THREE weeks, 21 stages, 3,320 kilometres, 176 riders and a staggering 18 million combined calories burned.
That’s what it’ll take to complete next year’s Tour de France, one of the most gruelling editions of the world’s most famous cycling races in recent memory.
Kicking off in Lille, next year’s route features six summit finishes, two time trials and a triumphant return to Paris for the lightning fast finish along the Champs-Élysées.
Easy, huh?
With riders expending around 5,000 calories per stage, fuelling and recovering is no mean feat.
So just what do they eat to maintain energy levels and explosiveness? SunSport spoke to Victor Campenaerts, winner of Stage 18 of this year’s Tour, to find out.
BREAKFAST
Carbs, carbs, carbs.
Every single rider in Le Tour will have their own individual nutrition plan, with team nutritionists weighing every single ounce of food to ensure the correct amount of carbohydrates are consumed.
Victor – who will join Visma-Lease a Bike for the 2025 season – tells SunSport that around three hours before the stage, he will have a “massive” portion of porridge, alongside 50 grams of agave syrup, dried fruit and some banana.
He relies on oat milk, almond milk or rice milk, avoiding lactose because it has a heavy impact on the stomach.
A strong coffee accompanies almost every rider’s breakfast, and as one of the only legal performance-boosting aids, it has been shown to boost both endurance efforts while acting as a quick pick-me-up too.
Victor’s meticulously planned food regime then focuses on the pre-race prep.
He said: “Two hours before the race, and then one hour before the race, these are two more moments that I have a small bite, and that’s always energy chews.”
These chews, a sports nutrition product, taste “just like a nice candy” in Victor’s eyes, and each contains around 30g of carbohydrates.
Now it’s time for the fun to begin.
MID-RACE
Carbs are the main fuel you burn when exercising, and failing to fuel properly can have a catastrophic effect for a one-day event, let alone over three weeks.
At kilometre zero – the official ‘start’ of the day’s racing, Victor has his first energy gel of the day.
He needs around 140-150g of carbs EVERY HOUR to maintain optimal performance, and riders hit this target through a mix of Precision Fuel and Hydration‘s sports drinks, isotonic sports drinks, energy gels and energy chews.
When Victor won Stage 18 of this year’s Tour, here’s what he consumed:
In recent years, the peloton has moved away from the more traditional energy bars, bananas and other real foods, because riders often struggle to chew and swallow solids when racing.
POST-RACE
Recovery begins the second Victor crosses the finish line.
Nearly every rider will be given some form of recovering shake when crossing the finish line, followed by some plain rice on the team bus.
Chicken and rice tends to be one of the go-to meals for the various teams at Le Tour, with an easy-to-eat mix of carbs and proteins.
Some of the riders may choose to add tomato ketchup, as it’s sugar-heavy and a very easy way to get some extra carbs in.
But every last drop of ketchup will be measured to fit in with each rider’s nutrition plan.
After a quick shower and a massage, Victor will jump on the phone to the team nutritionist and tell him what he consumed during the stage and what he had straight after the race.
Typically, he burns around four to five thousand calories during each stage – though this can fluctuate depending on the length and intensity of the day’s racing.
Victor is able to consume a lot in the race, so doesn’t always need to overindulge with his evening meal.
He is 5′8″, and weighs just 68kg according to ProCyclingStats, with sprinters often weighing considerably more and general classification riders a little under this figure.
He explained: “I don’t have to eat massive, massive amounts at dinner. If my girlfriend sees what I’m eating, she’s always surprised by how much I eat.
“Some riders might be taller and heavier than me, so compared to them I eat about half of what they eat.”
Evening meals are designed with the next day’s stage in mind – with carb-heavy dinners ahead of a mountain stage and a nutrient-rich, lower calorie menu ahead of a sprint stage.
During the 2022 Tour, options on Team EF Education-EasyPost’s menu ahead of both flat and mountainous days included:
FLAT STAGE
MOUNTAIN STAGE
If the riders are lucky enough to have a rest day the following day, team chefs are tasked with creating their own ‘cheat meal’.
Dinners might include burgers, tacos and lasagnes – but using lower-fat recipes unlike the ones the rest of us might have as a celebratory dinner.
Victor couldn’t quite remember what he had after winning Stage 18, but said: “It’s quite obvious when I won that stage in the Tour de France that night I didn’t bring the scales to dinner!
“We had a glass of champagne, I think I had two glasses of champagne, not more than that.
“Also, you’re very tired so you’re not really looking to get really drunk because there’s still two more stages to come after this.”
Dessert is on the menu every night, with a creme brulee one of Victor’s personal favourites, even if he sometimes opts against having a sweet treat.
“If the chef makes a crème brûlée, the dietitian knows exactly what’s in there.
“She knows one portion is, let’s say 400 calories, and some riders need to be able to have dessert just for their mental health.”
Some of the other dessert options on EF Education’s menu, meanwhile, included flapjacks, banana bread, beetroot brownies.
These revamped menus are worlds away from the endless pasta of years gone by, yet it’s still nothing compared to the wild innovations you might see in a fancy Mayfair restaurants.
Owen Blandy, head performance chef at EF Education, told the BBC: “You need to swallow your chef ego and put it into a dessert or play around at the end of a race.
“Go wild then but don’t mess with the simple stuff: the carbohydrates and proteins. Give the guys what they want and they will be happy.
“I’ve cooked risottos before and they’ve just asked for plain basmati rice.
“They aren’t there on a holiday. They don’t care about fancy food. They are literally there to fuel.”
