Cycling is about more than just legs. From browsing through Feed Zone cookbooks; and web sites such as this, I’m aware of the phenomenon called “flavor fatigue”.

Flavor fatigue is real. After several hours of pedaling, my stomach starts to feel uncomfortable. I don’t want to eat any more. It’s amazing how tiresome a Clif Bar is when I eat 1/8 of a bar every 15 minutes, and it’s the same flavor every bite! But if I still have more than a very few miles to go, I need to keep fueling; even if I’m tired of eating. 

If this happens to me on a ride of 50 miles or so, at a moderate (pokey?) pace of 12-13 mph, what must it be like for, let’s say, a Tour de France rider? They say that those guys burn up to 8000 calories per stage! They ride much faster than I can, and increased intensity increases stomach discomfort. (Hence the need to train your gut.)

Yet the pro tour rider has to keep fueling and hydrating. They say that eating enough during a prolonged stage race is akin to force feeding. The teams’ chefs have quite a job finding a way to keep the peloton properly fed while providing enough variety to stave off flavor fatigue.

I try not to bring along exactly the same foods on every long ride; and I usually have at least two flavors of GU-Gel on hand. It helps prevent boredom — I mean, flavor fatigue. Because as I know, cycling is about more than just legs.