Vegan provision-
I should probably make a short post about provision for Vegan cyclists, however generally the provision was excellent.
Firstly it was great that the question was asked when we registered and the control managers asked on FB what we would like to see. I've never had a problem getting something Vegan to eat at any audax, but I did feel spoilt at this one.
It's certainly something within cycling that is becoming more and more popular and you should definitely expect to see more of a Vegan contingent in 4 years time.
I only made the following observations:
Some controls didn't have dairy free milk either visable or available when asked. Thirsk had none full stop, I couldn't find any at Barnard Castle or Brampton. This means that cereal is off the cards. I didn't starve and worked around it however.
There was an argument between a rider and the chef about the Vegan vegetable curry at Thirsk. For whatever reason, Quorn was put into the curry without being disclosed, which may contain egg. There are two types of Quorn, one is Vegan and one is not and after a heated conversation with the chef about Quorn being 'mushroom based' I did have to step in and educate gently. On checking the packaging, the chef conceeded that the Quorn used was not the Vegan variety. Not great news and a little off putting. Simply just using vegetables in the curry would have been fine!
Edinburgh did supply pasta as the Vegan option, however unhelpfully had cheese on it. I had to employ some 'tactical scraping' as I had few other options.
Some controls had vegetable based spreads for bread, some had butter and a seperate 'olive' spread which I assume was the milk free option. This has happened at other events, but on checking, most olive spreads still contain milk (crazy I know).
Spalding control really looked after me as a Vegan rider, even making sure there were a few cake options and some alpro yoghurts which I'm really grateful for!
As I said, overall I would say the provision was really good and I only bring forward these comments to make people aware of things I picked up on. I'd happily pay a small premium to ensure all controls had dairy/egg free milks, yoghurts, cakes and spreads or even arrange with the Vegan contingent to send some supplies forwards if needs be in future!