See France on just 6,000 calories a day! Yes, and ride your bicycle over all sorts of terrain, in all sorts of weather, stressed by ever-present media, fans screaming into your ears, and extreme pressure to win the Tour de France. Such is the month of July for top competitive cyclists.

This year’s route has taken the riders through the Pyrennées and the Alps. On the penultimate day of the 21-stage, 3,500-kilometer Tour, the cyclists raced 167 kilometers, finishing with a 21.1-kilometer climb to the top of Mont Ventoux, the imposing Giant of Provence (the climb’s gradient averages 7.6 percent). These athletes begin the Tour with around 7 percent body fat and need to ingest prodigious amounts of food to offset their energy output, and they could experience loss of muscle mass and loss of bone density.

The typical Tour rider will have burned through more than 130,000 calories by the time he has pedaled himself clockwise around the nation. Though the racers are ranked according to overall time, you can be sure they are evenly matched in the eating contests that consume a racer's day.

A fan’s tour of France might include cassoulet, Gruyère cheese and foie gras, washed down with noble and formidable wines, but the Tour holds no dizzying gourmet heights for the cyclists. They eat with a purpose: to fully fuel their work and limit their bodies’ cannibalization of their muscles for energy. Carbohydrates and proteins are the stars of the menu, delivered in pasta, rice, eggs and bread. This is not pasta with a rich sauce, nor do the eggs swim in Hollandaise. The carbs come from nearly plain, workmanlike portions, perhaps with a bit of oil on the pasta or the eggs fluffed into an omelet.

On the road, racers carry and consume energy gels and bars, and about midway through each stage, they roll through the feed zone, where they grab a cloth bag swaddling small sandwiches, more energy products and perhaps small cans of soda that provide a sugary caloric punch.

This is true eating on the go, as the cyclists do not stop their bicycles to “top up the tank,” as television commentator and former Tour rider Paul Sherwen says.

The temperature during a day's stage can easily reach into the 80s, often higher. Imagine that the heat has stolen your appetite and you still need to stuff in more than 6,000 calories a day.

When they're not eating, they do what it takes to remain hydrated, and can go through more than 10 water bottles in a stage.

Some team members are designated as domestiques, the helpers. Among their chores: slip back to the team car, pick up a raft of full water bottles and ride even harder than normal, expending even more calories, to reach their team leaders and hand out the goodies. No wonder they need the calories.