When should you start eating during a ride? What should you eat? Is sports drink better than gels, or vice versa? How many calories do you need per hour? We recently realized that while we have an entire book devoted to cycling nutrition, we haven’t covered the basics of how to eat on the bike here on this site, though it’s something we talk about ad nauseam. So, we wanted to bring you a few of our rules of thumb for cycling nutrition.
Remember, though, especially for busy athletes who also have regular jobs (AKA you’re not a professional racer), your off bike nutrition is just as important, possibly more important, than how you eat on the bike. For most adult athletes, in-ride nutrition is a small—albeit still important!—part of the day. Having great fueling habits off the bike will make sure your energy and body composition line up with your goals.
But, when it does come to on the bike nutrition, here are the basics:
Riding over 60 min? Fuel.
Endurance rides under 60min can be done on water/electrolytes if eating a meal prior to and after. Rides shorter than 60 minutes–unless they’re super hard—can be done with just a few sips of water on hand (more water and electrolytes if it is hot out!). If you haven’t eaten in a few hours prior to your ride, you may want to take a couple bites of a bar or sandwich as you head out. Eating should almost always be done 2-4 hrs before, but a quick snack or gel 5-10 min before is fine if you’re hungry or it’s part of your routine.
For rides over 60 minutes, it’s time to start practicing good fueling habits. Do not make the mistake of not eating on long workouts to try and lose weight. This makes for poor workouts, added stress to your body, and over-consumption later in the day.
Goals for calories + water on the bike
Use real food when possible
Good for your psyche, your stomach and your wallet. ‘Real Foods’ can be used in many cases. Cookies, Sandwiches, Bars, whatever works for you. This might mean homemade rice cakes, it might mean pastries. Maple syrup in a gel flask with a pinch of salt is great if you’re someone who struggles to pedal and chew at the same time! We tend to save sports nutrition products for extreme workouts/races, both from a cost and fun fueling perspective.
(That said, if you’re someone who struggles to eat on the bike, whether from stomach grumpiness or just a skill-based issue, a sports drink or gel might be appropriate if it’s that or you don’t eat at all.)
Generally, as the intensity drops more solid food can be digested. So 12-hour race can have more solids, especially early in the race but be wary of dehydration setting in later in the day.
Carry backup food on rides as you do with tools
Enough said. Always have a spare gel or bar tucked away. (You may also save a friend from bonking!)
Practice race fueling in your interval / harder workouts
These workouts aren’t just to get your muscles ready for race day, hard workouts are a great time to train your gut so that when you do get to the start line, you know what you have in your pockets/bottles/bento box will feel good in your stomach.
It also takes skill to eat/drink on the bike, so this is something you should practice often. If you’re new to it, add in hydration on every ride, just to increase your reps of grabbing your bottle and drinking. It’s one thing to occasionally stop to drink/snack, but if you limit yourself to only fueling when you have a foot down, you’re going to struggle on race day and during any group rides.
Practical Race Day Food + Drink Prep for Short/Hard Races
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It is often helpful to separate fueling from hydration, even partially (ie. gels or bars + water w. salt) so you can adjust hydration to heat. But if you struggle to eat enough in solid foods or gels, a drink mix like Tailwind that’s calorically dense might be a good call.
- In MTB racing, take a bottle a lap if you have someone feeding you. They are standing there waiting for you. If you don’t need a feed, let your feeder leave the feed zone! Using partial bottles can reduce weight as well.
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Plan hydration/Nutrition to Time: Adjust/estimate water for the day’s conditions (ie. 90min means ~20-30 oz of water. Divided by 4 laps is a generous 6 ounces of water/lap. Split 300kcals (3 scoops, 3 gels, etc) between the 4 bottles and drink them! The same system of calculation works for endurance or road races (5 hours x 2-300kcal and 16oz/hr).
- Consider NOT using the last 15 minutes of your race to fuel, if you’re in a race that has a hard finish (MTB race, crit, etc.). That should be a very focused, maximal focus, maximal effort part of the race, and fueling is largely done. Taking the bottle and dousing yourself and getting the last sip at feed zone then dropping the bottle is a good tactic. (Note: this only works well if you’ve fueled appropriately the entire race, so you’re not bonking as you get closer to the finish line.)
Have more fueling questions? Drop them in the comments below!
