What to Eat on Tour

richard36

Hi

I'm planning on doing a 6 day tour covering about 80 miles a day. I've not done this kind of tour before and I'm wondering what food/drink I should be taking each day. Friends recently cycled 200 miles over 2 days and took gels throughout the journey following quite a strict regime and said they worked very well. I'm not sure whether to go down the same route ie. gels and energy drinks, or whether I should be able to get by with having say a big breakfast followed by big lunch and tea with snacks ie. oat bars, mars bars etc in between.

I'll be staying in a bed and breakfast each night so there will be opportunity to have a good breakfast and tea.

What would you suggest? Use gels or things like oat bars?

Should I just have water or use some supplement in the water?

And finally are there any guidelines I should follow ie. eat/drink every hour on the journey, have some kind of recovery food at the end of the day etc.

Many thanks and your replies are much appreciated

Richard

ju5t1n

The great thing about cycle touring is that you use up a lot of calories - so you can pretty much eat whatever you like. So don't bother with gels or energy bars - unless you enjoy eating them.

daviddd

agreed - a big dinner means you aren't riding on a full stomach so have as much as you can manage to eat. Water is perfectly OK unless you want something more tasty like fruit juice. Plenty of carbs (pasta / rice / salad) is good fodder.

tardington

I did Edinburgh to Thurso, with camping. Did our cooking on a wee pocket rocket. Lots porrdige for breakfast, and bacon butties (of course). Lunch was sandwiches or noodles. Ate a lot of the Clif Bars, they were pretty good. Also pick'n'mix! We all got HUGE bags in pitlochry 8)

Dinner was a huge plate of pasta - oh and some beer or wine for muscle relaxants properties...

ETA it is worth checking up the wind btw - we had actually planned on John o'groats, but couldn't be bothered because of the wind!

tatanab

Richard36 wrote:

I'm planning on doing a 6 day tour covering about 80 miles a day. And finally are there any guidelines I should follow ie. eat/drink every hour on the journey, have some kind of recovery food at the end of the day etc.

I think there is something missing in the emphasis here. You are on tour, so what's all this "energy gels" and "recovery food"? On tour you have all day, and unless you are intent on simply point to point then you will be stopping to look at things along the way. The good breakfast will see you through to lunchtime or beyond, but you might like to stop for coffee and snacks in the morning at one of those to touristy places you might find. Lunchtime, you might like to stop in the pub or cafe, then there's the afternoon cafe stop followed by the evening meal. This touring stuff is all eating you know - real food at that, not Power Bars or whatever.

I tend to ride about 80 miles a day cycle camping. On the continent I will probably ride an hour before I stop for morning coffee, then I will sometimes stop at lunchtime in a local bar/restaurant, and in the evening I might cook up something light.

As hinted above, I am a firm believer in real food. Energy supplements and recovery food belong in the world of HARD racing. After a baking hot day the best recovery food I can think of is a cool plate of salad; things like cucumber, tomato, coleslaw etc - packed with the minerals I have sweated out that day. Having said that, I will often have a SIS Go bar as emergency bonk rations.

richard36

Thanks for all your replies

I don't particularly want to use gels/energy drinks etc but having never spent 6 days on a bike before I was wanting to make sure that I didn't get it wrong in the food/drink department.

I would much prefer to eat real food rather than rely upon manufactured stuff so I'm glad that is what you experienced folk have recommended!

Thanks again

Richard

Cunobelin

Depends upon "why" you tour.

I can and often do 80 - 100 miles in a day, but I tour with a maximum of 50. I am not in it for the miles- that is not "Touring" to me.

I want to see the historic sites, churches, villages, pubs, scenery, chat to the locals,detour if I want to see somewhere they suggest, and above all enjoy the time.

For that reason I tend to have a mid morning coffee, light (pub) lunch, afternoon te and a few snacks in between.

Then in the evenings find a quiet pub and find out about the local area, and plan the following day.

The shorter mileages allow all of this.

Edit - and don't forget the rich variety of local produce and specialities!

Bodhbh

So far pretty much eat what I like. If it's fairly flat and the distance isn't too high will even have a pint or two at stops during the day. Like someone said, it's probably a good idea to have some emergency rations handy (normally a Mars bar or 2 for me) if you get caught out bonking out in the sticks between stops.

Special K

+1 for emergency rations in case of bonk and exhaustion. This will happen only once as you will learn your lesson, so just take a gel and keep it buried in a bag somewhere just in case. In the meantime enjoy filling your face and riding your bike for a week.

