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Those wholefood peanut butter flapjacks are ace (Waitrose cereal bar aisle) or the Trek Peanut Power bars. Neither are particularly sweet, but they do the job.
Mini Soreen bars are the best value option out there.
Usually carry a gel or three but rarely use them, have found they were causing a bit of crash - since I stopped those and dropped drink powders to 'enough to mask the taste of the bottle' levels I've been much happier on long runs.
My go to for long rides are Snickers Bars. I've even done a few 24 hours on them.
But taking along a banana gives a bit of variety. Xmas cake is good too.
I've stopped taking Jelly Babies and the like because I'll scoff them anyway. 🙂
BTW if you're finding it hard to swallow the like of a Clif bar, maybe you haven't been drinking enough.
You don't need anything special at all to ride 100 miles on a bike. It's a few hours of relatively gentle exercise,
6 or 7 hours of gentle exercise or 5-6 of going pretty hard for me. Eat a few banna, couple of cereal bars or whatever and a good cafe stop! If doing a sportive I would eat energy bars and maybe the odd gel in the last 30 miles.
That's a lot of food some of you take, it must take an age to prepare.
Bowl of porridge for breakfast. Tea cake at the cafe and a Torq bar somewhere along the way is usually enough, carry a gel as an emergency get me home but rarely needed.
I like the idea of a Spanish omelette though...
Couple of slices of malt loaf, a banana and packet of jelly.
Quick report back. Brought a mixed pack. Not really one for energy bars but thought I'd give these a go. A bit different, like a sweet dense spiced cake, nice to nibble on during a long ride. Quite expensive though, and then the postage on top of that smarts. And I found the packaging fiddly to undo on the bike, surprising as it's meant to be riding food, I'm sure there's a knack to unwrapping it properly. Still, handy to have when there's no real food prepared. I'll probably get some more when I get through this batch.
I got some for Ride London and really liked them. I cut each bar into three and wrapped them in clingfilm, which made them more manageable on the bike. My favourite is, I think, the Classico one (the lighter coloured one that tastes a it like a light christmas pudding).
Tested out Tailwind drink powder yesterday on a 13.5 hr ride around the Cairngorms. It worked amazingly well, but failed in its claimed ability to replace everything, becoming your single fuel source, as I couldn't find a way of carrying enough.
Reserves came to the rescue in the form on a bacon sandwich (amazing), several coffees and a large packet of salted peanuts. Cake and a cheese scone may also have snuck in at some point. Can't be too sure.
pasta and chicken the night before. Then a cashew nut, sultana mix on the ride. Maybe one energy bar, and then one gel just in case.
banana and peanut butter wrap.
Team Sky rice cake
I will occasionally make some of these or similar. Problem is if you're not feeding a team of riders it's a fair bit of faff for something you can only store for a few days. Left overs are usually a better bet. And having a few bars like the veloforte ones in the cupboard for when you've nothing more natural made up is very handy.
Rice pudding watered down a bit and liquidized worked for me on last weeks 24 hr
make a batch, wrap individual portions in tin foil and then freeze them. Bloomin lovely.