Machka 

For me, it's the carrot cake. The bakeries here in Australia have some great carrot cake.

znomit

Too right, can be found in most cafes here, though it pays not to be the last rider in.

znomit

I experienced this after yesterdays 10 hr ride. Really ruined the pizza.

Richard Cranium

Very true. There is no such thing as the "right nutrition" or "wrong food." For any given cyclist in any given situation - every ride, and every rider presents a unique challenge.

Why not revisit the big picture and remember the generalities that always apply - to all situations?

1. As exercise intensity increases - the athlete's digestive processes decrease.

2. As the length of an exercise/event increases the more important it becomes to moderate consumption.

Most cyclists like to believe they have discovered some secret nutritional formula for successful riding.

But the truth behind the really successful cyclists in knowing how hard to ride - and knowing how much and when to eat.

unterhausen

I dunno, I learned a lot about nutrition in here. Granted, mostly to give me a direction to head in, and then learning what works for me. Eating is definitely easier if you are in better shape. Lots of things are. But that seems like a tautology at best.

I was struck by the difference conditioning has on eating on last year's fleche. In the past, I have not been ready to ride 225 miles when it comes to fleche weekend, but last year I had really worked on the trainer. Many times, I have finished the fleche after barely eating at all. Two years ago, I had a couple of sips of hot chocolate as my only nutrition over about 100 miles, that's all I could get down. And at the beginning of that 100 mile stretch, I ate some French fries and a coke, that was all I could stand to eat. Basically, to get by on that you have to soft-pedal or blow up pretty easily. Last year, I was eating whatever I wanted, it was a lot more pleasant. And one of the other guys who is in a lot faster than me was complaining about not being able to eat. My response? "order some french fries"

rhm

Oh, I didn't mean to imply I got bad advice, or that I followed it correctly. More likely I followed it in a haphazard way, achieving a poor compromise between what works for someone else and what works for me, and the result was something that didn't work for me.

We are not all the same. In the last year I've spent a lot of time with @jlippinbike (he has driven me to many randonnees) and it is clear that we disagree on almost everything, including diet. It is abundantly clear that his nutrition plan works for him, probably a lot better better than my plan (if you could say I have a plan at all) works for me. I'm not about to adopt his plan, though.

Happy Feet

I think one of the things one might learn here is to actually consider a nutritional plan of some sort. In the past my plan mainly consisted of "carb up" beforehand but the longer one rides pre loading starts to fail to replenish ongoing demand.

pdlamb

Ride nutritioin for me tends to turn into "things to look for at controls." The country store after a couple hours is easy --OJ, maybe a fried cherry or an oatmeal pie. Mid- to late afternoon is harder; go for protein (Subway steak sandwich) or a large order of fries?

Best tip I ever got was a bowl of chicken noodle soup. It was loaded with enough salt to replenish me after a hot day's ride, and made me thirsty enough to chug a couple bottles of fluid.

Machka 

Rowan and I rode a 200 km on Sunday (actually 215 km) and this is what worked for me ...

A large slice of banana bread and a banana for breakfast.
A 180 cal granola bar and a banana at the 54 km point.
Two small lemon tarts at the 107 km point.
Two citrus-cream ice bars (Splice and a mango bar) with 54 km to go.

Plus coke at each stop.
Plus 4 Anzac biscuits.
Plus several raspberry gummy lollies ... quite a few of these, actually.

It's possible we could have added a bag of potato chips to that because it was really hot, but we had quite a few electrolyte tablets, so we were probably OK. Only a hint of cramping toward the end.


And a bowl of chicken oriental noodles plus some cashews really hit the spot at the end of the ride.
.

OldTryGuy

Very good summary.

kingston 

Same thing happened to me today after riding a 400k yesterday. I got a cheeseburger for lunch, and the first couple of bites were excruciating pain which was completely gone by the end of lunch.

unterhausen

that's weird, I have never had anything like that. I usually have a very limited appetite after a long ride, but the next day I have always been fine.