A few weeks before the start of the previous Tour de France, amidst the chaotic planning involving eight cyclists and more than 10 support vehicles crisscrossing the country, the head chef of the race team EF Education EasyPost Owen Blandi received a message from one of the hotels where he was scheduled to stay.
For reasons still unclear, Blandy was told that he would not be allowed to use the hotel kitchen, nor would he be able to cook in his equipped pickup truck on hotel property.
If he wishes, he may be able to supervise the hotel chef during food preparation, but he will not be allowed to do so inside the kitchen itself.
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For a man tasked with preparing food for a professional cycling team during the most important race on the competitive calendar, this wasn't exactly great news.
However, it didn't excite him at all.
"It was okay," Blandi shrugs.
"I had a slightly more exciting few days until I got my own kitchen ready."
He gained personal experience on the road that cumulatively lasted more than a year during major cycling races, and that taught him to take blows like this.
"There are no perfect working conditions in cycling, so you always have to be ready to adapt and be flexible," he says.
If the hotel has decided to prevent the team chef from preparing food, then you have to accept that.
Not so long ago, professional cycling's approach to nutrition was quite basic.
Cyclists had a narrow and monotonous choice of options - pasta, rice, or whatever the hotel's nightly kitchen could provide.
The approach is different today.
Huge sums of money are spent on special food trucks, personalized nutrition apps, and precisely planned eating regimens – all in the name of improving athletes' performance.
For nutritionists and chefs tasked with providing and supporting cyclists' strength in the upcoming 3.500 kilometers of the race, there are only two dilemmas: what food to prepare and how to do it in constantly changing conditions.
All the answers come from data collected during a process that begins in December with pre-season training.
While athletes hone their form and prepare for the numerous races ahead, statisticians are diligently collecting data to better understand their nutritional needs.
"We know their bodies, their metabolisms, we know how many calories they burn while resting, we also know what their workouts look like, their intensity, their length and the amount of calories they will burn," says Martin Redegeld, head of nutrition at the team. Visma-Lease a Bike.
"Heart rate plays an important role. We check this after every training session. At certain times of the season, we test lactation and breathing in laboratories, thus creating detailed profiles for each cyclist."
As one of three teams, with UAE Team Emirates i Ineos Grenadiers, whose budgets are dominant compared to others, Visma-Lease a Bike has strived to position itself at the very top of teams that take care of nutrition.
Partnerships with universities aim to ensure that "the team provides a competitive advantage over competing teams," says Redegeld.
Since competitors burn around 6.000 calories a day during the Tour (about three times more than an adult during rest), in Visma-Lease a Bike have begun using artificial intelligence to precisely determine the amount and type of food that each individual athlete should consume.
Personalization has become an absolute necessity and that is why the team developed own application which uses various algorithms to generate individual nutrition plans.
When a runner returns from a day on the bike, their app opens, showing precisely the amount of each nutritional component (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) that needs to be put on their plate.
You just need to use this data as if it were a buffet.
While the methods used to generate precise nutritional needs vary from team to team, it all ultimately boils down to a daily plan consisting of five meals – breakfast, pre-race snacks, race nutrition, recovery meal, and dinner.
The basic principles of nutrition remain the same throughout the race, with some adjustments depending on specific requirements and whether the cyclist is a mountain stage specialist or a sprinter, a team rider or a candidate for placement.
Carbohydrates, usually in the form of pasta or rice, are used as fuel to ensure high levels of consumption.
Proteins, primarily chicken or fish, are always unprocessed, while fiber is kept low to reduce irritation and improve digestion. Fruits and vegetables are most often consumed in liquid form, such as juices.
Vegetarians most often use protein shakes, along with plant-based proteins, such as tofu or seitan.
Cyclists are sometimes allowed more vegetables and fibrous foods before flat stages, while red meat meals are used as a treat before rest days.
The food consumed during the race is given to cyclists in bags that hang around their shoulders and contain various foods rich in carbohydrates.
Energy bars, gels, drinks and gummies provide quick energy during tough stages.
A more traditional selection of food includes soft rice cakes, brioches, jam sandwiches, pancakes, sweet rolls and other pastries for less busy days.
The quantities of food required are inevitably enormous. Each cyclist consumes on average close to 1,5 kilograms of rice or pasta each day and approximately 120 grams of carbohydrates per hour while on the bike, which is equivalent to the carbohydrate content found in five bananas.