Vladimir

Buy some fruit on the way out in the morning, nothing better than sitting down to admire the view, eating a peach or similar.

Brian NZ

We have an unwritten rule, we picked up from some English freinds. Never ride past an open cafe. You never know when the next one may will arrive.
Just eat heaps of what ever you can lay your hands on, and also enjoy it.
Cheers Brian

alan14

Did LEJOG (+Lizard Point and Dunnet Head etc.) a few years ago, averaging 75 miles per day and our diet consisted mainly of high carb stuff:

Breakfast: Porridge, Alpen (the sugared variety) and plenty of water.

During the day: banana, apple, clementine etc., water, Lucozade energy, wholemeal rolls and meat for lunch (didn't bother with butter), malt loaf, Turkish Delight (like an energy gel, but cheaper), mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas etc.).

Evening dinner: pasta, grilled chicken and fresh vegatables (carrots, brocolli etc.), rice pudding or tinned fruit. Rice pud is palable enough to be eaten cold on the bike.

It seemed to work as we never felt tired or lacked energy. On the bike, the key is to eat and drink little and often to keep your 'fuel tank' topped up.

crossborderreiver

tardie wrote:

Did our cooking on a wee pocket rocket.

I have one of those. After I bought it, I was telling a work collegue that I'd tried out my pocket rocket the previous night and how good it was. He looked slightly alarmed at this and then confused when I said it boiled a pan full of water in two minutes. I didn't know it's also a type of vibrator. :oops:

Anyway back to the original query.
I don't like staying in B&Bs when I'm touring. The novelty of cooked breakfasts wears off very quickly. I also find they make me very thirsty. I much prefer hostels or camping. I carry a bag of porridge oats and some coffee. That's breakfast sorted and also supper if I'm absolutely stuck. I buy the rest of my food daily at local shops and eat frequently. I might also carry some pasta (dry not reconstituted pasta because there is no point pedalling unuseable water around the countryside) or a packet of quick cook rice to which I can add things I buy. Because I eat throughout the day, I'm not really looking for the type of meals that restaurants serve in the evenings. I can eat what I've bought when I want it and I've probably been thinking about as I've been pedalling along.

lloyd_bower

crossborderreiver wrote:

tardie wrote:

Did our cooking on a wee pocket rocket.

I have one of those. After I bought it, I was telling a work collegue that I'd tried out my pocket rocket the previous night and how good it was. He looked slightly alarmed at this and then confused when I said it boiled a pan full of water in two minutes. I didn't know it's also a type of vibrator. :oops:

Anyway back to the original query.
I don't like staying in B&Bs when I'm touring. The novelty of cooked breakfasts wears off very quickly. I also find they make me very thirsty. I much prefer hostels or camping. I carry a bag of porridge oats and some coffee. That's breakfast sorted and also supper if I'm absolutely stuck. I buy the rest of my food daily at local shops and eat frequently. I might also carry some pasta (dry not reconstituted pasta because there is no point pedalling unuseable water around the countryside) or a packet of quick cook rice to which I can add things I buy. Because I eat throughout the day, I'm not really looking for the type of meals that restaurants serve in the evenings. I can eat what I've bought when I want it and I've probably been thinking about as I've been pedalling along.

Funny tale about the pocket rocket :-)

Touring - there;s no right or wrong way. I'm pretty similar to cbr, not really one for a cooked breakfast when on tour. I usually go for muesli (homemade mix) instead of porridge, and tend to eat little and often. I'm not one for energy gels, though I would recommend sun dried bananas - sell them in health food shops, look like slugs but taste great .

alfablue

On tour I generally camp, I use a Jetboil cooker - it is very compact and is highly efficient so I can boil up water in about 1 minute. The efficiency means that one small can of gas lasts a week. It also has a coffee press accessory so it can be used like a cafetiere. I like to by sandwiches for lunch and eat dinner in pubs or restaurants, but I take a few emergency meals. For this I get some ready made Shana paneer tikka masala curry (I am a vegetarian), which is delicious and comes in foil bags which are very compact (they make 9 different curries, fantastic quality). The foil bag can be heated in the Jetboil with water in it, as can the pre-cooked bags of rice (Uncle Ben's or Sainsbury's own brand). This makes a very tasty meal cooked up in minutes with minimal gas use. For breakfast, which I generally make myself, I get some instant ready brek, and pre-mix it with spray dried skimmed milk powder and sugar and decant into ziplock bags for packing in my panniers. I just need to add hot water and it is ready to eat. This approach means I always have some food available regardless of where I end up, and it is light and compact to carry and very quick to prepare, needing only water.

