Food fight
With their training for the Etape du Tour behind them, how our trio eat or drink on the day can be the di erence between success and failure…
This is it. At the time of writing, less than a week separated our Team Alpecin trio with their date of destiny. Little work remains to be done and, if anything, they should have been slowing down, or tapering, their training to ensure they arrived fresh and raring to go.
However, there are still things to do to ensure they achieve their Etape aims and high on that list is race-day fuelling. Even the best engines in cycling will crack if there’s nothing left in the tank, as Chris Froome will tell you after his near terminal sugar low on Alpe d’Huez at the 2013 Tour de France. His teammate Richie Porte dug him out of a hole by giving him a gel, which cost Froome a 20-second penalty.
The team has a six-hour target for the 135km ride, which finishes with a monster 36km climb up to Val Thorens. To make sure they crack that climb – and it doesn’t crack them – there are some basic fuelling rules that they need to stick to; rules that can be easily forgotten in the heat of battle.
First of all, they need to ensure they arrive on the start line in the best condition. Before the Etape, they will have had a travel day over to the Alps, then a sign-on day – or perhaps even crammed both into one day. This can throw fuelling habits out of the window, so they need to make sure they drink plenty of water in the days before (1.5l as a minimum – more dependent on heat). In the preceding week, it’s important to have meals rich in carbohydrate, as well as at breakfast on race day, to boost levels of glycogen, which is how carbs are stored in the body (500g in the muscles – kept for exercise, and 100g in the liver, which is released into the body between meals). Any excess is stored as fat so they need to maintain that balance.
Breakfast on the day of any sportive can be a less relaxed, convivial experience than normal. “It’s important for the riders to eat breakfast two to three hours before the event, which can mean a very early start,” says Florian Geyer, the team’s coach at Radlabor. With a start time of 7am, that means shovelling the oats and fruit favoured by the team at a time when they’re just not hungry.
Fuel to win
Carb consumption on the bike is a balancing act – eating too much can lead to stomach issues, and not enough will see those cracks appearing. Also consider the type of carbs you’re eating; there’s a limit of 60g of glucose that your body can process – any more is a waste and can lead to those stomach issues. Add in a fructose carb component, however, and your body can cope with a further 30g per hour. Coming back to Chris Froome, it’s how he said he’d fuelled his Giro d’Italia-winning ride on the Colle delle Finestre last year with Science in Sport’s Beta Fuel.
“The first feed should be at 45 minutes into the ride with regular drinking every 15 minutes,” says Geyer. “If you’re at the part of the ride where you’re consuming gels, be sure to combine with water, rather than energy drink, to avoid overfeeding.” Forgetting to eat and drink is a common mistake, so try setting an alert on your phone to remind you.
As far as deciding what type of food to eat, many save their gels for later on in the ride, as a means of faster fuel but also to save their stomach. “Digestion gets harder the deeper into the ride you go, so any solid food needs to be consumed before the final climb,” says Geyer.
Team Alpecin prefer to mix up their sports nutrition with real food.
“I use gels later into rides but I much prefer energy bars, bananas and sandwiches where possible,” says Michael Rammell. “I also try to eat something salty on hotter rides.”
“I eat something every 30-45 mins. My go-to are Jelly Babies but bars and gels are also on the menu,” says MarieLouise Kertzman. “At the Fred Whitton, I followed a strict fuelling regime and it really paid o , with more energy than expected at the end of a challenging ride.”
Eating too much can lead to stomach issues, and not enough will see those cracks appearing