Nutrition Facts: Understanding the Diet of a WorldTour Cyclist ⋆ CyclingScoop

Do pro cyclists have to diet? It’s a question that seems simple on the surface, but the reality is nuanced, and the answer may be surprising. The short answer: not exactly. However, nutrition is one of the most carefully managed variable in these athletes’ entire lives.

Want to learn more about how cyclists fuel themselves with food… and where they sometimes go wrong? Let’s take a look at the diets of WorldTour cyclists, the good, bad, and ugly.

Eating as a way to fuel the human body, a cycling machine.

Many people don’t realize this, but professional cycling (along with other pro-level endurance sports) is one of the most calorie-intensive activities on the planet.

During a single Grand Tour stage, like in the Tour de France, a rider can burn between 4,000 and 8,000 calories… and that’s just in a single day. Over three weeks of racing, their total energy expenditure might exceed 100,000 calories! No amount of calorie restriction would allow them to sustain that kind of output through exercise. The result is that pro cyclists eat, and they eat a lot!

What’s the catch? Well, what they eat, when they eat it, and in what precise quantities is all carefully planned. Team nutritionists are experts, and they map out meals with the same rigor a coach maps out the rider’s training blocks. It’s actually just as important for cyclists to eat well and sleep well during training and racing, making the demands on these experts very variable and nuanced.

So the pros DO diet?

In some sense, yes.

Every pro cyclist, and even entire cycling teams in general, follow a diet. It’s just not the kind most people might picture when they hear that word! Cyclists have to eat healthy to perform at their best, and there’s no way to get around it.

Managing a power-to-weight obsession.

The stats are where things start to get more complicated.

Cycling performance, particularly in the mountains, is heavily governed by power-to-weight ratio. In other words, how many watts can a rider produce per kilogram of body weight? This ratio and its importance means that even modest reductions in body weight, primarily in the realm of body fat rather than muscle, can translate directly into better and faster climbing speeds!

As a result, many pro cyclists do actively manage their weight. You might have asked yourself, why are the pros so skinny? Power to weight ratio is why! Particularly in the months leading up to important races, they’ll eat in a slight caloric deficit during training blocks. During these periods, they’re aiming to shed excess body fat while preserving their muscle mass.

Reaching “race weight.”

Riders often target what’s called their “race weight,” which is typically a little bit leaner than their off-season weight by up to several kilograms.

For climbers especially, the riders like those who specialize in mountain stages, the pursuit of leanness can be really relentless. Some reach body fat percentages in the single digits, and maintaining that takes constant discipline surrounding what they’re eating.

How do cyclists eat for training or racing day ahead?

Rather than following a static diet, pro cyclists practice what nutritionists call “periodized nutrition.”

On heavy training days, the riders’ carbohydrate intakes go up significantly. This helps to fuel their performance and support their recovery. But on lighter days or rest days, carb intake drops to avoid unnecessary weight gain. This kind of cycle-aware eating requires a lot of nutritional literacy… or, as mentioned before, a very good support team of nutritionists and other experts.

What’s best to eat during a race?

Race day nutrition is especially precise!

During the ride, the riders will consume gels, bars, rice cakes, and drinks at carefully timed intervals during a stage to keep glycogen stores topped up. Getting this wrong, for example under-fueling mid-race, leads to “bonking”… this is a sudden and devastating energy crash! A mistake in fueling can cost minutes on a GC clock or end podium ambitions.

Even the greatest riders in the world are not immune to getting nutrition wrong. During the 2023 Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar was locked in a fierce battle with Jonas Vingegaard when he suddenly told his team over the radio that he had nothing left to give! His team later clarified that the cause wasn’t a straightforward failure to eat enough, and that Pogi had been sick and unable to take his food in properly.

Note that Pogačar had been forced to respond to attacks throughout that stage, spending his glycogen reserves… in the end, Vingegaard stayed fresher and had reserves to spare, deciding the victory.

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Are eating disorders a problem for pro cyclists?

It would be dishonest to talk about pro cycling and weight management without acknowledging the sport’s well-documented history with eating disorders.

There’s a real and occasionally harmful pressure to stay lean. Sometimes this pressure comes from coaches or nutritionist, while other times it’s self-imposed. Whatever the case, a disordered eating mindset has pushed many riders into harmful patterns: chronic restriction, obsessive calorie counting, or even starvation before races.

Former riders have spoken publicly about the culture of too-thinness in the peloton. Sometimes being “too heavy” could mean being left off a roster. Governing bodies and teams have made efforts in recent years to address this problem, with nutritionists embedded in teams shouldering the ethical responsibility and greater awareness of the tolls that extreme weight management can take.

Still, the debate surrounding Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes illuminated this dimension of the sport’s complicated relationship with weight. Ferrand-Prévot admitted to shedding around four kilograms in preparation for the race, a weight loss discussed and criticized, with some accusing her of promoting disordered eating. For example, fellow rider Marlen Reusser spoke out that Ferrand-Prévot’s approach may have sent the wrong message to young riders starting the sport, especially those without access to a nutritionist and professional medical support.

Ultimately, a nuanced consensus emerged: what Ferrand-Prévot did was not a template for anyone else to follow, but that this problem exists in both the men’s and women’s peloton, although women may face more scrutiny for their bodies.

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A modern approach to diet.

The best-performing teams today treat nutrition as a performance science rather than a weight-loss project.

Instead of making it all about weight, the focus is on fueling well and recovering. Any body composition changes should ideally be done gradually and safely over time. A crash diet just doesn’t make sense before a race.

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In the clinical sense, many cyclists do diet. They monitor their weight and adjust their intake strategically. But the picture is much bigger than it seems on the surface! Their goal is not to eat less, especially with such high calorie demand. Instead, they eat right. The right foods, in the right amounts, at the right time.

For an elite cyclist, discipline in nutrition and dieting is every bit as demanding as the training itself. But it’s also equally (if not more) important!