Sports

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

Published

2 days ago

July 1, 2024

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 custom-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and meticulously-planned meal regimes all in the name of performance enhancement.

For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing sustenance to power their team’s riders over 2,170 miles in the coming weeks there are principally two dilemmas: what food to prepare and how to do so in an ever-changing environment.

The answers are gleaned from a year-round process that begins in December during pre-season training.

While the riders are honing their bodies, ready for the multitude of races ahead, the number-crunchers eagerly gather data to better understand their nutritional needs.

“We know their individual bodies, their metabolism, how many calories they burn when resting and exactly what they will do in training, the intensity, how long and how many calories they will burn,” says Visma-Lease a Bike head of nutrition Martijn Redegeld.

“Heart rate plays a role. We have that after each training ride. And at certain points in the season we test lactate measurements and breathing measurements in the lab to develop a good profile of each rider.”

As one of three teams – alongside UAE Team Emirates and Ineos Grenadiers – whose budget tends to dwarf all others, Visma-Lease a Bike has strived to place itself at the forefront of nutritional advancement.

Partnerships with universities aim to ensure they are firmly aware of developments within the field “to keep that competitive edge over other teams”, says Redegeld.

With riders burning an average of 6,000 calories per day during the Tour (around three times more than a resting adult), Visma-Lease a Bike have even begun using Artificial Intelligence to help determine precisely how much – and what type of – food each individual cyclist should consume.

Personalisation has become increasingly paramount, with the team developing its own app,, external where various algorithms are used to generate individualised nutrition plans.

When a rider comes back from a day on the bike, they simply open the app and are told exactly how many grams of each nutritional component (carbohydrates, proteins, fats etc) to put on their plate. No brain power is wasted beyond using the ubiquitous buffet table weighing scales.

While the methods used to generate precise nutritional needs vary between teams, all of them work to a broad five-meal daily plan of breakfast, pre-race snack, on-bike fuelling, recovery meal and dinner.

The core feeding principles remain the same across the peloton, although they are tweaked depending on the upcoming day’s requirements and whether the rider in question is a climber or a sprinter, a domestique or a general classification contender.

Carbohydrates – usually in the form of rice or pasta – serve as the petrol, necessitating painfully high consumption levels.

Proteins – predominantly fish or chicken – are always unprocessed and fibre is kept low to minimise gut irritation and aid digestion, with fruit and vegetables often consumed in juice form.

Vegetarians tend to supplement themselves with protein shakes, in addition to plant-based proteins like tofu and seitan.

Riders might be allowed more vegetables and fibrous foods before flatter race days, when the body will be better equipped to break them down, while red meats are saved as a treat the evening before rest days.

On-bike fuelling comes courtesy of roadside soigneurs who load up musette bags with a variety of high-carbohydrate forms that can be selected or discarded based on personal preference.

Energy bars, gels, drinks and gummies provide quick hits on tough days, while more traditional food sources include wet rice cakes, brioches, jam sandwiches, flapjacks, sweet breads and cakes for easier days.

The required quantities are unenviably vast. Each rider consumes close to 1.5kg of rice or pasta every day and in the region of 120g of carbohydrates per hour when on the bike – the equivalent carbohydrate content of five hourly bananas.

One EF rider once went through four tubs of maple syrup during the three-week race.

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Sports

Football gossip: Arsenal have Riccardo Calafiori bid rejected

Published

3 hours ago

July 4, 2024

worlddailyinfo

Barcelona want to sign Spain forward Dani Olmo, 26, from RB Leipzig and are trying to agree a payment plan to meet his 60m euro (£51m) release clause. (90 Min), external

Brazilian winger Willian has rejected the offer of a new contract at Fulham. Clubs in Saudi Arabia and Turkey are interested in the 35-year-old. (Mail), external

Paris St-Germain midfielder Ethan Mbappe, brother of France striker Kylian, is set sign a long-term deal at Lille. (Fabrizio Romano), external

Manchester United are keen on re-signing Tottenham’s 27-year-old Spain defender Sergio Reguilon, who spent the first half of last season on loan at Old Trafford (AS – in Spanish), external

Everton are interested in 22-year-old Cameroon defender Jackson Tchatchoua, whose club Hellas Verona want 8m euros (£7m). (TuttoMercatoWeb – in Italian), external

