Originally Posted by
Peterpan1
Main thing for me is access to food. If the area I am riding through has little towns with grocery stores periodically, I just walk through the isles and scoop up the stuff I need day by day. In that case I normally pick up cold foods like veg., fruit, tuna, yogurt. I think it pays to listen to your cravings to some extent. Your body will tell you what you need as you stress it in ways you might not normally.
The other extreme is to be going through areas without obvious food sources, and have to pack on the basis of weight, nutrition, ease of reconstituting, etc... In order to be able to carry the required amount of food.
I think some people have the idea that it's like hiking, you typically go weeks on end without seeing any kind of settlement. Realistically there are not that many areas in North America where if your riding 80km a day, you will go more then a couple of days on the road without coming across a city, town, village or hamlet of some kind. If your camping in campgrounds, many of them have some kind of store in or near the campground.
This gives you much more flexibility weight wise when it comes to selecting foods. Where a hiker wouldn't dream of carrying a can of soup, it's less of an issue for a cyclist.