Tour de France: a mountain of calories
It鈥檚 the Tour! On Saturday the world will watch as teams of wiry men start three weeks of cycling at ridiculous speeds over ridiculous numbers of kilometres, up ridiculously high mountains. One thought springs to mind here at 成人快手 Food 鈥 what do they eat?
Team Sky cyclists snacking during training. Image: Team Sky
Tour cyclists need at least 6000 calories a day, three times as much as a normal person, and getting that much food is difficult. Either they don鈥檛 feel like eating after such massive exertions, or they get bored of eating so much (remember Eddie Izzard struggling to during his multi-marathon epic run).
S酶ren Kristiansen is chef for Team Sky throughout the Tour, and he鈥檚 determined to make sure the riders 鈥渁re still smiling when they are having healthy food.鈥 He鈥檚 influenced by classic Nordic food, 鈥淚 like to work with vegetables that are not hard for the body to digest, but... that are working slow in the body and a lot of raw food.鈥 Beetroots are a favourite, and crop up in fresh beetroot, carrot and cucumber juice. Pumpkin risotto, barley and quinoa also feature frequently. He makes 鈥渙ld-fashioned foods made in a new way.鈥
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S酶ren Kristiansen's dishes for the Team Sky Tour de France riders
S酶ren works closely with Team Sky鈥檚 nutritionist, Nigel Mitchell, his 鈥榗hief鈥. The team鈥檚 food is planned not only nutritionally, but to match each Tour stage. 鈥淥n the hard mountain days we don鈥檛 make porridge [for breakfast] because it鈥檚 too heavy on the stomach. We have some flat stages in the first week. I have more chance of giving [the riders] red meat. In the second and third week we go into the mountains.鈥 Then he鈥檒l cook more chicken and turkey as it鈥檚 easier to digest.听 There is always a lot of fish on the menu. He does concede though that 鈥渙nce in a while they will have some, how shall I say - unhealthy dessert 鈥 with some heavy chocolate.鈥
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This theme of familiarity, comfort and keeping athletes happy, as well as fuelled, is core to Sports Nutritionist Renee McGregor鈥檚 work at the University of Bath. She works with athletes across many sports including the UK Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team. Providing support and care for the athletes is critical when the team is aged between 16 and 18, many away from home for the first time, surrounded by the rigours of training. Food鈥檚 emotional hook has to be managed as much as the necessary nutritional content.
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成人快手ly, if not quite healthy - the velodrome cake!
When Renee says 鈥渢he athletes want food鈥 it takes me a second to work out that she means food, as opposed to supplements. 鈥淵ou get different types of athletes - some of them are very much about supplemental types of food. Because I'm a dietician at heart I will always try to use food before supplements. Most of my athletes would rather have food 鈥 they want to eat - they want to enjoy food.鈥 When you鈥檙e eating pasta for breakfast it can easily become just another part of your training kit.
To keep things interesting she adapts recipes to increase both flavour and nutrition. Her 鈥sweet potato brownie鈥, made for runners, is a perfect case in point. From a basic recipe Renee 鈥渞educed the amount of sugar, increased dried fruit and used walnut oil instead of butter.鈥
The brownies have slow release carbohydrate from the cocoa, fast release carbohydrate from the fruit, essential fatty acids from the walnuts and walnut oil (good for recovery), and cranberries 鈥渢o give it that tart/sweet thing鈥, vitamin C and more fast release energy.听 These are perfect before a race to fuel up, or with a glass of milk after the race, for recovery. Translating scientific knowledge into tasty dishes is a real skill, and vital to keeping the athletes engaged and happy.
Milk, in fact, turns out to be the best recovery drink going. In skimmed milk 鈥測ou鈥檝e got the right proportions of carbohydrate to protein for recovery, 3:1 鈥 hydration, there鈥檚 lots of water in skimmed milk, and electrolytes, replacing some of the salts you've lost. It鈥檚 the perfect recovery drink,鈥 says Renee.
Back in the Tour de France, riders preload on carbs for breakfast: pasta, rice, omelettes, cereals and toast to top up their glycogen levels for the day ahead. Glycogen is a type of energy that鈥檚 easily accessible to the body and used up in exercise - it runs out after about 90 minutes of hard exercise. To keep glycogen levels up on the move, riders need sports drinks and carbohydrate-laden gels to keep going. Supplements have their place. If glycogen is not topped up the athletes will be exhausted. In running, it鈥檚 known as 鈥榟itting the wall鈥, in cycling it鈥檚 politely termed 鈥榖onking鈥.听 鈥楤onking鈥 can be seriously dangerous: if you鈥檙e lucky you鈥檒l just lose your place in the pack (the peloton). More likely is that you crash: into other riders or barriers, or you career off a mountain.
Once the day鈥檚 stage is done, recovery within 15 鈥 30 minutes of finishing is vital (we鈥檙e back to the milk), followed a few hours later by proteins and more carbs. As the tour ploughs mercilessly on, the riders will get visibly depleted, as they struggle to replenish the calories and nutrients lost and repair the muscle damage inflicted by each stage.
Their food needs to be restorative, both psychologically and physically.听 S酶ren and Renee instinctively know that their role is to restore and build the athletes, using food and its emotional resonance and power; wrapping up the nutrients with care and attention and actively supporting the athletes, so they can thrill the world.
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Chef S酶ren Kristiansen posts pictures daily of the .
Renee McGregor's sweet potato brownie recipe
Comment number 1.
At 2nd Jul 2012, jonnynic wrote:nice blog - but the cake is completely irrelevant to road cycling
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Comment number 2.
At 2nd Jul 2012, looksalot wrote:Milk gets a bad press generally so nice to see the riders use it as a recovery drink!
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Comment number 3.
At 2nd Jul 2012, cowmanphil wrote:whole milk is 96% fat free. Tell the world. British dairy farmers are getting hammered by processers who are getting hammered by supermarkets if this continues there will be no more British cows and milk will imported. The quality will be questionable at best and what will the price be?
TELL YOUR SHOPS AND SUPERMARKETS SUPPORT BRITISH AGRICULTURE STOP IMPORTING FOREIGN FOOD UNNESSACERILY OR YOU WILL SEE THE END OF THE BRITISH DAIRY INDUSTRY
RANT OVER
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Comment number 4.
At 3rd Jul 2012, Iansandison wrote:My real admiration is for the tour riders of 50 years ago riding 2,000km more over the same time, with heavier bikes, no support, no nutritionists, they are the real heroes of cycling
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Comment number 5.
At 13th Jul 2012, Steve Young wrote:Not if your Bradley Wiggins, @jonnynic, that's where he comes from.
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