Atalanta are set to sign Italy midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo, 25, on loan from Galatasaray with an obligation to buy. (Gazzetta dello Sport), external

Barcelona would be willing to sell Uruguay defender Ronald Araujo and Brazil winger Raphinha this summer in order to sign Athletic Bilbao’s 21-year-old Spain forward Nico Williams. (SportsMole), external

Chelsea are keen on Nottingham Forest’s 21-year-old Brazilian defender Murillo but think his £60m price tag is too high. (Football London), external

AC Milan’s 26-year-old France defender Theo Hernandez is closing in on a £51m move to Manchester City. (Manchester Evening News), external

Chelsea’s England midfielder Conor Gallagher, 24, is reluctant to relocate to the Midlands to join Aston Villa as he waits on a potential new contract at Stamford Bridge. (Telegraph – subscription), external

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Sports

Mark Cavendish earns Tour de France immortality with 35th stage win

Published

9 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Steven Sutcliffe

Since drawing level with Belgian legend Merckx in 2021, Cavendish has had to deal with a knifepoint robbery and the uncertainty of finding a new team at the age of 37.

There was also the bitter disappointment of leaving the Tour with a broken collarbone 12 months ago, while injuries and depression contributed to him not winning once during 2019 and 2020.

Yet here he is in his 15th Tour, displaying the confidence of the rider who was virtually impossible to beat between 2008 and 2012 when he claimed 23 stage wins, including four on the Champs-Elysees.

“Without the Tour de France cycling does not exist,” Cavendish said in his 2023 Netflix documentary, Mark Cavendish: Never Enough.

With 35 victories out of 215 completed stages he also has a strike rate of almost one in six.

It is a remarkable feat for a rider who has been described as having a sharp tongue and fiery temper by former team-mates – and as a “pain in the ass” by the straight-talking Vasilis Anastopoulos, who worked with Cavendish at Quick Step and is now head of performance at the Manxman’s current Astana Qazaqstan team.

The Greek coach has been credited by Cavendish for helping rejuvenate his career during their time together at the Belgian Quick Step team, and for playing a pivotal role in his 2021 and 2022 success at both the Tour and Giro d’Italia.

Cavendish’s former lead-out man Mark Renshaw is now Astana’s sporting director.

“He’s amazing. He’s just like a fine wine who gets better and better,” Renshaw said of the sprinter.

“The team had so much confidence in him and they had that all year. We’ve changed the team to look after him and he has been mega committed.

“I don’t know how many days he’s been with his family but this year it has not been many and that is the type of commitment you need.”

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Sports

England vs New Zealand: Lauren Bell takes five wickets as hosts secure series clean sweep

Published

13 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Ffion Wynne

Lauren Bell’s career-best 5-37 set up England’s five-wicket win over New Zealand in the third one-day international at Bristol.

After afternoon rain delayed the start and reduced the game to 42 overs a side, the White Ferns were restricted to 211-8.

England slipped to 33-3 in reply but were rescued by Nat Sciver-Brunt and Amy Jones’ fifth-wicket stand of 90.

Sciver-Brunt finished with 76 not out and Jones made a run-a-ball 50 as England got over the line with 20 balls remaining.

The win secures a series clean sweep for England, with a five-match T20 series to follow, starting at Southampton on Saturday.

England’s triumph was instigated by Bell, 23, who bowled Sophie Devine for 43 for her first wicket, breaking a crucial third-wicket stand of 68 between the New Zealand captain and Amelia Kerr.

Kerr was then pinned lbw for 57, New Zealand’s only half-century of the series, before Brooke Halliday was caught behind for 31 and both Izzy Gaze and Lauren Down were caught at mid-on.

It was the visitors’ highest total of the series after being skittled for 156 and 141, but they still lost a flurry of wickets with four for 27 falling at the end of the innings.

An impressive powerplay with the ball then saw England’s middle order exposed for the first time this series, with Tammy Beaumont trapped lbw for a duck, Heather Knight caught and bowled for nine and Maia Bouchier falling for 19.

Sciver-Brunt was dropped on 63 shortly after Jones’ departure in the 31st over which added a few nerves, but she eventually paced her innings to perfection with Alice Capsey, unbeaten on 35, to calmly steer them to victory.

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