Why don’t you see Pro’s eating bananas?

Banana and soreeen (cut into
Banana and soreeen (cut into manageable chunks) blueberry jam sandwiches 🙂

The Feed Zone Cookbook has
The Feed Zone Cookbook has some good things in it, and they mention that the riders like to have ‘normal’ alternatives to gels and energy bars to eat while on the bike.

In that vein I made a nice little rice cake last week.

Cooked medium-grain rice mashed up with banana and bacon bits, flavoured with a little maple syrup and then mix in a beaten egg and bake to set.

farrell wrote:I’m also still

farrell wrote:

I’m also still confused as to what relevance Rule 16 regarding champions jerseys has to bananas?

None.

It has no relevance to anyone except some sad muppet who likes rules for rules’ sake. Those people should take up golf instead of a sport, it would be much more to their liking.

As for bananas, they are fab but I prefer to eat them at home. I don’t care if the pros eat them or not, just like I don’t need to copy their other dietary practices, their clothes or model of bicycle. But I do like the photos tweeted by @teamskychef of their food!

Who was it that said they
Who was it that said they were given a bag of Haribo during a race and that they were like crack for cyclists?

I’m also still confused as to what relevance Rule 16 regarding champions jerseys has to bananas?

One typical ripe banana
One typical ripe banana contains about 30 grams of carb. If you have ripe, soft bananas most of that carb will be a 50:50 mix of glucose and frustose, with protein, water and potassium for electrolytes. So a banana makes a reasonable alternative to a bar or gel.

The only advantage of bars or gels is weight, bananas have more ‘filler’ per gram of carb, however that ‘filler’ makes the carb more acceptable to the body. High carb gels and bars can be hard to digest, especially in combination with energy drinks, and a banana makes a tasty change.

To answer the original question you rarely see pros eating early on in a stage. Earlier on many pros do have more normal food, including fruit, cake and chocolate, keeping the gels and drinks for later when they need fast absorption, weight matters and coincidentally the cameras are running.

There are lots of interviews with soigneurs out there about what goes in musettes, and bananas are in there, often sliced or in sandwiches or wraps.

And brown ripe bananas don’t infringe on rule 16

Couple of Christmases back, I
Couple of Christmases back, I went for a few rides wearing a Santa hat taped on top of my helmet. During those rides, I always took mince pies to eat.

Thought about riding with bunny ears this Easter, and taking hot cross buns with me, but I got ill and was in bed instead.