Team Visma | Lease a Bike has published the full fuelling and recovery plan behind Wout van Aert's Paris-Roubaix victory on April 12, revealing a 120g hourly carbohydrate intake, cherry juice and post-race champagne.
The team's nutrition partner The Athlete's FoodCoach shared the breakdown on Instagram, covering every phase from race morning through to a team celebration with frites and champagne.
From race morning to chicken burger
Three to four hours before the start, the riders had breakfast built around carbohydrates to top up glycogen stores: rice porridge with a fruit salad and bread. The team stressed that timing mattered as much as what was on the plate.
During the race, Van Aert consumed gels, chew-bars and drinks from the Amacx Turbo line at regular intervals, aiming for approximately 120 grams of carbohydrates per hour. That target matches what Team Visma | Lease a Bike has described for its hardest Tour de France stages, where riders take in three items per hour, each delivering around 40 grams of carbohydrate. The system prioritises simplicity: in a race like Roubaix, where riders react constantly to crashes, sector positioning and pace changes, the fewer decisions required around food, the better.
Water and Amacx cherry juice were waiting at the finish line to rehydrate and begin replenishing glycogen stores immediately. Van Aert was still in race kit when staff handed him the drinks, along with a sports nutrition product containing Montmorency cherry concentrate with carbohydrates. The team has said it uses tart cherry juice because it can help reduce inflammation and support muscle repair after intense efforts.
Within 30 to 60 minutes of finishing, the post-race meals arrived. First was a banana crumble with quark, combining fast-acting carbohydrates with protein. Then came spinach pasta with chicken and mozzarella, a higher-volume plate to extend recovery. Both were freshly prepared by The Athlete's FoodCoach chefs as part of the pre-planned sequence.
One to two hours later, the food shifted from recovery to reward. Van Aert had an Italian chicken burger, followed by what the team called "the real Belgian celebration": frites, fried snacks and champagne with the whole squad.
"Because impressive achievements deserve to be celebrated," the Athlete's FoodCoach posted. "Balance is included in the plan."
The Roubaix plan was not a one-off display. Visma's published material on Tour de France nutrition and recovery describes the same system: water and cherry juice at the finish, recovery meals prepared by The Athlete's FoodCoach chefs, with carbohydrate and protein replenishment continuing for up to four hours.
Each race gets a specific plan for intake and fluid targets, with the team treating simplicity in execution as a core principle.
The full nutrition plan for a race execution across 258.3 kilometres of cobbles, wind and surges, should offer abundant inspiration for amateurs planning their own multi-hour challenges, and also how central nutrition has become to cycling's new age of record-beating performance.
Cover image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
