What should i eat/drink pre ride?

any recommendations for drink/food during the ride?

frequency of eating?

Pasta load for a couple of days before-breakfast lunch and dinner+water.
Ride food should be carbo rich-bars in various flavours ideal. Little and often on bike say small mouthful every 20mins washed down with water+something like Nuun to replace minerals.
A larger feed every 3hours would be advantageous-small ham/cheese roll.
BEWARE eating too much especially when off the bike. A satisfying full stomach feels like you've eaten 2 bricks when you set off again and will make you sluggish.

Carbs little and often.

One tic-tac if you 'ard !!

Half of one if your names Cancellara. 😉

What sort of ride – competitive or pootle ?

If your just having a 'day out' ride there's no real need for any 'special eating plan' just have a good meal the night before, and take a few snacks plus lunch.

You can ride all day on a few chocolate bars, some decent sarnies for lunch and couple of litres of water.

Carb loading, energy products, rehydration drinks all have their place in competitive riding but really need to have been tested as part of your training plan as what works for one person doesn't for the other.

as above – don't do anything you haven't tried before. Some energy products have unfortunate side effects.

I'd probably look at something like SIS/Torq in my drink plus fig rolls/malt loaf when I stopped.

Depends on intensity of the ride…..

Racing i use gels and bananas

Touring i stop at cafes for good food

Beer, cakes or big macs. Whichever or those is most available en-route.
Kebab if it's a night ride.

Normal diet with a bit of extra water and a good few extra calories.

I like a nice picnic when out for an all day ride. Or a pub lunch. Who cares if the chips slow you down 0.2 mph in the afternoon

As above. Stop half way round for cafe stop.

Bowl of museli about 2 hours before you go out.

1 powerade or Lucozade sport (or supermarket own brand equivalent) mixed into a 3 litre camelbak.
3 or 4 standard chewy flapjack type bars (tracker or similar) through the day
3 sandwiches on wholemeal bread. for lunch
Spare bottle of water in the car for when you get back
Then about 6 pints of beer while you're still in the zone..

sanwhiches and flapjack, fig rolls and nuts always do me reet.