Oy. This thread went off the rails per BF traditions.
However, recovery feeding is a very interesting subject and one which has not been studied thoroughly. It seems that there's quite a gap between theoretical results of such feeding and real life results. That's always been a problem: athletes are hard to study.
This thread contains some differing opinions from very experienced cyclists. That also fits in with the "athletes are hard to study" paradigm. If you have experimented extensively with different feeding schedules with different types and lengths of activities, please explain.
I found three studies worth reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3577439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400240/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407981/
I found the first study the most interesting, though it is limited by its study of only strength athletes.
IIRC, this controversy got started maybe 20 years ago, when an athletic beverage company published a trial showing that a carbohydrate/protein beverage of some particular ratio (3:1, 3.5:1, I don't remember) aided recovery better than just carbohydrate when consumed within the "anabolic window" of some period of time. And of course they manufactured a beverage with that exact ratio. Well, much later it was realized that both branches of the trial were not given isocaloric feedings. In fact, one branch got X calories of carbohydrate, whereas the other branch got X calories of carbohydrate + Y calories of protein. Later research showed that the exact makeup of a recovery beverage didn't much matter, as long as all were isocaloric.
My understanding, after reading the above studies, is that the anabolic window is important if one is doing 2-a-day or more workouts. For one-a-day, it is not important. What is important for all workouts is the pre-workout and during-workout feedings. I've tested this with gym workouts and agree. I have better recovery if I get carbs + whey before a workout and carbs during. After, I just eat whatever meal it's time for. For long rides, I use a recovery beverage, really just from fear of what'll happen if I don't, not from any personal trials. When one is depleted down to barely walking, it seems a good idea to pour something down ones gullet, right away, and not beer. That's a bit later.
One of the studies was quite against riding fasted if one wanted not to lose muscle mass. Many riders do so though, my guess being that they're trying to get the watts/kg up, which will probably mean loss of muscle mass. Many pros have slim legs. It was also against being keto-adapted and for keeping glycogen levels up as much as possible.
Rando folks: what do you do after a brevet? Around here, the offerings are generally pizza and coke. Works for me.
What I've been doing for long rides or backpacking:
Pre-ride: 17g chocolate flavored whey, 37g demerara sugar, 2g citrulline malate, 200mg caffeine, 1g HMB - the effect lasts maybe 3 hours.
During, cycling: 7:1 maltodextrin/choc. whey protein in water, plain water
During, backpacking: plain water, ordinary lunch and snacks
After riding or backpacking: 28g whey, 37g demerara sugar, 1g HMB
The exact grams is the size of the scoops I use, no great meaning. This is just what I do, rather random, not based on personal experimentation.