I have just been perusing my favourite cycling website wiggle, looking for bars and powders to provide rehydration and energy for my ride to and from Bedfont. After half an hour of looking at the myriad array of tablets, gels, powders and bars it became quite apparent that the cost of these products on a daily basis would outweigh the savings made on my train travel to and from work. They are not cheap!
So I cast my (inter)net further, and came across The Hungry Cyclist, a.k.a. Tom Kevill-Davies. He has cycled across continents in search of the perfect meal and is passionate about food and cycling. In his article he argues that we have gone too far down the road of fluorescent powders, energy gels and the such-like. They do have their place in competitive cycling. But, and its a big but, for the average cyclist like myself it is simply overkill. To illustrate this point he tells the tale of cycling across the Sinai desert. At the beginning of each days cycling his Bedouin hosts would give him a bag of dates for the journey. These became Tom’s staple energy source and he grew to love them. Consider the composition of the humble date:
- 31 grams of carbohydrates
- Contains naturally occurring sugars such as fructose, glucose and sucrose
- Almost zero fat content
- No cholesterol
- Three-times as much potassium as a banana
Then he gives a wonderful recipe(shown below) for making your own energy bars.
Date and Nut Energy Bars (makes 8 bars)
- 0.5 cup of chopped dates (stones removed)
- 0.5 cup of walnuts
- 0.5 cup of plain almonds
- 1.5 tablespoons of golden syrup or natural honey
- 0.5 cup of desiccated coconut unsweetened
- 0.5 cup of raisins
- 0.5 cup of dried cranberries (can be replaced with sultanas to keep the cost down)
- The zest of half a lemon
- A little extra coconut for dusting on top the energy bars if you feel creative.
1. Pour the almonds and walnuts into food processor and grind into a rough powder.
2. Add all the other ingredients and process into a sticky dough like consistency.
3. Press the dough into a rectangular shallow baking dish and sprinkle the top any remaining coconut.
4. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before cutting into bars.
5. Wrap in grease proof paper, slip into your pocket and hit the road.
My version didn’t have the walnuts(forgot to buy them) and so it was especially sweet. I also added a little lemon juice to give the sweetness an edge. I had one in my pocket on my ride to work and had a nibble at around the 10 mile mark. I don’t know whether it was just that my legs were fresh after the weekend but I did notice that I could breeze up the hills without any trouble. I will be making some more in the future. A typical quality energy bar costs around £1. A batch of these will come in at around 50p each.