Over the last year, I have had the pleasure of working with John towards his ultimate goal of riding the Tour de France 2026 edition. John is an amateur cyclist with a full time job, a big heart, and a love for cycling. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to support him through his training, prep, planning, and execution of this magnificent feat. Most people (I’d say 99.9%) will not be able to comprehend exactly how difficult of a task this is. John rode the whole course with grit, class, and lots and lots of pastries. This year’s edition was roughly 2071miles, 178,641 ft elevation gain, over 23 days.
Leading up to the tour, our focus was on maintaining training quality while pushing big miles/hours. We used curated meal plans, sweat testing, health metrics tracking, bloodwork, had a close eye on his energy and macros, and overall filled his system with a robust diet of nutrient dense foods while eating up to 6000+kcals per day.
We even developed a ‘Tour de France simulation’ where he rode a 30 hour week and he fueled with the sports food he planned to use during the tour as well as french-style meals throughout the week at home in Utah.
During the tour, John didn’t just want to finish, he wanted to perform. He wanted to be able to push threshold up climbs, crest over the top of the climbs with panash and really feel the course as an athlete. This was not just getting the miles in, it was setting his system up to maximize his energy stores so he could push day after day.
To top it off, I had a lovely brunch with him and his wife, Dina, in Paris at the end of the tour. Our first time meeting in person!
Thoughts from John:
“I had a big dream to ride every kilometer of the 2026 Tour de France, and with Kristen’s expertise and guidance, I was able to outperform all my expectations. For about a year now, Kristen has helped me build a foundational nutrition plan that allows me to train hard and recover well. I didn’t miss a single training session due to poor nutrition, which really helped me to compound good training on good training all the way up to the Tour.
For the Tour, we left no variable unconsidered. We tested gels, bars, and drink mix on training rides to make sure my gut would handle them well, but it went far beyond X grams/hour on the bike. Kristen helped me prepare backup strategies for when things didn’t go according to plan. Like taking bread from dinner if breakfast the next morning is an unknown, using visual cues to estimate macro content of a piece of meat or a loaf of bread, packing a load of balanced energy bars to ensure I never went to bed hungry. All things that empowered me to make good decisions and feel confident that I was prepared for the next day’s big ride. Even though I was well-prepared, there was still a moment when I was riding day after day in ridiculous heat and consuming electrolyte tabs at an alarming rate where I reached out to Kristen via email for a, “Hey, is this OK?” And she quickly replied with an answer that vanquished my concern and allowed me to keep pushing good performance on the bike.
As other riders that I met faded late in the rides or faced gut issues due to being unfamiliar with on-the-bike fueling, I was able to hit PR numbers in week three of the Tour and roll into Paris feeling deeply satisfied with how my legs showed up day after day for all 21 stages. My biggest thanks to Kristen for teaching me to fuel the work, recover well, and enjoy the journey.”
-John McAndrew
Thank YOU, John, for trusting me to be a part of this fun project.
