Can Conor Dunne manage to consume the world’s largest breakfast in a single bike ride?
How do you like to have your breakfast the morning of a big trip? Something light and nutritious to give you a morning boost that you can sensibly fuel up with later in the day?
Or do you prefer a hearty breakfast, wanting to eat enough to adequately prepare for the next day? If your preference is for the latter, how far are you willing to go?
Imagine for a moment that you’ve been invited to eat not just the monster of all breakfasts, but instead, brave the apocalyptically named ‘Terminator Armageddon’ breakfast before climbing into the saddle.
This amazing breakfast actually exists. It’s legendary in the heart of Doncaster in the north of England and is considered the greatest breakfast in the world. Let’s serve it to Conor to see if he can burn off the impressive 17,000 calories it contains on the trip back to GCN base camp in Bath.
The question is: will he eat it all and be able to get on his bike after he’s done? Let’s find out.
See more information: How many calories do you burn when cycling?
This is a monstrous challenge, even for GCNbut if any of our presenters can do it, then Conor is the guy. He’s been in some of the toughest three-week races on the pro calendar, so he knows a thing or two about fueling. Or at least he should. Plus, well, he’s a big guy. By far the tallest of the team, so there should be enough space to comfortably accommodate all that breakfast.
What exactly is in the world’s biggest breakfast?
As a guide, most traditional UK fried breakfasts are made up of 6 to 8 items. Maybe 10 if you’re really hungry and willing to spend a little more money. This is made up of 150 items and consists of:
- 15 sausages
- 15 slices of bacon
- 15 fried eggs
- 15 slices of black pudding (a traditional sausage eaten for breakfast in the UK. Yummy!)
- 15 slices of fried bread
- 15 slices of buttered toast
- 15 French fries
- 15 servings of fried mushrooms
- 15 servings of tomatoes
- 15 servings of cooked beans
That’s a lot of food for one man, albeit a very tall one. Packed with 17,000 calories, this breakfast would normally cost £32. However, if Conor can eat it all in under an hour, he gets it for free! So we’re all rooting for him.
Once you’ve finished breakfast, you’ll depart Shepherd’s Place Farm in Doncaster, which serves this incredible feast, to your location. GCN office in Bath, around 210 miles away. Will he do it? Will he be able to get on the bike? How long will it take for the ‘meat sweat’ to take effect and will all that food actually stay in your stomach?
What he needs is some encouragement and who better than our own Ollie Bridgewood, who is there to offer some important advice and words of wisdom, especially around strategic bathroom breaks that will allow Conor to have more coffee in the morning? morning.
As he watches with delight Conor eating the food, Ollie surmises that burning that amount of food won’t be an easy task. The average person burns 300 calories per hour while cycling, which means it would take approximately 56 hours.
However, Conor is no ordinary cyclist. He is a former professional cyclist and can burn around 1,500 calories per hour. Which means he would only need about 11.3 hours to do it.
As part of the challenge, any additional fuel Conor may consume when he’s on the bike will be added to his calorie count, so he’ll need to burn those too.
So these you have the basic facts. All that’s left is to see how Conor fares against Terminator Armageddon! Watch the video to find out.
For more GCN challenges, check out our dedicated section on the GCN website.
