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This weekend, the Tour of Flanders peloton was treated to a hearty feast of cobblestone climbs and carbohydrate gels, and most riders had their desired menu in mind.
Discover Stem Sticker Nutrition Plan Vero at the start paddock de Rondo It provides an interesting real-world insight into how the peloton fueled Sunday’s six-hour cobblestone chaos.
It was a multi-course gut buster containing thousands of calories of sugar, a surprisingly small amount of caffeine, and some clever hydration strategies.
We put on our nutrition nerd lab coats and deciphered some of the stickers we discovered. VeroMobile photography ace Will Tracey while patrolling the team bus in Antwerp on Sunday morning.
Before you dig too deep, dental surgeons, look away now.
All photos: Will Tracy.you can Check out Will’s Flanders Tour technique gallery here.
Q36.5: Eat plenty of carbohydrates on your big day
Not so long ago, team-produced stem stickers focused on key climbs and cobble sectors of the race.
But as fueling strategies become more complex, many of cycling’s elite are now overlaying those notes onto their own rider-specific roadmaps.
Q36.5 This schedule pasted onto Scott’s stem provides one of the best insights into the Tour of Flanders’ feeding strategy that we’ve found (and were able to decipher).
Unlike many riders in the peloton, this rider doesn’t care where the mountain is. There are no kilometer signs to warn you when the grueling cobblestone climb is coming.
Instead, it’s the feed zone and fuel that are important.
An educated guess is that the three yellow gels symbolizing the start of the race represent the 30g carbohydrate packets produced by Q36.5’s nutritional partners. Amax.
The green gels (all eight) may be the high-powered 40g “turbo gels” that Amacx markets as “essential for focused efforts.”
Following the development of new formulations that allow riders to consume twice as many carbohydrates as they did just 10 years ago, nutritional brands are increasingly turning to highly concentrated gel and drink products like this.
This rider selected 3 regular gels and 8 ‘turbo’ gels, plus 2 caffeine gels containing 40g of carbohydrates and 100mg of caffeine each.
Notably, this sticker suggests that the final caffeine hit will occur at the race point, approximately two hours from the finish line. It may seem early, but research indicates that the physiological effects of caffeine only peak after about 45 minutes.
The seven-bottle symbol suggests the rider was aiming to drink more than 500ml of water per hour in preparation for a gentle but harrowing six-hour ordeal through Flanders.
These bottles will probably contain electrolytes to stabilize the salts and almost certainly lots of carbohydrates. You can never have too many carbohydrates, right?
Summary nutritional figures
- 7 bottles: approximately 280g carbs (assuming a perfect mix of part water and part Amacx “Turbo Drink” with 80g carbs per bottle)
- 3 standard gels: 90g carbohydrates
- 8 turbo gels: 240g carbohydrates
- 2 caffeine gels: 80g carbohydrates / 200mg caffeine
Total: ~690g Carbs (~2,800 Calories) / 200mg Caffeine.
It’s already half way @RondeVlaanderen It’s time for lunch from your trusty soignière.
second race begins pic.twitter.com/9noGe8ef69
— Q36.5 ProCycling Team (@Q36_5ProCycling) March 31, 2024
Assuming this rider finished about 10 minutes back from Mathieu van der Poel’s race-winning time of 6:05, that total of 690g of carbs would be broken down into about 110g of carbs per hour.
This 100g+ intake is the new “gold standard” for elite endurance, a number that becomes even more important for intense daily intakes like 6-hour interval sessions. de ronde.
In contrast, 200mg of total caffeine falls short of the 3-6mg/kg body weight benchmark proven to maximize the cognitive and performance gains provided by popular cycling supplements. Under these guidelines, a rider weighing 70kg would consume a minimum of 210mg of caffeine.
However, every athlete is different, and even coffee-obsessed cyclists can be highly sensitive to caffeine.
Plus, who knows how many cortados this guy drank while waiting on the team bus for a wild, rainy day? de ronde.
Lotto-Dstny brings science to strategy
This is Lotto-Dstny’s vehicle, simply labeled with the rider’s name “Cedric”, or Cedric Beullens.
Unlike almost every other team, Lotto-Dstny seems to plan its menu of riders based on time rather than distance. This is presumably to ensure that the rider meets his recommended hourly refueling needs 100%.
Lotto-Dstny works closely with nutrition brands Precision fueling and hydration.The Belgian national team collaborates in the development of some of the brand’s products and utilizes sports scientists at PF&H headquarters
As a result, Beullens’ stem stickers likely follow a highly scientifically planned structure that is entirely his own and is based on his own sweat, sodium, and metabolic testing.
A total of four bags of energy chews filled Blaens’ stomach during the first two hours of Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.
Solid and semi-solid fuels such as gum and chewing gum are typically taken early in a race so there is no risk of riders tampering with food packages while making race-winning moves. They are also slightly more filling than gels and offer a slow-release option.
From the third hour onwards, Beullens faced a steady onslaught of 30g of carbohydrate gel. Two were caffeinated and seven were decaffeinated.
Similar to the Q36.5 rider above, the caffeinated option was chosen mid-race to allow time for maximum ergogenic effect, prior to the final blast into Flanders’ Oudenaarde. I timed it for.
So what about color-coded bottle symbols?
Could the white be water and the pink be energy?
Many athletes prefer to “decouple” their carbohydrate and hydration needs as much as possible, so that’s an option.
“Decoupling” is a method that helps athletes reduce digestive problems. This allows riders to independently dose electrolytes and energy without tying the two together into an “all-in-one” drink formulation that can complicate the fuel delivery equation.
The fact that Boilens appears to have chosen to use electrolyte capsules in hours 4 and 5 reinforces the theory that he is maintaining his sodium goals independently of his carbohydrate goals.
Nutritional value overview:
- 2 energy drink bottles: Approximately 160g carbohydrates (assumed to be mixed with Precision’s “carb-only” drink at medium strength)
- 4 x Chews: 120g Carbs
- 7 standard gels: 210g carbohydrates
- 2 caffeine gels: 60g carbohydrates / 200mg caffeine
Total: ~550g Carbs (~2,200 Calories) / 200mg Caffeine
Ord Quairmont
Photo: Photo News pic.twitter.com/BBuNb1QHIM
— Lotto Dstny (@lotto_dstny) March 31, 2024
The Brens ended the Tour of Flanders with a finishing time of 6 minutes and 13 seconds. If the large Belgian followed his eating strategy successfully, he would be consuming about 90g of carbohydrates per hour.
Despite working out at a whopping 360 calories per hour, Boylens’ 90g quota is low compared to some riders. Van der Poel is one of many riders known to consume close to 120g of carbohydrates per hour.
Still, it’s a solid 50% increase over the 60g per hour benchmark from just 10 years ago.
Here is a selection of Tour of Flanders stem stickers:
