
1 FUEL TO THE FIRE
Tailoring nutrition on the go
When it comes to performance nutrition, few teams can match the rigour of current champion Jonas Vingegaard's team Visma-Lease a Bike. Sports nutrition scientist Asker Jeukendrup has worked with the Dutch outfit for many years and charted the lengths they go to in one of his popular webinars.
"Planning for the Tour de France starts months in advance,"he explains. "We know what the route is and then make a series of nutritional predictions for each stage. These are based on who's going to ride the Tour and a rider's physiology. For each stage and the potential role and goal of each rider, we can then predict their power output and intensity of effort, and so can predict energy expenditure and carbohydrate use."
"We know what the route is and then make a series of nutritional predictions for each stage"
This is where the team chefs come in. With this information, they can start to formulate meals for each stage. This can then be tinkered with as soon as the stage is over. "When the riders stop their power meters, all the data, including power output and calories burnt, is sent to the Cloud. The chefs can then work with live data and adapt their meal plans if necessary."
A real-life example is from stage six of the 2022 Tour de France, where Wout van Aert sat in the break for most of the day before riding the last part solo. "We based our calculations on Wout being in the break but could see he was on form so increased his predicted power output, which meant a greater carbohydrate intake," said Jeukendrup "Once he'd crossed the line, we were still below his actual power output so upped his carbohydrate intake again."
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ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2024 من Cycling Plus UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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GANARY A COALMINE
The James Brown tune 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' comes on the radio, filling the coach, and does nothing for my pre-event nerves as I sit surrounded by serious-looking, wiry, tanned men in Lycra. It's 6.30am, pitch black outside and I'm feeling very out of my depth as a relative newcomer to the world of clipless pedals and hurting for fun. Last night's stress dream involved being very unprepared to get married and being handed my great-grandmother-in-law-to-be's hideous silver dress with lace trim to wear minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I'll let you psychoanalyse that one.

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