Notebook

Yum-Yum: It's pasta for breakfast again

LYON, France (AP) -- Lyon may be considered one of France's most gastronomic cities, but riders had little chance of indulging themselves.

How does spaghetti for breakfast sound?

Christophe Brandt, a Belgium cyclist at this year's Tour de France, talked us through a riders' typical daily menu.

"We eat about 4,000 calories a day," Brandt said. "The key is not to eat too much at night, because otherwise you don't sleep properly."

Racers rise in the morning, barely recovered from hours in the saddle the previous day, to the uninspiring sight of a steaming bowl of pasta.

"It's just basically plain pasta without heavy ingredients. But you can have tomato sauce or white sauce," Brandt, who rides for the Italian Lotto-Domo team said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

As riders tackle mountain climbs -- the first of three grueling Alpine stages begins Saturday -- they eat less and less, and then nothing at all toward the end.

"We eat mainly snacks, energy bars, cakes, small tarts ... and then in the last part we have liquid only, like energy drinks," Brandt explained, pulling out a small, gold-colored sachet as an example.

Lance Armstrong, who seeks a record-equaling fifth-straight Tour win at this year's centennial Tour, said in his autobiography "It's Not About The Bike" that once he misjudged how much to eat -- and nearly paid the ultimate price: losing the 2000 Tour.

"We reached the final climb of the day. I realized I had not eaten enough for such a long hard day," the Texan said. "I tried not to panic -- but I was seriously worried. If my body gave out, it could cost me huge chunks of time."

Armstrong clung on that day -- an Alpine climb in Morzine -- but only just.

"I was lucky not to lose the entire race on that hill. It was the worst day of my life on a bicycle," he recalled.

The key to being a successful climber is not just about diet, but also about a rider's weight and ability to withstand punishing heat.

"It's best to have a very lightweight physique with good muscular tone. I think this is in the genes, rather than something you can work on," Brandt said, adding that he is a rider who does not mind blazing sunshine -- within reason anyway.

"I'm OK, I can resist heat," he said before Friday's sixth stage -- a 230-kilometer (142.6-mile-mile) trek from Nevers to Lyon where temperatures reached 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).

"But I remember doing a mountain stage once, where it was over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), now that was unbearable. It's too much."

Day jobs

But, according to Australia's Baden Cooke, some professions are a lot worse.

"When I'm on a mountain, I joke with my teammates that it's better than a nine-to-five job, and believe me, it really is," the fdjeux.com rider said.

"When I was injured one year, I did a lot of boring day jobs, like telesales and emptying out money from parking meters," he added.

"That's worse than any mountain."

A stroll in the mountains

Eleven of these will be Alpine ascents, with the remaining 13 based in the Pyrenees.

Without including the numerous smaller hills on the Tour, riders will ascend the vertical equivalent of 36,628 meters (120,872 feet) -- which otherwise reads as 36.6 kilometers (22.7 miles).

Among the Alpine climbs: Col du Galibier: 2,645-meters (8,728.5-feet); Col d'Izoard: 2,360-meters (7,788-feet); and the Port de Pailheres: 2,001-meters (6,603.3-feet), the highest ascent in the Pyrenees.

One particularly shattering day of Pyrenees legwork comes on the 14th stage on July 20 -- just a week before the end of the showcase race.

The route is a 191.5-kilometer (118.73-mile) slog from Saint-Girons to Loudenvielle-Le Louron, featuring six climbs exceeding 1,000 meters (3,300-feet).

Perhaps cruelly, nature dictates the highest of these will come last.

 

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