Pasta is a source of carbohydrates for everyone
, professional athlete or not. Your body needs a daily dose of energy, which it gains from carbohydrates (amongst other nutrition). The reason that pasta is linked to an athletic lifestyle, and cycling in particular, has to do with the fact that it was commonly believed that eating more pasta was better in the early years of cycling. Before and after a ride, entire plates of pasta were consumed. The well-known pasta party’s! However, eating too much of the same is never a good idea. The main goal of pasta is to provide a high dose of carbohydrates, which your body can save in its muscles as energy (by transforming carbohydrates into glycogen). The better trained, the better your body can save glycogen. Rice, potatoes, couscous, spelt and oatmeal provide the same effect, so enough options to vary out there.
When we serve pasta to our riders, we
pay attention to three important things:
the preparation method, the recipe and the timing. To bring a pasta to a nice flavor, we often use a (homemade) sauce or some oil. Ready-made sauces contain ingredients your body doesn’t necessarily need. Therefore, we often work with homemade sauces. Homemade can be easy and quick, so no excuses on that regard!