1footedninja

anything and everything!

I carry things like mixed nuts/raisins / dates-figrolls / crispbreads / small jar of marmite / shortbread / dried noodles / fuelgel sachets / isostar tablets / salty peanuts / peanut butter / tinned tuna / cereal bars / muesli / balti mix / anything oats related like porridge - I bought a shedload of these great sachets of instant porridge with milk powder in so only thing to add is hot water - great with a little bit of honey stirred into it / homemade flapjacks are the business!

basically quick fuel stuff and protein rich foods - then I eat lots of chip butties / fry-ups / stodge as well! - I love it! best thing about touring - plenty of nice food.

oh and the dreaded bananas

JHcp

Brian NZ wrote:

We have an unwritten rule, we picked up from some English freinds. Never ride past an open cafe. You never know when the next one may will arrive.
Just eat heaps of what ever you can lay your hands on, and also enjoy it.
Cheers Brian

Brian,

I love that unwritten rule of yours, well worth adopting and so true.

You are right about eating heaps, you will certainly need to on tour. Last year in iceland in 4 weeks we lost a stone each and we didn't stint on what we ate! We certainly enjoy our food on tour and like to eat well. We have outlined the kind of food we eat on tour along with a few recipes on this page of our website.

raybo

In my searches for the caloric burn rate of bike riding, I've come to the conclusion that bike touring consumes about 40 calories a mile. Thus, if I bike 50 miles/day, then I have to eat an additional 2000 calories just to maintain my weight! Since my normal burn rate is 2000 calories, it means I have to eat twice as much as normal just to keep up.

What I find is that my body sometimes gets out of sync while I am on tour. Intellectually, I know I need to eat, but, I'm not hungry and my stomach doesn't want anything in it. For this reason, I often force myself to eat something every 8 - 10 miles.

I have found that a banana provides me enough fuel for 5 - 8 miles and I often carry several of them during the day. I will carry other fruit, too, but try to avoid those with lots of juice as it is just more water.

This page contains 18 links to information about food on a bike tour. Most of them involve food preparation.

Ray

richard36

Can I just say a big thanks to those who have responded to my post with helpful information.

Richard

singlespeedexplosif

eating on tour is ace. Ride lots, go into shop, hand over money, buy tonnes of food. Eat it all. Ride lots more. Go to pub, hand over money, eat lots of food, drink lots of beer. Sleep. Repeat.
No need for any gels/powdered dehydrated crap unless you're going into the wilderness for weeks.

pneumatic

Yes, beware the full English breakfast when touring. Seems like such a good idea until you hit the first hill of the day and all that greasy stuff begins travelling upwards in sympathy. Porage is much better. We have it with dried fruit, honey and strong black coffee on the side (from the Bialetti espresso machine that is our luxury object on tour).

I did once tour for three weeks in high Summer stopping twice or three times a day for cold beer. Thirst quenching, nutritious, anaesthetic, analgesic, readily available everywhere and tasty. Nutritionists would have a fit, no doubt, but, as has been said, we were on tour, not on a time-trial.

Tim Farr

I buy a lot of sandwiches from convenience stores. I've always got some bananas. IMy main drink is water, but that can get boring so I often swig a bottle of coke - particularly towards at the end of the ride. Other foods, dried apricots, tins of rice pudding, even crisps, mars bars and kitkats - its all fuel for the engine. Famous Belgian world champ Rik van Looy even drank alcohol - 'my body was a furnace which needed fuelling and alcohol was one my fuels' - is an apporoximate praece of his philosophy. But not something I would endorse.

Stopping at every open cafe is not part of my credo. BUT giving the engine a rest and chance to recharge by stopping, even for only five minutes is part of my strategy.

JeremyintheCzechRepublic

I take a small bottle of elderflower syrup when I tour. Dilute to taste and it will keep you going for ages. But not only will it keep you going, it is delicious as well. You can buy it in health food stores or you can make your own elderflower syrup
Bonne route!

psmiffy

I go towards coffee for breakfast - cakes at the first opportunity on road - more cakes every 500m (vertically) if i am climbing - early afternoon bread cheese and salami et.al - big dinner in evening - stopping for proper meals does not suit me - just snack all day and cook decent meal in the evening - I find drinking a dilute squash type drink frequently but sparingly keeps me well hydrated and maintains energy all day