Nutrition

Working and riding from home nutrition supply is fairly easy and varied, you continually experiment with all sorts of bars and energy drinks made from water and powders containing the latest mix of complex carbohydrates. You can stop at shops and service stations enroute to top up with water and food as needed. In the Waikato I had rides planned so that half way stops were at Service Stations or Cafes to top up with water and maybe a sandwich. In the Coromandel it's much the same although I seldom need to top up because I'm not riding the distances I did at Cambridge.
With the Tour in mind it's obvious we do not know where supplies can be found and so we have to plan to ride with everything needed for the day. About a year ago I read that Clif was supplying the Garmin- Cervelo Team. I tried all the products available in NZ: the Bar, the Blok and the Shot and liked them, good taste, kind to my digestive system, easy use and store on the bike. And crucially the solid pieces of the Bar did not get into my windpipe as some others do, including the Power bars that I used to cook up. I have been using them since then to get used to the system. I haven't had cramps or bonks. The combination of the three allowed me to contemplate just having water in my bottles and not adding a fuel/electrolyte powder. The value of having just water in a bottle is that it can be used as a coolant on the head and back at the hottest part of the day. The carbohydrates would get very sticky. That has been a main consideration in my plan. Then I took a look at sweating rates and electrolyte loss and did some calculations using the Clif contents and discovered that potentially I could still have a sodium shortage. I felt that having a few electrolytes in the water would not be uncomfortable using water to cool off. Just like sweat. So I had a look around for tablets to put into bottles as required. I found some plain electrolyte pills called TabLytes and have been using them for a couple of months, they are OK. Then I found Nuun tablets which designed to put in the bottle and dissolve quickly, whereas the TabLytes are meant to be swallowed with a good swig of water.
So on any day I will be travelling with one or two Bars, two Bloks, and two Shots with three bottles of water, two with Nuun/TabLytes and one plain in my back pack.