproof sit nicely in a jersey pocket. For day rides I buy the hazelnut chocolate wafers from LIDL (very high energy density for volume/mass), bananas, bread rolls with ham, salami, lettuce and cheese (salt, fat, protein), dried fruit (Graves used to do a trail mix which was perfect). I also like chocolate, but since LIDL dropped the 40% single estate bars I've dropped that from the list. To drink, water and on long rides fresh fruit juice in Camelbak chill bottles. Tried SiS energy drinks but my body saw them as instant fat reserve and they never worked for me.
I saw Voeckler eating a banana in a race last year.
Simply because bananas don't have any branding.
Never thought of that. I reckon there's greenhouse somewhere growing bananas with skins in team colours. That should do it.
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