Tour Eating
August 5, 2011
Bad news if you thought I might shut up about the Tour de France now that August is here – I’ve been reading some interesting stuff about the fuel that gets the riders of one particular team through 3 gruelling weeks of racing.
They’re big on avoiding the inflammatory nature of processed carbohydrates and as a result 80% of their carbs (off the bike) come from rice. Red meat is a once a week event, as is fish. The small amount of fish interests me since the anti-inflammatory nature of fish oil is well documented. The rest of the time protein comes from “white meat” which I’m presuming means poultry since it’s easier to digest.
Apparently, despite starting the race with low, single figure body fat levels and burning thousands of calories a day, the riders start losing their appetites in the final week. It’s a typical overtraining symptom but still hard to imagine in the circumstances.
