[ydant]

I enjoyed this show about feeding the tour riders:

Eat. Race. Win. https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Race-Win-Season-1/dp/B086HVQ5RB

Related, Unchained (https://www.netflix.com/title/81153133) has been an interesting view into the race although food isn't discussed at all.

Before Eat. Race. Win. I had this entirely uninformed idea the food the riders ate would be incredibly streamlined and controlled - I was thinking something like Soylent and protein powder and supplements. To see them chowing down on "normal" food and drinking alcohol (at all) was surprising for me.

[gullywhumper]

The alcohol really surprises me given how meticulous they are about everything else - especially sleep monitoring. After a big win, it's not uncommon for the entire team to have sparkling wine or beer that night. Maybe not a big deal for one day races, but with stage races they usually have another hard race the next day. On the podium during stage races, victors will often drink sparkling wine/beer too. After winning a stage at last year's Vuelta a España (one of the major multi-day stage races) Sepp Kuss took a huge long chug on the podium - and then went on to when the entire race [1]!

Some riders used to drink during races too. Freddy Maertens was able to do it and still win [2].

[1] https://www.atwistedspoke.com/sepp-kuss-champagne-supernova/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_Maertens#Alcohol

[jdietrich]

Any risks in terms of performance have to be weighed up against the benefits to morale. A grand tour is long, a full year's calendar of racing is even longer, but a glass of champagne to celebrate a win goes a long way towards breaking up the monotony of suffering.

[xarope]

and then there's the Radler, a beer and lemonade mixture specifically created for cyclists. It's quite tasty and thirst quenching, although I'm not sure I'd use it as as peri-workout drink (post-workout? sure)!