Le Tour de France

2. Le Tour de France Running from Saturday 4 July to Sunday 26 July 2009, the 96th Tour de France is made up of 21 stages and covers a total distance of 3 500 kilometres. These 21 stages have the following profiles: • 10 flat stages • 7 mountain stages • 1 medium mountain stage • 2 individual time-trial stages • 1 team time-trial stage. 21 stages over 23 days. Wow, not much time for a rest! So how many km is that on average per ride? What’s that in miles?

3. Calorific intake A typical active adult burns between 2 000 and 2 500 calories a day. For a Tour de France rider, it’s more like 7 000 to 7 500 calories during a flat stage and up to 9 000 calories for a mountain stage. I love eating. That sounds like fun! But what’s the best thing to eat? And when?

4. Breakfast Brown or white rice Olive oil Eggs Oatmeal Muesli Yogurt Fruit Orange juice Coffee/tea During the race Energy bars Between 10 and 20 bottles of fluid (¾ of which is a sports drink – the rest water) Small can of Coke Energy bar x 2 Energy gel x 2 Jam, cheese & ham sandwich Rice cakes (made from rice, olive oil and eggs) x 2 A typical day’s riding

5. Straight after the race Rice Eggs Olive oil Salad Protein and carbohydrate shake 1.5 litres of water At night Recovery drink A typical day’s riding That is a lot of food and drink. They must be super-human to burn so much energy.

6. Chef Willy Balmat prepares the food for Team Garmin-Chipotle. Put yourself in Willy’s shoes. Research the calorific value of individual foods and create a day’s menu for an elite Tour de France rider.

7. Up2d8 mathsTour de France Teacher Notes

8. Tour de France Introduction: Many sports require high levels of fitness, stamina and determination. However, some might argue that the cyclists participating in the Tour de France leave others looking like mere mortals. The calorific intake over the gruelling three-week ride is testimony to the energy and power required to complete the course. This Up2d8 asks students to consider their own daily diet in comparison to that of a top cyclist. What are the best foods to consume? When is it best to consume them? Will they provide the riders with the calories required? Content objectives: • apply understanding of the relationship between ratio and proportion • check results by considering whether they are of the right order of magnitude • choose and use units of measurement to measure, estimate, calculate and solve problems in everyday contexts Process objectives: These will depend on the amount of freedom you allow your class with the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver the activity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below:

9. Activity:The task is centred on the Tour de France cycle race. Students are asked to analyse the calorific intake from particular foods consumed by an elite cyclist and to create a diet sheet of their own. Differentiation:You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. To make the task easier you could consider: • providing students with a list of possible foods and their calorific values • calculating the calorific value of the day’s food intake described within the presentation To make the task more complex, you could consider: • researching the types of energy supplied from the various food types and the most appropriate for athletes • investigating the possible benefits of sports drinks and other sports products • investigating possible misconceptions relating to types of food – eg, is chocolate always bad for you? This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements. Outcomes:You may want to consider what the outcome of the task will be and share this with students according to their ability. This could be: • producing a day’s menu for an elite cyclist • calculating an average day’s calorific intake for yourself • investigating the energy burnt per mile and how much this equates to food • costing the menu, ie how much would it cost to cycle around France? Working in groups: This activity lends itself to paired or small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely that you will allow them access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually. You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used to working in groups in mathematics, you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness and engagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Guidance for Groupwork). You may wish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to specific group members. Assessment:You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing the assessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide that this activity lends itself to comment only marking or to student self-assessment. Probing questions: Initially students could brainstorm issues to consider. You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion that might include: • What is the longest distance you have ever cycled? • How far would you expect to cycle in one day; in one week; in three weeks? • Do you know how many calories are in a bar of chocolate? An energy drink? A sandwich? • Is fatty food a good source of energy in preparation for a day’s cycling? • Would sports drinks alone be enough to keep you going?

10. Title slide You will need: The PowerPoint display which you might read through with your class to set the scene at the beginning of the activity. There are six slides: Tour de France statistics Calorific intake per rider per day A typical day’s menu The task You may wish to research calorific content using http://www.weightlossforall.com/calorie-content-of-foods.htm