We all have to eat, especially on a long ride or there will be problems. Our literary editor, Leslie Reissner, knows the bonk or knock first hand, so who better to run his eye over Feed Zone Portables by Dr. Allen Lim and Chef Biju Thomas. This specialist cookbook is packed full of recipes for food to be eaten during activity and explains the science behind what to eat when training and competing.Proper nourishment on a long bicycle ride is just as important as pumped-up tires, an oiled chain and comfortable shorts. Many years ago I learned this the hard way when, as a cycling neophyte, I decided to challenge Skyline Drive in Virginia without sufficient food. Climbing and descending nearly continually on the Blue Ridge on a very hot day is pretty wearing but relief eventually came. We enjoyed a brilliant descent to Luray where we dealt with our hunger pangs by indulging in foot-long submarine sandwiches. Little did we realize the climbing had only begun and as we grovelled up Massanutten Mountain in discomfort our sandwiches haunted us. The final long stretch along Fort Valley Road saw us in starvation mode and the Man with the Hammer (or the Green Witch, if you are the Continental type) was banging on us pretty hard. We arrived at our destination in bonk delirium and stopped at the first restaurant, fittingly named the Village Idiot, where we anxiously stuffed ourselves on terrible food. We could have avoided all of this education...
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