6 foods and drinks that Tour de France chefs refuse to serve their riders

Daniel McMahon/Business Insider

Sean Fowler and Olga Belenka cook for the US-registered Cannondale-Drapac team at the Tour de France.

The 198 riders who start each Tour de France are some of the fittest athletes on the planet, and they have to consume an impressive number of calories each day to fuel their bodies in the three-week race.

They have to chow so much that eating actually becomes work, and by the third week chefs have to get creative when preparing healthy but delicious meals.

Still, there are just some foods and drinks that Tour chefs will almost never serve riders.

Given modern cycling's obsession with sports science and nutrition and marginal gains, many cyclists won't see certain items at the team's breakfast or dinner table.

Olga Belenka and Sean Fowler, chefs for the American Cannondale-Drapac team, shared with Business Insider the foods and drinks they avoid serving their riders. The cyclists may consume some of these items on their own, but never at Belenka and Fowler's table, where the athletes eat all their meals. Like all chefs, they have strong opinions!

"Since the beginning, we've been gluten-free, lactose-free, and white-sugar-free," Fowler says. "I continue that diet, but the riders do still sometimes have that - just not from me."

Here are the six things Cannondale-Drapac riders are almost never served during the Tour.