As an endurance sport, cycling reaches deep into your reserves. As a consequence, fuelling on the bike is critical to maintaining your performance over the course of a long ride. While you can always grab something quick – it’s important to remember that nutrition is about nourishment, and making sure your body has the nutrients you require to perform. In this feature, Team EF Coaching’s nutritionist Spencer Miller gives us his favorite seasonal recipe for on-bike snacks.
When you’re out on the bike, staying well-fueled requires you to satisfy certain criteria. Primarily, whatever you’re eating needs to be practical. That’s why bars are so popular - they’re easy to pull out of a pocket at a moment’s notice and make minimal mess.
The next most important thing is of course the nutritional content. For a seasonal flavor, you can’t go wrong with pumpkin - so this recipe combines it with the superfood that is oats for slow release energy as well as some sugar for quick replenishment of glycogens.
Preheat the oven to 350F
In a large bowl, add all of the ingredients except for chocolate chips
Gently stir together until combined
Add chocolate chips and fold together to incorporate
Spray a 9 x 9 inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Line with parchment paper
Spread granola bar mixture into the pan evenly
Bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until golden brown
Once baked, let completely cool and then cut into bars
Nutrition information is for 8 granola bars
Yield: 8 granola bars
Nutrition (per bar): 425 calories, 11 grams protein, 60 grams of carbohydrate, 17 grams of fat