Fueling the Tour de France: A Symphony of Nutrition and TechnologyFueling the Tour de France: A Symphony of Nutrition and Technology In a sport where marginal gains define success, professional cycling has embraced a sophisticated approach to fueling its athletes. Gone are the days of monotonous pasta and rice. Today, vast resources are allocated to food trucks, personalized nutrition apps, and meticulous meal planning, all aimed at optimizing performance. Nutritional Dilemmas: What and Where Nutritionists face the challenge of providing riders with ample energy amidst the ever-changing environment of the Tour de France. The preparation begins a year in advance, with data collection and analysis to understand riders’ individual needs. As cyclists undergo intense training, their calorie expenditure, metabolism, and energy requirements are meticulously tracked. Personalization and Technology Personalization has become paramount. Visma-Lease a Bike, one of the top three teams, has developed an app that uses algorithms to generate tailored nutrition plans based on rider metrics. Artificial intelligence even calculates the exact amounts of food each cyclist should consume. Daily Plan The nutritional regimen typically consists of five meals: breakfast, pre-race snack, on-bike nutrition, recovery meal, and dinner. Carbohydrates fuel the riders, while proteins aid muscle recovery. Fruits, vegetables, and juices provide essential nutrients. Vegetarians supplement with protein shakes. On-the-Go Fueling During the race, riders receive support from roadside attendants who provide musette bags filled with carbohydrate-rich snacks such as energy bars, gels, drinks, and gummies. Traditional sources like rice cakes, brioches, and sweet breads supplement these modern options. Enormous Consumption The sheer volume of food consumed by cyclists is staggering. Each rider requires approximately 1.5 kg of pasta or rice daily, and an astonishing 120 g of carbohydrates per hour on the bike. The energy expenditure is so intense that one EF rider reportedly consumed four tubs of maple syrup during the three-week race. Through constant innovation and unwavering focus on nutritional optimization, professional cycling teams are pushing the boundaries of performance. The Tour de France has become not only a test of physical endurance but also a showcase of the power of science and technology in the quest for cycling supremacy.
Not long ago, professional cycling’s approach to fuel supply was remarkably simple.
The options available to the riders hardly extended beyond a monotonous menu of pasta, rice or whatever the hotel kitchen was serving that evening.
Today it’s a different story altogether, with vast sums of money being spent on purpose-built food trucks, personalised nutrition apps and precisely planned meal regimes, all in the name of improving performance.
For the nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing their team’s riders with sufficient energy during the 3,500-kilometer journey in the coming weeks, they face two dilemmas: what food to prepare and how to do it in an environment that is constantly changing.
The answers are obtained through a year-round process that begins as early as December, during the preparation for the season.
As riders shape their bodies and prepare for the many races ahead, number crunchers eagerly collect data to better understand their nutritional needs.
“We know their individual bodies, their metabolism, how many calories they burn at rest and exactly what they are going to do during training, the intensity, how long and how many calories they are going to burn,” says Martijn Redegeld, head of nutrition at Visma-Lease a Bike.
“Heart rate plays a role. We have that after every training ride. And at certain points in the season we test lactate measurements and respiration measurements in the lab to develop a good profile of each rider.”
As one of three teams – alongside UAE Team Emirates and Ineos Grenadiers – whose budget exceeds all others, Visma-Lease a Bike has aimed to place itself at the forefront of nutritional advancements.
Partnerships with universities should ensure that they are well informed about developments in the field, “in order to maintain an edge over other teams,” says Redegeld.
With cyclists burning an average of 6,000 calories per day during the Tour (about three times more than an adult at rest), Visma-Lease a Bike has even started using artificial intelligence to determine exactly how much – and what kind of – food each individual cyclist should consume.
Personalization has become increasingly important, with the team developing its own app,, external using different algorithms to generate individual nutrition plans.
When a cyclist returns from a day on the bike, he or she simply opens the app and is told exactly how many grams of each food component (carbs, proteins, fats, etc.) to put on their plate. No brain power is wasted, except by using the ubiquitous buffet table scales.
While the methods used to determine exact nutritional needs vary from team to team, they all work with a general daily plan of five meals: breakfast, a pre-race snack, on-bike nutrition, a recovery meal, and dinner.
The basic principles of nutrition remain the same for the entire peloton, although they are adapted depending on the demands of the day ahead and whether the rider in question is a climber or a sprinter, a domestique or a contender for the general classification.
Carbohydrates – usually in the form of rice or pasta – serve as fuel, making painfully high consumption necessary.
Proteins – mainly fish or chicken – are always unprocessed and fibre is limited to minimise gut irritation and aid digestion. Fruits and vegetables are often consumed in juice form.
Vegetarians often take protein shakes to supplement plant-based proteins such as tofu and seitan.
Riders may be allowed to eat more vegetables and fiber-rich foods on flat race days, as the body can digest them better. Red meat is also saved as a snack for the evening before rest days.
The fuel you get along the way is assisted by roadside attendants. They fill musette bags with various carbohydrate-rich forms. You can select or leave out these forms according to your preference.
Energy bars, gels, drinks and gummies provide a quick boost on tough days. More traditional sources of energy include wet rice cakes, brioches, jam rolls, flapjacks, sweet breads and cakes for lighter days.
The quantities required are not enviably large. Each cyclist consumes almost 1.5 kg of rice or pasta per day and about 120 g of carbohydrates per hour on the bike – the equivalent of five bananas per hour.
An EF runner once drank four tubs of maple syrup during the three-week race.
