Eggs are small and versatile and packed full of eggy goodness and boiled ones do indeed make a handy ride food.
I came here to quote this about tea: ...each tea represents somebody wanting a ginger-brown cupful, himself drinking tea in Jackie's mother's kitchen, his brothers taking their tea cans to work, the cycling club when it's raining stopping at a caff, ...
This from a novel which is nothing about cycling or tea, the casual reference to the cycling club struck me. I like my tea black not ginger-brown personally, but it's still tea.