Best/favourite snaks for on the bike

Home Bargains chewy muesli bars. £0.79 for a pack of 8 (individually wrapped), each bar 91 cal.

On the sugary side, bananas and dried apricots are both pretty good sources of potassium as well as sugar, and are also pretty cheap (un-sulphurised apricots are less sickly in my experience). Dates are good as a dense sugar-hit too, and a little less guilty than throwing pure caster sugar/honey/glucose syrup/etc. down your neck.

The complex carbs are a little harder, because they either require manual labour to turn them into something palatable, or need to be bought in some sort of expensive pre-packaged form. If you fancy/have the equipment for the former, there's a video on rice-cakes here (www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG7bWKK9G7E), and flapjacks here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJEIiWV3VQ). You could also made savoury rice-cakes to provide a brief respite from all the cloying sweetness.

Throwing in a few nuts on a long ride shouldn't hurt either. Dates and walnuts form a pleasant and delicious goop.

I need to try making rice cakes. If they're good enough for Wiggo, Froome & co, they're good enough for me.

As an aside, who else follows the Pro team chefs on twitter? Amazing culinary inspiration there. You might think athletes have a somewhat joyless existence with their food, but you'd be an awfully long way from the truth.

For long rides I usually have with me a couple of hot cross buns, with butter and jam, 2 bananas, at least 3 gels (1 as an emergency) and a big bag of jelly babies. Mince pies or fruitcake will sometimes find their way into my pockets.

Jelly babies are munched as I go along and "solids" scoffed after around 50km and 100km.

I also make sure I have a decent breakfast before I head out.

Gets me through 150+km no problem.

Gran Fondo Conwy sportive were giving out Full of Beans snacks - slow release carbs, fruit, nuts, seeds etc.... recently on their feedstations and goody bags.... very nice and not too sickly..
You can buy them on Amazon...
Recently bonked on a long ride, dived into a pub and scoffed a load of nuts, crisps and Coke - Did the trick but not recommended....

Percy Pigs, Jelly Babies or Co-Op wine gums.

I'm one of those who swear by fig rolls. They are pretty cheap, if that's a consideration, and readily available, at least in the UK. They're are a great size and I eat one every 30mins for a bonk-free ride. I empty a packet into my pocket before I set out and they make very little mess. Highly recommended

Bagels

Bananas.

or

A dense fruit cake, preferably a moist one (the weight doesn't matter in the Netherlands), pre-sliced… wrapped in greaseproof paper. The rectangular type is most convenient. In my tours of the Netherlands, the bottom of one low-rider pannier has always been the home of the fruit cake.

Malt loaf and Ride Peanut Power Bar. If I'm doing a long MTB ride, I take small part bake baggets with dairylea in. Individually wrapped in foil for ease of eating on the go.

+1 for rice cakes.

If you're doing the ride in Holland, all you need is a pack of "stroopwaffel" waffle biscuits. Just make sure you have a toothbrush handy or you'll need some dental work done by the end of the ride.

Also... A double sausage and egg mcmuffin to start the day. Gets your digestive tract working (hard).

Get a copy of the feed zone, and feedzone portabales.
Worth the cash easily!
I swear by the rice cakes now, sweet and savoury variations, and easy to make.
If you can boil rice, you can make them.

Torq mango bars are my favourite, but they are expensive.

Banana, dried apricots and a bag of raisins (though the raisins are fiddly if you don't want to stop). Homemade flapjacks, Nak'd, Eat Natural, NutriGrain bars. Or maybe look for a shop selling belgian waffles.

Some people swear by fig rolls or malt loaf.

I would avoid too much processed food and never eat processed meat, especially pork, while riding.

Have you considered a weak energy drink mix as well? I wouldn't rely on it alone but it would mean you have to carry less solid food during the ride.

Stop in a pub, eat peanuts, drink beer.