A cyclist once consumed four servings of maple syrup during a three-week race.
Blandy's laptop contains a treasure trove of nutritional information that allows him to create a menu.
The table helps him compare all the nutritional values of certain types of food and, based on that, decide whether to cook a meal with eggplant or parsnips, quinoa or couscous, chicken breast or drumsticks.
EF Education EasyPost The team also has a recipe bible of sorts, featuring numerous soups, salads, carbohydrates, proteins, side dishes, desserts, post-race snacks, and drinks.
In order to avoid monotony in the diet, meal repetition is kept to an absolute minimum during the three-week race.
"The food I prepare is completely transparent," says Blandi. "There are no rich sauces, everything is simple, plain cooking, with very small doses of spices and oil, with fresh herbs and citrus."
"Instead of shaping the flavor with sour cream, salt, and butter, we add herbs and citrus because they are low in calories and contain antioxidants."
This kind of preparation does not belong to the innovative cooking exhibitions you can see on television or in expensive restaurants.
"When I train new chefs, I always tell them that the only way to ruin a meal is to act like a great chef," says Blandi.
"You have to swallow your own culinary ego and put it in dessert or save it for the end of the race. Then you can do whatever you want, but never experiment with the ordinary things like carbs and protein. Give the guys what they want and they'll be happy."
"I used to make them risotto, and they just wanted plain basmati rice. They're not here on vacation. They're not interested in fancy food. They're literally here to be refueled."
Blandi estimates that he has stayed, and cooked, in more than 300 hotels during his time in the industry. EF Education EasyPost team.
This nomadic nature of the work produced numerous logistical headaches.
The workday of a chef at the Tour de France starts around six in the morning.
They have to prepare a fresh breakfast (the groceries are unpacked the night before) starting at eight o'clock, before packing up and heading to the next hotel while the race is well underway.
In addition to preparing food, cooks are also responsible for purchasing groceries.
This task varies depending on the team itself and, crucially, the team sponsor.
Blandi's experience with European supermarkets benefits him in the sense that he always knows where to find the highest quality food and most often buys it himself.
In addition, he sends orders to hotels in advance for perishable food.
As opposed to that, Visma-Lease a Bike The team has been sponsored by the Jumbo supermarket for years, since 2014, which delivers all the necessary food before each race, including the Tour de France.
"During the race, new deliveries arrive three times from the Netherlands, replenishing the stock of fresh produce," says Redegeld.
"It's always the same Dutch food and the boys love it because they know exactly what to expect, and we know what the ingredients are, so it's always available to us."
"This makes things a lot easier for cooks who don't have to search local stores for various things. For me as a nutritionist, who knows all the nutritional values of all the products, this greatly simplifies the whole process."
Upon arrival at the hotel, the chefs begin preparing dinner, breakfast, and snacks for the next day.
Professional cycling teams adhere to one of two methods for forming a dinner.
Many travel with pre-equipped kitchen vans, similar in size to those that supply supermarkets, in which food is stored and prepared.
Then the food is served to the cyclists and other team members in private rooms at the hotel.
Several selected teams, including Ineos GrenadiersInstead of these vehicles, they use much larger trucks that also contain kitchens and dining rooms.
The camaraderie between the chefs of the rival teams is at a high level.
"Sometimes you're in a hotel with six other teams, so the parking lots are packed," Blandi says.
"It's crazy. Everyone shares water and electricity. So we have to help each other."
"Other chefs come up to me and ask for an ingredient, or I go to them to get something. We help each other," he adds.
All of this is miles away from the three consecutive weeks of consuming pasta and tomato sauce that cyclists were accustomed to not so long ago during the exertions required by the Tour de France.
Redegeld predicts that this nutritional evolution will continue and believes that within the next ten years, teams will also use DNA analysis to take dietary personalization to an even higher level.
But all these analyses are useless if there is no one to prepare the food.
Early last year, Blandi was preparing for a quiet weekend at home when a call for help came from his team.
He only had 30 minutes to pack all his things and catch a taxi to the airport, because his fellow chef from EF Education EasyPost team fell ill right before the start of the Paris-Roubaix race.
"I packed my knives and threw them in a suitcase," he says. "I felt like I belonged in a special culinary troop."
Cooking is serious business in the world of elite cycling.
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