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Hi,
I'm at the TDF finish in Paris, this is what I learned. The last few days, I've been sleuthing around the Tour de France teams to get you as many secrets as possible of how they are fueling.
The Big Three: Carbs, Cherries, and Sleep.
First, Get all the Tour de Feed Deals Today. Everything is now live including 20% off Gels, Hydration, and Chews, but they are going away faster than we will forget who was in second place tomorrow.
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Back to TDF Secrets: The main theme is still carbs, carbs, and more carbs. But that's not all—Cherries and Sleep are the other hot topics everyone's buzzing about.
🍒 Cherries: The #1 Nutrition Story of the Tour
This is THE rage at the Tour. Move over ketones and beets, cherries are taking center stage! Teams are absolutely crazy this year for the polyphenols and specifically anthocyanins to reduce inflammation and improve next-day recovery when consumed immediately after the stage finish.
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Tadej's Magic Cherry is back! It's a powder mix (that's why you see all the UAE riders with it in plastic water bottles), and it has no sugar.
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Jonas' drink used by Visma and EF is the Amacx Ready-to-Drink Cherry Juice with 30g of carbs—really refreshing stuff.
The riders also reported to me that they find the drinks super refreshing, they aren't sweet at all, even the Amacx product I would not consider "sweet". They are like cherry flavored water.
😴 Sleep: The Secret Arms Race
This might be the most fascinating thing I've seen—there's a full truck and staff dedicated to just setting up riders' bedrooms each night!
Teams have:
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Staff changing mattresses and cleaning rooms to hospital-level precision
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Air conditioners and Eight Sleep mattress covers installed for each rider
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Advanced sleep supplementation protocols
You may not have a team preparing your bed each night, but I can get you the same sleep scores with the NEW Dream Shot. Sleep shouldn't be a nightmare and Dream Shot takes best protocols the riders are using, starting with MORE CHERRIES. Dream Shot uses a foundation of 2oz of tart cherry to help you get to sleep and further increase recovery, just like the other cherry drinks, but without the extra fluid which you don't want right before bed out of risk of having to wake up to use the bathroom.
Importantly, Dream Shot does NOT contain Melatonin, most of the team I discussed it with are really opposed to Melatonin out of the risk that the riders struggle to shake it off it off the next day.
Dream Shot is the most successful product launch we have had at The Feed. The first 50K bottles sold out in 48 hours, but you can pre-order now for the next delivery on August 6th.
What I love about Dream Shot is its ability to stop my nighttime wakeups. And if I do get up to go to the bathroom, I can fall right back to sleep. I'll take Dream Shot one night and have a 90+ sleep score. Not take it the next night and I'm back down to the mid-70s.
🔋 Carbs: Fueling the Engine
Get ready for this: I found out that Ben Healy's Yellow Jersey earning stage consisted of him consuming:
That's 800g of carbs in roughly 5 hours on the attack in the breakaway! And compared to Tadej and Jonas, he was probably UNDER-fueling at 160g per hour.
How to Apply This to Your Training:
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Start at 80g per hour, but if you're feeling adventurous and are comfortable at 80g consistently, then push over to 100-120g and beyond.
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High Carb Drink: If you do one thing, this is it. A high carb drink is the easiest (and most affordable) way to get your carb intake on workouts. Aim for 60-90g bottles. Consume one per hour. Get Ben's Amacx Turbo Drink or our NEW The Feed Lab High Carb Drink Mix (most affordable option).
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Energy Gels: I take a gel now before almost every workout, but what I've learned at the Tour is that timing has changed. Dr. Sprouse told me that taking it 10-30 minutes before your workout may be ruining your workout (or stage)! This timing results in an insulin spike and crash before you start working out. Either take it 1 hour before, or do what I do and take your gel right as you start your workout or roll off the start line.
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For an hour or less: Take one Gel right at the start.
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For longer workouts: Aim for 1 High Carb Gel every hour if using a high carb drink mix. If just using gels, go with every 30 minutes.
Get Tadej's favorite gel from Enervit (Mango Flavor is great), or go with Jonas and get the Amacx Drink Gels (Delicious) or higher carb Turbo Gel.
Cramp Fix
I saw in the front door of a bunch of team cars, liquid cramp shots. While the normal Pickle Juice was in one car, when I asked most were now using a Vinegar drink. We just got in a new Vinegar Cramp Spray that I'm loving called Fixx Nutrition from Australia. I used it on both of the last Hors Category climbs at the Tour, despite how slow I was going, it still saved me!
Vive Le Tour...sorry, I don't have anything to give you for Tour withdrawal.
A bientôt,
- Matt
Founder
The Feed.
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