"Every meal is a chance to do something a little better" - How Visma puts nutrition at the forefront of development

Nutrition is perhaps at the forefront of the cycling's evolution over the past few years. Team Visma | Lease a Bike's head of performance Mathieu Heijboer talked about it in detail during the team's media day, but the team itself has also shined a light on the matter.

“The conversation is no longer about what someone should eat in theory, but about how this meal supports today’s training and recovery," team nutritionist Gabriel Martins said in a press release issued by the team. “Every meal is a chance to do something a little better. Not perfect but consistently aligned with the rider’s plan and goal.”

The peloton is now riding in a different gear, with some of it being due to the significant increase in the intake of carbs and calories before and during racing. Velon recently shared data on Tadej Pogacar's food intake during a mountain stage at the Tour de France, whilst Movistar's Nelson Oliveira shared with CyclingUpToDate that all riders, from leaders to domestiques, must now follow the more complex and more demanding food requirements - with the 120 grams of carbs per hour often being quoted as the maximum most riders can absorb. More than ever, the riders aim for specific wattages, and train to be able to eat enough to be able to reach them.

As Matevz Govekar of Bahrain - Victorious shared with us last month, the teams often use training camps to train the riders' gut. During the December and January training camps, mostly in Spain, the riders are consuming food in a similar way as to when they are in stage-races and Grand Tours. The incredibly long and hard training rides, like those of UAE for example during camps averaging well over 35Km/h sometimes up to 6 hours, are also meant to replicate the racing and eating schedules that the riders find during the most important events of the season.

Recently Filippo Fiorelli of Visma, who is now getting used to the Dutch team's way of working after multiple years with the ProTeam-level Bardiani team is a clear example of how nutrition has evolved over the past few years and how big of a difference there is. The Italian said that he is eating substantially more now but at the same time finding no problems managing weight, whilst the opposite used to be the case before.

Head of performance Mathieu Heijboer, who is a key figure in the overall planning of the top riders in the team, incorporating nutrition with all other aspects of preparation, added more details regarding its importance: “Nutrition is not an extra layer for us. It’s an integral part of how we manage training, recovery, and performance on a daily basis.”