- Just to the right of me, your left,
I've got a whole heap of riders
who are probably doing their best to try and avoid me,
but don't worry, I'm going to go in there
and find out exactly what their favorite pre-race meal is,
and also, what's their favorite food in general?
So let's go and do just that.
(upbeat music)
Right, what's your favorite food to eat before racing?
- Uh, favorite food is pizza but I can't eat pizza
every night before the race, so normally,
simple one, pasta with a little
bit of tomato and probably bit of fish.
- Oh, favorite pre-race meal's not a good pre-race meal.
(laughter)
Full breakfast, but not very often
you can have that before a race.
So I'll go with porridge.
- So a full breakfast, what's that, sausage, beans, egg,
tomato, everything basically, everything that's bad for you.
- Everything that's good for a hangover and bad for a race.
- Perfect.
The Flying Mullet.
- It's really boring, but rice with eggs and oil.
Just very easy to digest, and really
fast carbohydrates to race on.
- And what's your favorite meal
if it's not to do with bike racing?
- Spare-ribs.
- Nice.
- Favorite meal is just, keep it simple, you know, like
two eggs with a lot of rice,
and then a bit of olive oil and Parmigiano.
- Okay, and what about your favorite food,
if you're not racing?
- My favorite food is kind of um, it's typical for my home,
it's like mashed potatoes with a lot of cheese,
from my hometown in Auvergne, and you mix it up
together, and so it's kind of heavy,
but it's very good off-season.
- What's that called?
I think I've had it.
- Yeah, it's Tartiflette.
- Yeah Tartiflette, yeah it's nice that.
It's not very healthy, it's a lot of cheese.
- No no, yeah yeah.
- Favorite, it's not really my favorite but like oatmeal
and then omelets with some toast and that's about it,
it's not my favorite but that's what I need to eat.
- What's your favorite?
- I'm a Belgian, so french fries is my favorite.
- And maybe a beer as well?
- Yeah, at home.
- It's always pasta, it's always been pasta,
I've always been upset when teams have tried
to make the race gluten free, I'm just a pasta fiend.
- And what about your favorite meal, in general?
- Oh, it's my Mom's Ossobuco.
- What is that?
- You don't know Ossobuco?
- No.
- Man, do some research.
- There we are, back to the cookery book for me.
- Pasta, I think, yeah.
- And what about when it's not a race day,
what's your favorite food?
- I like really carbos in general,
but fruit also, mostly healthy food I like,
I think it's part of the job and it' part of my lifestyle.
- So no frites for you?
- It's actually already quite long time ago that I had some.
- Oh yeah?
- Yeah, yeah, I think I live now three years in Merelbeke
and it was actually funny because last year
I had one guy who was riding next to me,
and he say "ah tell me the best french fries shop, Laurens."
And I say "(bleeps) I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you."
Because, yeah, I think it's already two, three years ago
that I had some french fries, so, yeah,
I love it, but now you talk about it, okay,
when I'm back I need to take some.
- When it comes to food, what do you like
to eat before a race?
- Mostly simply things that digest quite fast,
especially in the heat here down under
I just eat white bread, cup of tea,
really light stuff actually.
- And what about when you're not going to go
out for a bike ride, what's your favorite food?
- Um, out here, when I don't have a race,
like avocado, smashed avocado or something like this.
- No frites?
You're from Belgium, I thought that fries
would be all right, but.
- Yeah fries are doable, but mostly I don't take them
in preparation to the classics now.
- No. - No.
- For me, if I have the resources, I'll make,
I'll get a mixing bowl, I'll put oats in there,
I'll put a whole bunch of dates in there
or use coconut milk, and I'll blend it up,
I'll put it in the fridge, and have overnight oats
in the morning, and it's super nice.
- And what's your favorite food, outside of that?
- Outside of that, that's a good question.
You got me on the spot.
Favorite.
- Um, I reckon it's old school pasta.
- What's your favorite food when you're not at a race?
- Big fan of the Japanese cuisine,
so would always go for sushi.
- I love raw cakes, I've got an addiction for raw cakes.
This is terrible, 'cause they're like
700 calories per 100g almost, they're made from cashew nuts
or some type of, you know what I mean?
And they use coconut oil to make them solid
or they use cacao butter which is even, you know,
it's pure fat, but I have a little
addiction to these things.
- I do like an omelet, yeah, get some protein
and it's tasty as well.
- And what's your favorite food outside of racing?
- I'm going to say pizza.
- It's a fine choice.
What would you put on the topping?
- No pineapple. - I was going to ask you that.
- No, no pineapple.
I love cheese, I mean, I'm dutch, you got to love cheese.
- Edam, gouda, all this?
- Yeah yeah, exactly, yeah, old Amsterdam's nice too,
I don't know if that works
on a pizza but it's a great cheese.
- What's your favorite food to eat before a race?
- Bacon.
- Bacon?
- Yeah.
- I didn't expect that.
- What's your favorite food when you're not racing?
- Maybe sushi, I'll eat anything though.
- Um, (sighs) used to,
that's changed, now I just see it as fuel,
so anything that's going to make me go faster unfortunately
which is a terribly dull answer.
Used to be, back in the Trek Livestrong days
we'd have like we would get burritos, rice burritos,
which were a great time, that's about as good as it's got,
now it's generally rice, an omelet,
or pasta and chicken, something quite dull.
- What's your favorite food though, outside of all this?
- Yeah, chocolate, Cadbury's when I'm in the U.K.
Whittakers when I'm in New Zealand,
packet of McCoys salt and vinegar crisps.
But you can sometimes get a dodgy packet,
so it has to be a good packet, you know.
And just a solid burger and chips.
- I was hoping there'd be a meal in there somewhere,
not just junk food, well it's kind
of junk food though, init?
- It's all junk food, but I think
anyone that says otherwise is lying.
- We've had some liars so far.
- I'm going to be boring and just say porridge, sorry.
- That's all right, boring, at least your being honest.
And what's your favorite food though,
if you're not on the bike?
- That's a tough one, I do like a lot of food.
Probably, yeah probably say Mexican food is just good,
I mean there's a lot of food in that category,
but all of it does it for me, good flavors and that.
- So that's your death-row meal basically?
- Yeah yeah, definitely, some nachos or something, you know.
- Before a race, it's simple, porridge really,
it's good breakfast, maybe an omelet as well,
yeah, like porridge, get a few nuts,
bit of honey in there, perfect.
- Mix it up a bit.
What's your favorite food to have outside of a race?
- Well, if we're trying to be good, really good
tuna steak on the barbie, love doing that,
got a barbie on the balcony at ours, at home, so.
- I quite often see actually
on Instagram you having a barbecue.
What was that chicken, you used
to go to a chicken place, what was that called?
Roosters.
- Roosters, that's it, that's pulled out your head.
You're going back there till I was still in Southampton,
but I love, my girlfriend now, Abby, is always
still ripping for me, because she hates the smell,
of you know when you marinade the Nando's chicken?
So I'm always doing like piri piri marinade
and letting it waft around the house and in barbecue,
and she hates the smell of it, and I do it every other day.
- There we are, some of the pros favorite foods.
I've got to say, I was more surprised that the Belgians
didn't like fries, and also a burrito before a race?
That would repeat on you a little bit.
Let us know though, what is your favorite pre-race meal
to have down there in the comment section below,
and why not chuck in too what your favorite food is.
Get involved in that comment section.
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