Snacking on tour

[Cathryn]

We leave next week for this summer’s adventure and I’m trying to get some ideas about fuelling on tour. I tend to ride with the mentality that I’m cycling all day so I can eat whatever I want and honestly, I probably can’t!

So…what good snacks do you use on tour? Healthy ones. Healthy ones that taste as good as half a packet of petits ecoliers!

 

[figbat]

A decent breakfast means no need for snacking for the first hour or two. Then it’s whatever takes your fancy; it’s just as important to want to eat as it is to have to eat. For me it’s flapjacks, fig rolls, I love the Veloforte energy bars, wine gums/jelly babies etc. A nice lunch then gets you to mid-afternoon and repeat the above until the end of the ride and evening meal.

 

[fossyant]

Try an plan in a proper lunch stop. If you can get a decent breakfast and evening meal, you don't really need to snack - maybe have something for emergencies. We didn't snack when we bike packed the KAW in September - and we weren't hanging about. Tough day with planned lunch stops.

 

[raleighnut]

Pork Pies.

 

[presta]

We leave next week for this summer’s adventure and I’m trying to get some ideas about fuelling on tour. I tend to ride with the mentality that I’m cycling all day so I can eat whatever I want and honestly, I probably can’t!

So…what good snacks do you use on tour? Healthy ones. Healthy ones that taste as good as half a packet of petits ecoliers!

I eat healthy food when I'm not touring, and when I am touring I eat what's practical above all else. That means:

1) High calorific value, so that it's as small and light as possible.
2) Must be available in any old village corner shop, therefore specialist sports foodstuffs are out.
3) Must be quick and simple to prepare in a crowded hostel kitchen with limited facilities.
4) Must be available in small quantities that are practical to carry.
5) Nothing that's going to make a mess.
6) Nothing that's perishable.
7) I carry food in the panniers, not my pockets.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Depends on what I can find on my touring routes. What you can get when you have regular and plenty of shops you will pass, is different in different countries and regions and areas. My preference though is something savoury, something hot, and save the sweet for when I just need a top up to finish off the day. I don’t really snack on the bike though unless remote country with not many places to stop. My preference touring is stops mid morning, lunch, and mid afternoon, finishing the days tour late afternoon or early evening.

 

[YMFB]

Proper meals with jelly babies in between.

 

[Cathryn]

A decent breakfast means no need for snacking for the first hour or two. Then it’s whatever takes your fancy; it’s just as important to want to eat as it is to have to eat. For me it’s flapjacks, fig rolls, I love the Veloforte energy bars, wine gums/jelly babies etc. A nice lunch then gets you to mid-afternoon and repeat the above until the end of the ride and evening meal.

That’s basically what we do but I always feel like I have more sugar than I need. I’m happy to have sugar as fuel (and I very much enjoy it) but I don’t always feel like I make wise choices.

 

[raleighnut]

Proper meals with jelly babies Pork Pies in between.

FTFY

 

[mjr]

Try an plan in a proper lunch stop. If you can get a decent breakfast and evening meal, you don't really need to snack -

Speak for yourself! It all depends what the lunch stop is. Also, what each place has is sometimes beyond our control. Always carry flapjack-like objects and some sugary get-you-home sweets.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

FTFY

Proper pork pies with scotch eggs inbetween?

 

[raleighnut]

Proper pork pies with scotch eggs inbetween?

 

[figbat]

That’s basically what we do but I always feel like I have more sugar than I need. I’m happy to have sugar as fuel (and I very much enjoy it) but I don’t always feel like I make wise choices.

I often get sick of sweet things when doing a long ride (which, as a sweet-toothed person, is a surprise!) so will throw in things like honey-roasted cashews, mini pork pies etc although I'll generally eat savoury stuff at lunchtime along with a pint or two.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

Bread pudding:

…a little goes a long way.

 

[Gillstay]

Dates and peanuts. Flapjack if of good quality.