I love riding my bike. And I love eating, too. To me, the two are inherently intertwined. Be it from my gastronomically gifted extended family, or my penchant for patisserie snacks, I enjoy good food. Eat to ride, ride to eat. A lot of people live by this, but certain cyclists swear by it. While it is advantageous to have a balanced, healthy diet for all people – marathon and stage race mountain bikers have pretty hefty dietary needs. Many of you will have a rough guideline of what you like to eat coming up to a big event, and during and after the race too. However when you’re away from home, experiencing new places, sometimes it’s time to leave the brown rice and veg on the supermarket shelves.
There are so many culinary delights awaiting the marathon racer in training. The beauty of riding in the European Alps is that there is very little remote wilderness. How is this a plus? You may find yourself grovelling up an unrelenting climb, riding through the clouds, burning up kilojoules faster than you can ingest them. Fuel is essential for proper training. Hungerflats have very little use when in the racing season. Although I will always carry some food, a muesli bar or banana can lack appeal after a while. But rosti, a croissant, a coffee, an icecream, some cake… all these hold allure when you have spent the past hour or more climbing to a ski field with your pain face on.
Such trips are also rewarded in other areas, like Britain. Southern England may lack the long climbs of the Alps, but its intricate network of trails, bridalways, lanes and public rights of way allow for long training rides in surprisingly secluded areas. But again, a small village shop or tea house (the ‘cake stop’) has a magnetic pull for me. The options are completely different to what you may find at a ski station or mountain hut. This time you may be choosing between some beans on toast, or a stodgy bread pudding, or my personal favourite – the homemade flapjack. I’m lead to believe the ability to fit so much margarine and oats into such a dense format is nothing short of alchemy.
Marathon riding and training USA style is a little different again. Car is king stateside – and don’t forget that. So although your racing and training will be a little more remote than a European sojourn, coming back into a mountain town part way through or at the end of your mile-up still holds its unique rewards. I have fond memories of devouring burgers and beers after a long day in the mountains around Boulder with the then Titus/Chipotle team. a few nights later, and Chipotle themselves did a great job of refueling after 2.5hrs of following Thomas ‘Twin Pillars of Doom’ Dooley and Mike ‘Marathon Meister’ Hogan. If you get more remote, you may be stuck with burgers and a coke, or even donuts and filter coffee. You can go a long way on caffeine and courage.
Culinary delights abound for the traveling marathon and stage sace Mountain Biker – and I encourage you not to hold back. There are a few fussy eaters out there, but if it’s not within the few days before your race, why not try it? If it was terrible, they probably wouldn’t serve it. It’s all more fuel to get up and over the next mountain anyway!