Great podcast. Always enjoy race recaps, lessons learned, etc.
I thought the neutral aid station discussion was interesting, but it’s easy to forget that many of the cyclists attending these events are there for a fun day riding with others and may be very casual cyclists. I think Jon’s perspective is a bit skewed by his focus on the pointier end of the races and also by doing a lot of USAC sanctioned events where there is less of the “party at the back” dynamic. They do want their chips, M$M’s, and orange slices (plus beer, bacon, whisky, etc.) at the aid stations and aren’t too interested in learning about how to fuel for optimal performance. It’s really the beauty of these non-sanctioned events bringing such diverse people together all riding for difference reasons and goals.
I’m all for educating folks on how to improve fueling for performance when that’s something they want, but I’m not for forcing “best practice” for training/nutrition/etc. on folks that aren’t looking for that. Speaking to Lifetime events in particular, they have all the “serious fuel” with gels, bars, chews, hydration mix etc., but most events also have some “normal” food for folks who want that.