Eating on the bike

[Cudzoziemiec]

All bike rides should be "a nice day out".  Unless you're going to work or the supermarquette.

[bikenrrd]

I go Belgian / Dutch.  Stroopwaffels snapped in two and wrapped in cling film.  Also bananas.  I can't really ride no handed so I have to have food that can be unwrapped with one hand and a set of teeth.
Energy drink in a bidon can keep you ticking over but you do get sick of the sweetness after a while.  Then it's time to stop for a pasty or sausage roll.

[Bobby]

Mars thick-shake in your bidon towards the end of a ride, it's the champion of milkshakes!

[morbihan]

Not sure if they are available in Europe (Bermuda based and we get a lot of USA products) but I take "cliff" bars and Pro bars on long rides to fuel on the move. (never take lead bars )
Calorie/nutrient intense and designed to get into your system quickly.
I also take a high quality powdered electrolyte that can be added to extra water en route. Again, its really hot/humid in Bda so you lose a lot of salt etc from sweating.
I concur with the bag of broken up goodies idea too. Back in the 80's I was in the Royal Marines and when training in the Arctic, in particular, guys would carry a "monster bag" of broken sweets/choc etc that you could munch while yomping/x country skiing and keep your energy levels up.

[SR Steve]

I usually have a few High5 sports bars and energy bars in my "fuel tank" bag on the crossbar, behind the stem. I make a small tear in the middle of each end before the ride so that they always open easily in the middle. I don't tear deep enough to break the seal into the bar though, so the bars will still be fresh if I don't eat them. I put the wrappers in my back pocket and empty it in a bin when I stop at the next control.

[contango]

Personally I find riding with no hands on the bars, even for short distances, to be destabilising so anything that requires me to have both hands off the bars at all won't work for me. Flapjacks fit into jersey pockets and although it's a bit of a faff I can open them with one hand holding the bar and the flapjack and the other pulling at the packaging. Then I can take a bite while riding one-handed and put the rest back in a jersey pocket.

Jelly babies are also good because you can take anything from one to a handful depending on hunger/breathing requirements etc.

I never used a bar bag because I had crosstop brake levers that took up too much space. Then when I finally got around to having them taken off my bike only lasted another three weeks before I cracked the frame. What I had planned to do was to get a bar bag and use something like a Lock-N-Lock container to store jelly babies, which would keep them dry if I was riding in the rain but which is also very easy to open and close with one hand.

If I'm eating or drinking on the move I almost invariably freewheel until I've got both hands back on the bars, but even freewheeling my average speed is higher than if I stopped completely to have a snack.

[Pancho]

Watching my wife riding to the beach etc, I'm frequently struck by the utility of a basket on a bike. Food and drinks are all pulled out or dropped back in as needed - without any faff. Even jumpers or jackets donned or shed with ease. Would seem to make great sense for audaxers!

[Sooty]

I eat on the bike quite a lot when covering big distances. I'm always conscious of the amount of time taken by stops, so...well, I don't like to stop.

Small top tube bag with some goodies packed in. A sandwich or two. And maybe some energy bars, or jelly babies....or a scone. Pork pie maybe... Normally wait till I've got a nice easy flat section with no traffic and a nice view preferably. Somewhere I don't need to pedal hard, don't need to grab the brakes. Just a nice relaxed cadence, pleasant surroundings...then I can switch off from the riding a bit and enjoy my food.

Once it's down the hatch, lunchtime's over. Fire up the engines and off you go again.

One hand is plenty, unless you have some particularly messy food.

[Whitedown Man]

I work on the basis I should eat something every 60-90 minutes, so at each control (if there's that much of a gap before the next control) I put a Clif bar or a slab of Kendal Mint Cake in a jersey pocket to eat on the move

[Cudzoziemiec]

Watching my wife riding to the beach etc, I'm frequently struck by the utility of a basket on a bike. Food and drinks are all pulled out or dropped back in as needed - without any faff. Even jumpers or jackets donned or shed with ease. Would seem to make great sense for audaxers!

Can't find it now, but there is a photo of Hummers arriving at a contol on, I think, LEL 2013, with a basket on his bike – complete with plastic flower!

[Phil W]

Salted peanuts, mixed nuts and raisins, randoms, jelly beans. My Alpkit stem cell can also hold take away chips in their cone of paper. Nutty bars, crisps, buttered malt loaf, sliced banana cake. Basically mix of sweet, savoury, salty stuff that I can eat in small amounts with one hand.

[Ningishzidda]

Eating while actually pedalling along is for Audax entrants who have “bitten off more than they can chew.”

 

[hillbilly]

As time has gone on, I've found I carry more savoury stuff than sweet.  Suits my palette. 

At the moment, this usually means some cherry tomatoes and quorn savoury mini eggs (not a vegetarian, but I find them better than pork scotch eggs).  And something flat, such as a homemade pannini or quesidella (if that's how you spell it) wrapped in cling film.  All goes in my back pockets or the side pouches of the Carradice.

