Fueling the Tour de France

The Tour de France is the biggest race in professional road cycling, placing extraordinary demands on every rider and team selected to compete. With this year’s heat, staying hydrated and meeting carbohydrate and electrolyte goals has been especially challenging.

Team Lotto–Intermarché posted a graphic breaking down Baptiste Veistroffer’s three-hour, 144-kilometer solo breakaway. During the effort, he went through 15 bottles, consumed 500 grams of carbohydrates and burned 4,638 calories.

This got us thinking: Is it possible for the average rider to keep up with “WorldTour nutrition,” or is it a fool’s errand without a team car chasing you?

Author’s Note: Just like they train their legs, these riders train their guts to handle this many carbohydrates. Do not expect to eat 500 grams in three hours without gradually ramping up to that amount. Even with training, there is a chance your body simply cannot handle it.

Before the Race

To meet the demands of a Tour de France stage, riders start fueling well before they leave the hotel. In an Instagram reel, Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility shared a pre-stage breakfast totaling 1,609 calories, including 324 grams of carbohydrates, 38 grams of protein, and 17 grams of fat.

The meal included pancakes with syrup, eggs, bread, and oatmeal piled with toppings. The breakfast gives riders a large dose of carbohydrates from a mix of quickly and more gradually digested sources.

Syrup, jam, and brown sugar provide readily available sugars, while the pancakes, bread, and oatmeal help supply additional carbohydrate before the stage begins.

Together, these foods help top off the riders’ carbohydrate stores and provide fuel for the opening hours of racing. From there, the riders continue eating and drinking carbohydrates throughout the stage to maintain their energy supply.

In the hours leading up to the stage, riders may continue topping up their carbohydrate intake with smaller, easy-to-digest snacks. The precise amount and timing vary according to the rider, the stage, and what was eaten at breakfast.

Riders also continue consuming fluids and electrolytes so they begin the stage adequately hydrated.

During the Race

Like many places in the U.S. right now, France has been facing extreme summer heat, adding another challenge as riders tackle already grueling stages. Nutrition needs to be dialed in so riders can avoid running low on fuel while replacing fluids and electrolytes lost through sweat.

On the bike, riders focus much of their nutrition on quickly digested carbohydrates because gels, chews and drink mixes are easier to consume during intense racing than larger portions of solid food. EF Pro Cycling says its riders consume up to 120 grams of carbohydrates per hour during a Tour de France stage, mostly through gels and bottles. Many of these products also contain sodium to help replace some of what is lost through sweat.

At these high carbohydrate intakes, riders commonly use a combination of glucose-based carbohydrates, such as maltodextrin, and fructose. These carbohydrates are absorbed through different pathways in the intestine, allowing the body to absorb and use more carbohydrate than it could from glucose alone.

The blend does not need to be an even split. Common formulas include a 2:1 or 1:0.8 ratio of maltodextrin or glucose to fructose. This is why many modern gels and drink mixes include both.

Carbohydrates are only one part of the riders’ fueling strategy. They also need to replace some of the sodium lost through sweat, particularly during hot stages.

EF Pro Cycling uses ice gels containing 200 milligrams of sodium and 30 grams of carbohydrate, but that does not mean every rider follows a fixed sodium-to-carbohydrate ratio.

Individual needs depend on factors such as sweat rate, sweat-sodium concentration, temperature, and fluid intake, which is why EF conducts sweat testing with its riders.

Because sodium can come from gels, drink mixes, and electrolyte supplements, athletes also need to consider their total intake across every product they use.

According to an infographic posted by Lotto–Intermarché, Veistroffer went through 15 bidons during his three-hour solo breakaway, averaging one bottle every 12 minutes. If each bottle held 500 to 600 milliliters and was completely consumed, that would equal roughly 2.5 to 3 liters of fluid per hour.

The team’s post does not establish that every bottle was full or that all of the fluid was consumed, but the number still illustrates the level of support available to a Tour rider. Replicating that kind of access would be nearly impossible without bottles coming from the team car and roadside staff.

Veistroffer also consumed 500 grams of carbohydrate, or roughly 167 grams per hour, while averaging 323 watts during the three-hour effort. That is an extraordinary example of WorldTour fueling, rather than a practical target for the average rider.

Fuel for Your Long Days

After the Race

When riders finish a stage, they are often handed a tart cherry drink to help begin the recovery process. Tart cherries contain compounds that may help reduce muscle soreness after hard efforts.

Enervit Magic Cherry contains concentrated tart cherry extract, polyphenols and vitamin E. It is designed to support recovery after races, hard rides or back-to-back days on the bike.

Magic Cherry is not a meaningful source of carbohydrates or protein, so it should be paired with a recovery shake, meal or snack that can help replenish glycogen and support muscle repair.

Dinner follows a few hours later, with portions selected by the team’s nutrition staff based on the demands of the stage and the following day’s racing.

In a reel from a mountain stage, Jonas Abrahamsen shows a dinner consisting of 450 grams of rice, four slices of bread, about 120 grams of chicken and dessert.

Abrahamsen also shared that his total intake for the day reached 7,746 calories. According to the nutrition breakdown shown in his posts, more than 1,600 grams of that came from carbohydrates.

That gives you an idea of just how much food it takes to fuel and recover from a mountain stage at the Tour de France.

How Does This Apply to the Everyday Rider?

The goal is not to copy a Tour de France nutrition plan. These riders are fueling repeated days of racing at an intensity and duration that most of us will never experience. Instead, take the principles behind their approach and scale them to your own riding.

Start by gradually increasing your carbohydrate intake during longer and harder training rides. Use those sessions to find out how much food your stomach can handle and which gels, chews, bars and drink mixes work best for you. What works for one rider may not work for another.

Most importantly, do not try a completely new fueling strategy on race day. Practice your nutrition during training, make adjustments as needed and arrive at your event with a plan you already know works.