For over a century, cyclists have known that stacking meals with carbohydrates is a requirement for riding fast [1, 2].
While lower cycling intensities draw on fat as an energy source, the harder you ride, the more your body taps into onboard carbohydrates (glycogen) to fuel your fastest efforts [1].
Said another way, if you intend to ride your best at or above a Tempo intensity, eating adequate carbohydrates is a nutrition absolute.
Understanding the role that carbohydrate plays in peak cycling performance and executing a carb-fueling strategy should be one of the highest training priorities for every competitive cyclist.
Graphic adapted from Brooks, 1997 [3].
To that end, I’ve assembled this guide to describe the three stages of carbohydrate fueling: before, during, and after an event or training session [1].
We’ll begin this guide by looking at stage one in the fueling process, or the period of time in the hours and minutes before your event.
Head to page two for a closer look at fueling before, or skip to fueling during or after.
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Stage One: Fueling Before
Since we’ve long known that muscle rich in glycogen (carbohydrate) generally produces improved performance [2], the next step was understanding the most effective way to maximize glycogen levels in the muscle and liver.
This research led to the discovery of “supercompensation”; the body’s ability to rebound from low levels of glycogen, by later driving higher levels of glycogen storage in muscle [4].
What came of this research was carb-loading protocols, as seen below.
In short, early carb-loading (as seen on the left of the image) began with exhaustive exercise, followed by a few days of a low-carb diet, then finished up with a high-carb diet in the days leading up to a competition.
While these strategies boosted glycogen storage, they also came with downsides like GI problems, lethargy, and poor recovery [1].
*image from Jeukendrup, A.E. and M. Gleeson, Sport nutrition. 2019.
More moderate carb loading (as seen on the right of the image above) generates a similar boost in muscle glycogen without many drawbacks of the first yo-yo approaches [5, 6].
Moderation is achieved by incrementally reducing training volume while increasing carb intake in the days leading up to a competition.
While carb-loading may be an effective method to boost glycogen storage, is it the best way to fuel before your event?
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No Carb Loading
I don’t think so, here’s why.
For most cyclists, carb-loading condenses the skill of smart fueling in the months and weeks of training leading up to an event into a one-week window. That ends up being a bad trade.
In other words, carb-loading can boost your glycogen stores, but I think most cyclists will find more significant gains in performance by taking a broader look at their fueling strategy.
The simplest way for cyclists to top off their glycogen stores while maximizing their training potential is to follow a high-carbohydrate availability approach to fueling [7].
The core strategy of high carbohydrate availability is to match your carbohydrate intake to the specific demands of your training.
In other words, make sure you’re consuming enough carbs to optimally fuel your training based on the intensity and duration of your efforts.
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Weeks And Days Before
The high carbohydrate availability approach is best utilized by following recommendations proportioned to your body mass, then scaled to the intensity and duration of your training.
Carbohydrate suggestions are listed in grams per kilogram of body mass per day (g/kg/d).
Low
Low-intensity training under an hour: 3-5 g/kg/d
Moderate
Moderate intensity training around an hour: 5-7 g/kg/d
Moderate to high
Moderate to high-intensity training between 1 and 3 hours: 6-10 g/kg/d
Moderate to high and long
Moderate to high-intensity training over 4 hours: 8-12 g/kg/d
Once you’ve locked up your high-carb availability approach, the next step is to bring greater focus to fueling in the hours before your event.
Hours Before
Since most cycling events begin in the morning, a primary obstacle to overcome is upon waking, your liver has been depleted of glycogen due to an overnight fast [1].
Eating around 140-330g of carbohydrates 3-5 hours before your event will top off muscle and liver glycogen, giving you the best shot at peak performance in your event [8].
Starting your day with a high-carbohydrate breakfast also has important implications for fueling higher-intensity training later in the day [10].
Minutes Before
As you inch closer to the start time of your event, eating carbs won’t contribute to increased muscle glycogen levels. Still, it will affect liver glycogen and improve the delivery of carbohydrates to the muscle during exercise [1].
For this reason, it makes sense to experiment with topping off your carbohydrate stores in the hour before the whistle goes off [9]. One option is to consume around 40g of carbs 60m before your start time, in addition to a gel in the five to ten minutes before your race start.
Like all other fueling strategies, start with the best scientific guidelines and experiment to find the best approach for you.
