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Lucas Euser's Tour of California diary
As
he enters his third year of competition as a professional, 23-year-old Team
Slipstream Sports powered by Chipotle rider Lucas Euser will keep Cyclingnews
updated with his and the outfits progress each day at the Tour of California.
It's the youngster's second Tour of California, after he contested the Tour
last year where he finished 49th.
February 22, 2007
Nutty Nutella
The Tour of California has been an amazing race so far with great teams, great roads and, although I say it reluctantly due to tomorrow's forecast, great weather. You name it, the Tour of California has so much to offer.
With every great stage race, or bad stage race for that matter, there comes a time when a cyclist, believe it or not, has a hard time eating. It's usually due to fatigue and the body reacting in weird ways to the stresses of a stage race, but for some reason you just don't get hungry.
This has happened to me plenty of times, but for some reason it came a lot quicker for this race, I just had a hard time eating today. Don't get me wrong, I choked down breakfast and was smart about eating my Clif products on the road, but after the race I just wasn't feeling it.
So, you are asking yourself, then what does he do? Does he not eat, does he just complain like a high school cheerleader on the South Beach Diet or does he suck it up and throw some grub down his throat? The answer my friends is we get creative, almost too creative.
A trend I have noticed over my short stint as a professional cyclist is this creativity almost always comes in the form of…Nutella.
Many of you are familiar with the ever so delectable chocolate and hazelnut delicacy known as Nutella. For those of you who aren't, I highly suggest introducing yourself to this tasty treat - it is a staple in every cyclists diet. Somehow any bad day can be made better with a jar or two of Nutella. Mmmmm, I almost want to go back and get some right now…
After countless numbers of random edible objects I've seen smothered in Nutella, today was the pinnacle of them all. While laying on the massage table getting man-handled by a very large guy named Johnny, Jason Donald and myself decided it would be a good idea to raid the food box. Can you guess what the first thing out was? Yeah, you got it.
As Jason was spreading Nutella on some delicious looking cake thing I was working my way through a piece of beef jerky, as the thought of eating more pasta later that night wasn't appealing. My theory was eat now, so I can avoid pasta later (I'll give you a hint: bad idea, it never works. You always land up eating the pasta whether you like it or not).
As Jason is mowin' the Nutella down and I'm digging into the jerky a thought comes through my head. Nutella, jerky, I wonder if… yes, I'm gonna say it, I wonder what it would taste like if you put the two together.
Well folks as I have a rule in which I'll do just about anything when I'm laying naked on a massage table, I went for it. And yes friends, family, and foe, I think it was the most delicious thing I have had all week.
There was something about the sweet and creamy combination with the salty and savory that just made my taste buds sparkle with delight. As I lay here pondering new ways of utilising Nutella, I came to the conclusion that when I feel like I can't eat any more pasta I have to plug my taste buds into the Nutella and jerky charger to let them revitalize themselves. Now I can't stop eating, it's great, or is it?
Lucas Euser
Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle
PS: A little hint if you can get your hands on some, Euro Nutella has no trans fat, US Nutella does, go figure.
