I asked over 500 cyclists what normal foods they take cycling
I asked hundreds of cyclists what food they eat when out cycling so we could understand what was popular and why. Which foods are actually going to help and which ones are not! I then analysed the nutritional values of the foods vs more cycling bars and gels.
I decided to exclude results with 1 vote and also dedicated cycling bars and gels as I wanted to know what normal food people loved… and being from Yorkshire I wanted to see which products wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Top foods cyclists eat when out cycling
** we also merged things that had a similar vibe (eg. Jelly beans & jelly babies, peanut butter and/or jam/marmalade sandwiches)
–
Carbohydrate sugar ratio
So when you are out cycling it's all about getting the carbohydrates in (and staying hydrated)… Not too little and not too much. Around 30-60 grams / hour apparently and overdoing it, eg eating 100 grams / hour, is almost as bad as you get nauseous and bloated. And as we know different foods have different types of carbohydrates… quick release sugars vs slow release carbs. I’m no food nutritionist but I think when cycling long distance you want to get more of those slow release carbs and save some sugar hits for when you are suffering on the hills. So I started comparing the carb / sugar ratio of the foods we as cyclists tend to eat.
Cycling foods ranked by carbohydrate sugar ratio
Comparing those figures vs popular cycling specific gels and bars was really interesting. On average the bars & gels carbohydrates ratio was around 30-40% sugar so that's our benchmark. Based on that, the most similar nutritional makeups (forgetting fats) highlight options like malt loaf, oat bars, peanut/jam sandwiches, biscuits, hot cross buns and scones!
Cost / 100g
Next up, being a Yorkshire lad, I wanted to see which products had the best value. We also compared them to some popular gels just to see how they stack up.
* Prices checked 2023 from Tesco in UK
So which real foods are best?
I based my conclusion on the cost / 100 grams + carb / sugar ratio + lower fat content…
So for me bananas, malt loaf and randomly hot cross buns stand out. Cheap. Lots of carbs which are between 30-50% sugar and low fat! Whilst training for the Chase The Sun event (200 miles in one day) I tried these out and to be honest it was too much sweet stuff for me. I started mixing in some brown bread savoury sandwiches to give my stomach something different to try.
Here is all the data so you can make your own conclusions
So what do you think? Will you give one of these a go next time you go for a ride? I tried hot cross buns last time I went for a long ride and they worked nicely. A bit sweet though so perhaps mix it up with something else too :)