As we shift our attention to fueling during an event, it can be helpful to begin narrowing our focus to the specific demands of our training session or event.
In a practical sense, the longer and harder a ride is, the more crucial it becomes to increase your hourly intake of carbohydrates while on the bike [1].
Ride Basic: A Minimalist Guide to Maximize Your Cycling
Whether you’re a beginner eager to complete your first fondo, or a seasoned pro aiming to refresh the foundational principles of long-term cycling success, this time-efficient guide offers invaluable insights into why and how you can Ride Basic.
Stage Two: Fueling During
As mentioned earlier, carbohydrate intake during exercise should scale to the intensity and duration of your ride.
Here’s what a scaled approach to carbohydrate intake looks like, stretched over a timeline of possible ride durations [1].
Estimates listed are for hourly carb intakes beginning at your ride.
Example: If your ride is three hours, shoot for about 75 g/hr of carbs in the first, second, and third hours of your ride.
Knowing you need to eat more carbs on the bike is one thing; getting it done consistently is another.
We’re going to outline four training skills to help you nail the basics of fueling every time you clip in.
1. Density
Understanding carbohydrate density is key for choosing the best ride food.
2. Preference
Experiment with a variety of options to find the most palatable combinations.
3. Access
Develop a plan for how and when you’ll access food in your pockets.
4. Gut
Eating a lot on the bike takes practice. Make a plan to train your gut
1: Carbohydrate Density
I’ve seen cyclists frequently confuse the calories contained in food with the overall quantity of carbohydrates. Remember, when it comes to smarter fueling on the bike, our focus is on the number of carbs, not total calories.
For shorter rides, bungling your carb intake usually isn’t a problem, but as rides get longer and harder, you’ll have to pay closer attention to nutrition labels to ensure your total carb intake is enough to support your cycling.
For these reasons, I’ve found it helpful to evaluate the carbohydrate density of your favorite ride foods. Doing this will give you a better idea of which foods are most appropriate for your longest and hardest days and which foods you can get away with for shorter or less intense days in the saddle.
Denser is often better
When we divide the carbohydrate content by the serving or package size, we can get a quick glimpse at which foods might be most appropriate for our hardest and longest rides.
You can see in this example that the energy chews offer a significantly higher density of carbs (at the expense of perhaps palatability).
2: Preference
Carbs in your pocket won’t do you any good if you can’t stand to eat them.
Most cyclists find that carb-dense ride foods like chews and gels get less appetizing the longer a ride goes on.
For this reason, it’s crucial to experiment with different food and drink mix combinations to see what your best options may be for hitting the general carb target of your ride.
Here are a few carb numbers for a few typical foods.
| One Package | Carb Content |
|---|---|
| Clif Chews | 40g |
| Stinger Waffle | 21g |
| Clif Bar | 40g |
| Clif Gel | 25g |
| Skratch drink mix | 21g |
Once we’ve pulled out the carb content of our favorite ride food, we can assemble combinations to meet our carb targets.
| Food Combinations Per Hour | ≈ Ride Duration | ≈ Carb Intake Target |
|---|---|---|
| Water | <30m | None needed |
| Sips of Skratch | 30-75m | Small amounts |
| 1 Stinger waffle, 1 gel | 2hrs | ≈ 30g/hr |
| Bottle of Skratch, 1 gel, a few chews | 2-3hrs | ≈ 60g/hr |
| Bottle of Skratch, 1 gel, 1 Clif bar | >2 1/2hrs | up to 90g/hr |
Your best bet is to choose food that is the most appetizing, even if it ends up being lower in carbs. If you need to stop mid-ride to enjoy a delicious candy bar at a gas station, go for it. Another alternative is to make your ride food at home.
The take-home message is the more appetizing you find your ride food, the more likely you are to enjoy the process of training. Save the high-octane stuff like gels, chews, and bars for the most intense riding.
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3: Access
If your only option is to carry food on your back (like in most races or other competitive events), make a plan for how you’ll access your food frequently throughout your ride.
Since your general aim should be to distribute calories as evenly as possible over each hour of your ride, make an effort to map out where and what food you plan to eat over your route.
Bumpy section of road? Plan to load up with extra carbs in advance. An all-out climbing section in the last 1/3rd of a race? Ensure you take into account the areas of the course where you can most easily access your pockets well in advance of the most intense racing.
