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news
bananaBananas revealed as cyclists' favourite ride food
Move over, hard-to-chew energy bars and sickly-sweet gels: the humble banana is the favourite riding food of UK cyclists.
The not-terribly-surprising finding comes from Wiggle. The online retailer polled riders through its #goodstuff tag and associated website.
Riders were asked the most important thing you should take on a ride; the best cycling advice they'd ever been given; favourite places to ride and what they wish they'd known when they started cycling.
Bananas topped the ride food category with 31% of the vote, followed by jelly sweets (6%) and flapjacks (6%).
The most important thing to take on a ride is a tool kit for roadside repairs, especially punctures, according to 28% of those who responded. Water and food came next at 22%, followed by a phone for emergencies (13%).
The best cycling-related advice was to get a bike that fits well, according to 18% of respondents. Wearing padded cycling shorts was cited by 11%, while 8% said the best advice was to just keep cycling.
No one area ran away with the title of favourite place to ride, with 5% naming the Surrey Hills; 4% each for the Lake District and Yorkshire while the Peaks and Cornwall were each named by 3% of riders. The hills and dense lane network of North-east Somerset seem to have been overlooked, but that's fine; we're happy to have them as our little secret.
And the things people wish they'd known when they started riding? Here's a selection:
"How good and friendly cycling clubs were to new cyclists!"
"Whatever the weather, just ride."
"Don't put up with uncomfortable kit! Saddles, shorts or shoes - whatever it is if you don't get on with it then change it; you'll be able to ride for longer in more comfort."
"It will break and you can fix it."
"A 25 tooth cog wasn’t enough."
"Anglesey isn’t flat."
Adam Ryan, Wiggle Head of Brand Marketing said: “The purpose of the survey was to get as much good advice as possible from cyclists to re-cycle amongst new and existing cyclists. The enthusiastic response demonstrates just how passionate cyclist are about the sport.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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35 comments
"Anglesey isn't flat." - This. Some sort of sick joke that they call it the flat isle. It's not. Something that's even more evident when you have to ride through a 40mph headwind on the return leg of a 75 mile ride. Ugh.
Just discovered Clif bars.
Don't leave the drink on the kitchen table.
Be not afraid of lycra.
You will, one day, find a saddle that suits.
(For me, it's a Specialised Avatar or a Brooks Swift.)
"Bendy Twats!" Brilliant. I hate the buggers too. Especially those black-stained ones. Ue
uuGH!
What I should have done when I started:
Instead of buying a medium-range racy bike, I should have got a cheaper work-horse of a winter bike and saved pennies towards a summer stallion. Now I'm stuck in limbo not knowing whether I should get a cheap winter bike and keep my current as Sunday's best or buy a posh ride and ride the current one to the ground over the winter...
and it's (pedant) Peak, not Peaks due to where the name came from (the original inhabitants not the non existant peaks)(/pedant)
Yep, nobody local calls it 'The Peaks' and the Peak District is entirely pan flat.
That's because people are out riding on them rather than typing shit on a computer.
So you could infer from the results that the hills of Surrey are in fact the least popular and the hills of Bath are the most.
In my case, I was suffering from chronic cramp, tried banana's, all sorts of electrolytes etc.
In my case simply avoiding caffeine gels prevents the awful lock up and fall off cramp.
It made sense as I rarely got serious cramp I training, but did in competetiion, and I never used gels in training.
Stuffing myself full of banana didn't help, just made me feel sick at the same time!
Bananas? Bananas? Eurghhh...
Home brew supplies sell dextrose cheap. Mix in bottle.
Aldi individually wrapped raisin brioche are tip top.
Love my jelly babies though. 100miles = 1 pack of Asda own brand.
Chocolate raisins are the dogs bollocks: sugary chocolate for the instant hit, the raisins are more slow release.
"How good and friendly cycling clubs were to new cyclists!"
A long time ago I started riding on my own and just kept going at it — for a very long time it never occurred to me to join a club and that is something I wish I had done differently.
Standard cereal bars for me! Can usually get two packs of 6 for £2-£3 when on offer at Sainsbury's. Many times cheaper than energy bars and just as effective! And unlike bananas, no risk of squashing or leaking.
Mini Malt Loafs, honey roast peanuts, jelly babies. Bit of flapjack, preferably with cherries and choc chips. Bacon sandwich always goes down well. Pint of ruby ale. Bag of Walker's Cheese'n'Onion. Maybe another pint of ruby ale. (...phonecall to wife, sorry dear, puncture again.)
I'm partial to a nice whole Dover Sole, pan fried with jersey pots and wilted spinach. Packs nicely and is lovely cold, mid race.
I hate bananas, I eat the odd one as a placebo to cramp, but they are too stodgy and bag me up, I don't seem to digest them.
American hard gums are good inbetween gels, and also ye olde malt loaf.
If you're Graeme Obree, it's pilchards, now I like Graeme, I respect him, but if getting to the top meant eating pilchards and marmalade, I'm glad I gave up at an early stage!
Cramp and strange foods link..
http://blog.trainerroad.com/pickle-juice-stop-cramps/
FYI: Pickle juice was used by the University of Florida football team (and others) before they came up with Gatorade (their nickname is the "Gators").
The truth is though, that no one really knows what causes cramp as it's almost impossible to research. So all causes/solutions are largely anecdotal and often marketing driven.
Well done for not reading the linked article....
Well admittedly the tin is just the right size for a jersey pocket, but it could get a bit messy at 20mph, no?!
Not sure why Bananas top the list, given up on them now, how many times do you pull it out after an hour or so to find its a squidgy mess or even burst in your back pocket.
I don't like banana's, and they don't like me.
One thing they didn't mention is how miserable cyclists are! Or is that just where i live? (Buckinghamshire)
Come to happy Hertfordshire - we say hello here! (Mind you, when I am on Whiteleaf Hill in Bucks I am pretty miserable!)
On club rides I say hello to other cyclists, horse riders and any pedestrians I see down the lanes. If Im going uphill, I might muster a nod or at least a grimacing face with a pleading look, thats crying for help!
I used to do the usual thing of taking a banana but now they just pee me off. Someone on a club ride the other weekend had some figs. Might get me some of them!
Home made honey flapjacks and bananas for long rides.
Can't beat a jelly baby...or ten, in my opinion!
or in my case a full bag!
jelly babies are great when standing still (or sitting at a desk).
I tried them on the move and nearly choked. A climber friend introduced me to them as an energy source but his activity is very different from cycling.
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