Pro riders food requirements

The13thcog said:

Most short rides I will just get away with some Zeros in a bottle and a single oat-grain or small flapjack bar at the tea hut. But on longer rides I've tried to stick to the 40-60gms of carbs every hour, but thats where the confusion starts for me. Do you consume that on the hour, every hour? or 45 mins in to allow for digestion? Or is it better to drip feed small amounts every 10 minutes? Find longer rides a struggle trying to get this right. Like you, maybe I just haven't trained my gut enough for longer rides.

Well that's why gels have 20g carbs in them - normally they recommend one every 20 minutes.

Having a lot at once risks spikes etc, better to be little and often.

I’ll only carry things like gels / fig rolls / jelly babies as emergency / get me out of trouble contingencies. I’ve rarely actually needed them on the sorts of rides I do. Very rarely I’ve found a planned stop point closed, and I’ve been glad of them, and once or twice I’ve found a planned route closed and the diversion to have caused issues, and again been glad I’ve had them, but I don’t view them as a necessity.

Ncovidius said:

pblakeney said:

I recognised that top athletes performing at the top of their game demand unusual input for unusual output. I do however think that recreational cyclists overthink their needs. It is recreational. Stop and have a coffee break or lunch as required.

Quite right. If you’re competing for prizes / money / sponsorship, you’d need to think carefully about this sort of thing. If you’re doing recreational / sporty but not seriously sporty stuff, not so much so.

What if you just want to be able to ride to the best of your ability?

No point making it harder for yourself by abstaining from all food during the ride...

Dorset_Boy said:

bobmcstuff said:

Ncovidius said:

pblakeney said:

I recognised that top athletes performing at the top of their game demand unusual input for unusual output. I do however think that recreational cyclists overthink their needs. It is recreational. Stop and have a coffee break or lunch as required.

Quite right. If you’re competing for prizes / money / sponsorship, you’d need to think carefully about this sort of thing. If you’re doing recreational / sporty but not seriously sporty stuff, not so much so.

What if you just want to be able to ride to the best of your ability?

No point making it harder for yourself by abstaining from all food during the ride...

For a couple of (or three) hours you really shouldn't need to eat on the bike if you are eating properly the rest of the time.

Pretty sure I have said exactly that about 4 times in this thread.

Although - especially at the longer end, towards 3 hours - the evidence is very very clear that most riders will be able to ride better towards the end if they take on some carbs. That's different to "need" - I agree that most normal people will be physically able to ride for 3 hours without eating so long as they have eaten the rest of the time.