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 wanted to bring you a few of our rules of thumb for cycling nutrition.
Molly has 2 entire books — Fuel Your Ride and Power Up! devoted to cycling nutrition,
Remember that 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.
Riding Under 60 min?
Easier 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 water.
It is okay to eat on shorter or easier rides if you are hungry or 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. For people doing double days, especially while also working and balancing family these chances to eat might be wise to take advantage of.
Riding over 60 min? Fuel.
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.
We start with the goal of ‘eat something every hour’ and that works pretty well for most people.
Goals for Fueling Longer Bike Rides
As athletes get more serious about training they can aim for at least 30-60g / hour of carbohydrate for rides under 3 hours.
As rides get longer, harder or more frequent many people will benefit from pushing towards 75 grams per hour on their key sessions in the week.
A lot of pros are talking 90-120+ grams per hour and that may be relevant for those pushing their limits at long and grueling events like the Leadville 100, this will take concerted effort and some time to build up to.
For hydration, aim for 16-20oz water per hour (extreme weather will push it higher). We like to add sea salt or electrolyte to most bottles, especially when it’s hot and you’re drinking a lot. A squeze of Lemon or Lime with some salt added to your water is a natural solution.
It Is Great to 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.
We love Allen Lim’s Feed Zone Cookbooks for home-made DIY recipes for meals and ride food.
(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 Fueling in Your Hard 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
- 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.
- Math out your hydration/Nutrition for workouts and races: Adjust/estimate water for the day’s conditions (ie. 4 hour race means 70-80 oz of water and ~75 grams x 4 hours = 300 grams of carbohydrate (6 x 50 gram gels or 12 x 25 gram scoops of carb powder)
