Cyclists attitude towards food varies all over the map, from the "my body is a temple" group who are very careful about what they eat, to the "my body is a toxic waste dump" crew that will eat just about anything (I confess I probably fall into the latter category). But while cyclists vary to all extremes in terms of what they'll eat, they all seem to agree on quantity. That is, more's better. My general rule of thumb when providing food for a group of cyclists is that it doesn't matter how much food you put out, they will eat it all. So I aim at providing enough food so that they won't start gnawing on my leg, but don't attempt to fill them up, which is an impossible dream.
The closest I ever came to a lynching was one of the early Velo Vermonts. The inn had new owners. Huguette was of French extraction, and provided a very nice haute cuisine meal. The only problem was that there wasn't very much of it. There was a finely cooked piece of steak, a variety of vegetables in the garnish category, and a lot of space on the plate. We had failed to prime them with the key info on feeding a bike group, that it really doesn't matter so much what it is as long as there is a lot of it. This was before they started serving the happy hour hors d'oeuvres, so this was it for food. Fortunately for us, Susan had the presence of mind to buy a bunch of cheese and crackers to supplement, so we managed to survive the weekend without injury, but we learned that when you feed cyclists, you take the normal portions and multiply by two, as a starting point. Pasta is your friend, you can always fill in the gaps with massive quantities of pasta. Huguette thought she was being nice to us by providing a nice steak entree, but even the carnivores in the group are more than happy with chicken as long as there's plenty of it, and there are a lot of vegetarians, but everyone eats pasta.
So, if you're thinking of leading a weekend trip, rides are important, but above all, make sure there's plenty of food or it could get ugly.
Please send corrections, additions, comments and praise to