[Vince]

Watching my wife riding to the beach etc, I'm frequently struck by the utility of a basket on a bike. Food and drinks are all pulled out or dropped back in as needed - without any faff. Even jumpers or jackets donned or shed with ease. Would seem to make great sense for audaxers!

Can't find it now, but there is a photo of Hummers arriving at a contol on, I think, LEL 2013, with a basket on his bike – complete with plastic flower!

It's the accessory that Wobbly needs on his Pashley. (The basket rather than the flower)

[tonyh]

Eating while actually pedalling along is for Audax entrants who have “bitten off more than they can chew.”

 

Ah yes. That feeling of trying to breathe and keep riding, while having deferred the chewing business for at least the moment.

[Ningishzidda]

 
At Audax pace, you should be getting enough air in just by breathing through the nose.

AUK controls are recommended to be 50 km apart. If it’s not possible to consume enough food to get through the next 50 km at the controls, ( 1100 kCals ), someone’s not eating properly.

If one can’t ride at 15 mph by only breathing through the nose, and can’t eat 1100 kCals at a control, maybe one ought to reconsider whether one is suited to Audax cycling.
 

[tonyh]

 

I "suffer from" a desire to get round "fast"...
... and very limited ability, which means I'm only going to have maybe two hours in hand on a 200, even with few stops.

My ongoing quest for that legendary relaxed "Audax Pace" (the one that "everyone else" uses while chatting easily) may be forever unfulfilled.

....maybe one ought to reconsider whether one is suited to Audax cycling. 

You're absolutely right. One reconsiders this frequently!
(But I don't seem to have stopped... though few rides done this year, so far.)

[jhob]

Jelly babies in a tri-bag on the top bar for me.  Usually chew my way through 1.5 bags on a 200.  Keeps the energy levels topped up and helps prevent onset of the bonk.

At controls I eat almost exclusively savoury to counteract the sweetness for jelly babies and electrolyte drinks I fill my bidons with.

[Oaky]

If I have them in the house, then a few Staffordshire oatcakes are my food carry of choice.

I grill cheese on them then roll them up. Once cooled, cut in half and cling-filmed in ones or twos, these make easy to unwrap/hold/eat on the move jersey pocket snacks.  I keep a couple in my pockets and the rest in the saddle bag until my pockets need replenishing.

Other than that, wine gums in the tri-bag (at home I prefer midget gems but the softer consistency of wine gums make them easier on the jaw when chewing through a whole packet).

[mukkinese]

It sounds like I'm not eating enough! I've been reckoning on 20 cals per k, 50% from fat, so 4000 cals being sufficient for a 400k. In hindsight this probably hasn't been enough.

My average on a 414k started out around 22-26 and dropped down to about umm... 15 and a bit overall with a 10 minute "sleep".

This years audax rides have been harder than a few years ago, I must have forgotten how to eat properly.

[Ningishzidda]

I "suffer from" a desire to get round "fast"...
... and very limited ability, which means I'm only going to have maybe two hours in hand on a 200, even with few stops.

My ongoing quest for that legendary relaxed "Audax Pace" (the one that "everyone else" uses while chatting easily) may be forever unfulfilled.

....maybe one ought to reconsider whether one is suited to Audax cycling. 

You're absolutely right. One reconsiders this frequently!
(But I don't seem to have stopped... though few rides done this year, so far.)

Sounds like you have your upper body stamina sorted if you can ride a 200.

If you have access to a static gym bike or a good fluid Turbo, use it to warm up and then do just a 60 seconds all out ‘bum off seat’, ‘eyeballs out’ sprint until your thighs scream. Do this weekly.
Don’t use rollers. When you’re finished, you’ll fall over.

This is just one segment of the ‘official’ FTP protocol. In Coggan’s protocol, he has a 140% sprint followed by a 10 minute ‘easy’ segment.
It’s the 140% sprint that stimulates hypertrophy. It’s the cyclist’s equivalent of ‘progressive resistance strength training’.
If a cyclist never does the 140% sprint, the cyclist will develop a lot slower than the cyclist who does.

IMO, the whole FTP thing is mis / dis information. Cyclists were training with ‘balls out’ sprints from the year dot.

The FTP protocol is followed by a 60 minute average Wattage test.
Once you’ve got your 60 minute average power up, your 600 minute efforts will seem a lot easier.

 

[JohnR]

I am currently trying to increase my threshold power by setting the watts up so that I can pedal constantly around 90rpm on the gym bike for 30 mins after a 15min warm up, where my HR is around 155 most of the time and ends up @ 160+ish (88% MHR)

Would this build my stamina/strength as good as the 60 sec "all-out" bash or should I change tactic?

Ta

[rob]

Can of worms.   What works for one rider won't necessarily work for another.   It's why coaches charge so much.

[sg37409]

Went through a spell of having hot-cross buns to eat. 4 in pockets, wrapped individually in clingfilm.
Carbs, fruit and butter. Tasty too.

[T42]

Jelly babies yet... Haven't seen a bona fide JB for yonks, it's all Haribo gummi bears here.  Just not the same, more like fruit gums.  But the idea of having a dowse round the confectionery shelves is tempting, especially since in my everyday life it's verboten.  Ideally something quick to chew & tasty.