Full of euphoria, you head out onto the trails after breakfast and don't even realise how time flies - and your energy stores empty. Then, suddenly, there you are: hunger pangs, hypoglycaemia - the man with the hammer strikes. Touring cyclists are helped by snacks from the supermarket or petrol station to quickly regain their strength. But who has ever eaten ten pizzas, four bars of chocolate and four bottles of beer on a day trip?
Usually less tasty, but all the more practical: bars and gels are densely packed sources of energy for on the go, especially on fast training laps. They are even essential for racing athletes. And to reach a daily ration of no less than 8,000 kilocalories (!) and over five litres of liquid, professional cyclists need even more.
Eating on wheels - the SWR video from the "Sport erklärt" series clearly shows what nutrition means in professional cycling: eat as much as you can! And of course drink, drink, drink. Anyone who sees what professional cyclists eat in a day can hardly believe that so little of it remains in their ascetic bodies. At the end of the day (and sometimes even earlier), all the energy is used up and converted into muscle movement.
What is demonstrated in the video on racing cyclists also applies to the MTB pros, who suck the last reserves of energy out of their bodies on the ultra-long marathon routes of Christalp/Grand Raid, Salzkammergut Trophy, EBM and many others. And at the BIKE Transalp this applies every day for seven days.
Sebastian Brust
Editor
