Nutrition of pro cyclists 50+ years ago

I knew an Italian cyclist that came to the US in the 1960s. He used to race with a thin steak lightly browned on the surface stuffed into his jersey. He would chew on it over the course of a 200km race.

I was coached by an old eastern European 'old school' guy that had us not 'over drink water'. the philosophy was that guys that consumed many bottles of water would be stuck if they wouldn't get a bottle at a critical time. In general you should drink regularly and to the amount your body needs. these ideas of drinking a bottle every 45mins is nuts. First it totally depends on the weather. if it's cool weather you can get away with as little as 2 bottles for a 4 or 5hr ride.

If anyone is interested in modern cycling nutrition, the Amazon series "Eat, Race, Win" is a pretty good look at what riders in the tour eat.
 
therealdope said:
I knew an Italian cyclist that came to the US in the 1960s. He used to race with a thin steak lightly browned on the surface stuffed into his jersey. He would chew on it over the course of a 200km race.

I was coached by an old eastern European 'old school' guy that had us not 'over drink water'. the philosophy was that guys that consumed many bottles of water would be stuck if they wouldn't get a bottle at a critical time. In general you should drink regularly and to the amount your body needs. these ideas of drinking a bottle every 45mins is nuts. First it totally depends on the weather. if it's cool weather you can get away with as little as 2 bottles for a 4 or 5hr ride.

If anyone is interested in modern cycling nutrition, the Amazon series "Eat, Race, Win" is a pretty good look at what riders in the tour eat.
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I had the same experience when I lived with an old Dutch rider and his wife for 2 weeks. He told me about how he did a long mountain stage in the tour on one bottle after I showed up to a group ride with 2 bottles and an old man laughed. I felt like he did have a point because I did a race in Belgium a week later and my bottle was shaken out of my cage on a section of cobbles. I was in the front group for awhile but faded as I began to feel dehydrated.
 
Robocok said:
I had the same experience when I lived with an old Dutch rider and his wife for 2 weeks. He told me about how he did a long mountain stage in the tour on one bottle after I showed up to a group ride with 2 bottles and an old man laughed. I felt like he did have a point because I did a race in Belgium a week later and my bottle was shaken out of my cage on a section of cobbles. I was in the front group for awhile but faded as I began to feel dehydrated.
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Good idea to push the old steel water bottle cages toward the frame to make it squeeze the bottle harder.

Speaking of the Netherlands and nutrition, while broke and racing I lived off of day-old tompouce for probably 5 or 6 weeks when I was 20. This is why I'm skeptical when people obsess over nutrition. No fibre and little protein, I raced while eating: sugar, custard and a buttery pastry. I wouldn't recommend it for long periods of time but it's not like eating a dessert for breakfast, lunch and dinner ruined me.
 
therealdope said:
Good idea to push the old steel water bottle cages toward the frame to make it squeeze the bottle harder.

Speaking of the Netherlands and nutrition, while broke and racing I lived off of day-old tompouce for probably 5 or 6 weeks when I was 20. This is why I'm skeptical when people obsess over nutrition. No fibre and little protein, I raced while eating: sugar, custard and a buttery pastry. I wouldn't recommend it for long periods of time but it's not like eating a dessert for breakfast, lunch and dinner ruined me.
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Right on, I don't think 6 weeks is long enough to ruin you but what kind of results did you get on the pastry diet?
 
Robocok said:
Right on, I don't think 6 weeks is long enough to ruin you but what kind of results did you get on the pastry diet?
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About the same. Some good races, some bad ones. it wasn't a disaster.
 
Robocok said:
Impressive. Personally, my form would go to crap eating like that even after a short time.
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Well, what were my choices? I was 18 and living in the back of a bike shop on a another continent. It's not like I had the money or resources to jump on Expedia and book a flight home. Good thing the bakery two doors down gave me all of their day olds to eat.

The reason i found this thread title funny is that I started racing almost 40 yrs ago, so '50+ years ago' seems almost more relevant to my experience than anything riders would be eating now.

I'll say this, I lived in Italy for two years and the diet of the family I lived with in Trentino/Suditirol was very good and you could race on that now. High quality food, not a lot of red meat, and not overly fatty.
 
therealdope said:
Well, what were my choices? I was 18 and living in the back of a bike shop on a another continent. It's not like I had the money or resources to jump on Expedia and book a flight home. Good thing the bakery two doors down gave me all of their day olds to eat.

The reason i found this thread title funny is that I started racing almost 40 yrs ago, so '50+ years ago' seems almost more relevant to my experience than anything riders would be eating now.

I'll say this, I lived in Italy for two years and the diet of the family I lived with in Trentino/Suditirol was very good and you could race on that now. High quality food, not a lot of red meat, and not overly fatty.
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What were your choices? Rhetorical question?

It's a cool story, but if you're trying to make a point that nutrition doesn't matter, you haven't.
 
Robocok said:
What were your choices? Rhetorical question?
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I could have gone to the people that were sponsoring me for meals but they were the reason I was underpaid and able to afford proper food. The whole thing was messed up. the best food I ate was at bigger races where the race organizer fed the riders post-race. things were a lot different back then.
 
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