Fueling Plan
Think through your event profile and come up with a rough sketch of how you plan to hit the hourly carb target by drinking and eating systematically from the start of your event.
If you factor in drinking one bottle of mix an hour (25g), where else can you most easily eat to hit the hourly target?
4: Gut
Learning the carbohydrate density of foods, dialing in your favorite carb combinations, and mapping out a plan for how to access food in your pockets takes practice.
It goes without saying that if you’re wanting to fuel better on your rides, the skills mentioned above have to be baked into your training. In addition, improving your ability to digest and absorb higher quantities of carbohydrate while riding is trainable [11].
In a practical sense, if you find it uncomfortable to eat 40g of carbs per hour, you’ll need to progressively challenge your gut with higher carb intakes in the same way you would progressively increase the intensity of a set of threshold workouts.
Here’s how that progressive approach to gut training might look in practice:
Identify
Record your current hourly carb intake for a baseline of where you’re at
Target
Target rides in your training to focus specifically on higher rates of fueling
Challenge
Progressively push your carb intake over weeks and months to eventually meet recommendations
We introduced the necessity of carbohydrates for cyclists, and strategies for fueling before, and during your rides.
In our final stage, we’ll cover the period of time after you cross the finish line or push the save button on your cycling computer.
Ride Basic: A Minimalist Guide to Maximize Your Cycling
Whether you’re a beginner eager to complete your first fondo, or a seasoned pro aiming to refresh the foundational principles of long-term cycling success, this time-efficient guide offers invaluable insights into why and how you can Ride Basic.
Stage Three: Fueling After
When it comes to fueling after a ride, our primary objective is to restore muscle and liver glycogen by consuming carbohydrates.
This process of turning fuel into glycogen is called “glycogen synthesis” [1].
Whatever stage of fueling you’re in, the type of carbohydrate you consume can impact the rate of glycogen synthesis; this brings us to a few terms that factor into “best practice” guidelines for after-ride fueling [1]. First up is the glycemic index or “GI”.
Glycemic Index (GI)
A food’s “GI” is defined by the amount it increases blood glucose and insulin after consumption. In general terms, the higher the GI, the more rapidly a carbohydrate is available as fuel to the body.
If you’re aiming to refuel as quickly as possible, choosing moderate to high glycemic index foods are your best option [12].
Glycemic Load (GL)
A food’s “GL” combines the glycemic index with the quantity of carbohydrate in a serving. In a practical sense, this means foods that are denser with carbohydrate carry a higher GL, while some foods that have a high GI but are less dense with carbs (like a watermelon), will have a lower GL.
To get a clearer picture of the approximate GI and GL of common foods, check out the chart below. GL is noted on the right of GI in parentheses.
| High | Moderate | Low |
|---|---|---|
| Pancakes: 102/(23) | Bagel: 69/(24) | Potato Chips: 54/(11) |
| Baked Potato: 86/(26) | Doughnut: 67/(17) | Banana: 52/(12) |
| Cornflakes: 81/(21) | Coke: 63/(16) | Orange Juice: 50/(13) |
| Rice: 72/(30) | Power Bar: 56/(24) | Spaghetti: 49/(24) |
| Watermelon: 72/(4) | Snickers: 55/(19) | Tomato or Broccoli: 15/(1) |
With some basic info about glycogen synthesis and the glycemic index, let’s transition to specific guidelines for fueling after your ride.
If your ride isn’t until the next day
If your next training session is around 24hr later, there’s no need to get stressed about immediately eating carbs after your ride.
If you stick to daily high carbohydrate availability guidelines, feel free to enjoy a more natural pace of refueling. Rest assured, your muscles and liver with be full of glycogen come your next ride [12].
If your ride is in the next eight hours
When the time between rides is less than 8 hours, the timing and effort of your refueling demand greater attention.
Your focus now shifts from eating a general high carbohydrate availability diet to maximizing the rate of glycogen synthesis immediately after your ride.
To do this, consume moderate to high GI carbs (liquid or solid is fine) in frequent small meals for about four hours after your ride [12, 14].
These frequent small meals should amount to about 1.2 g/kg/h (grams of carbohydrate/per kilogram of body weight/per hour).
For a cyclist weighing 155 lbs, these guidelines would amount to a target of around 85g of carbohydrates in each hour of a four-hour window after a ride.
After you’ve finished up this four-hour window, resume either a high carbohydrate availability diet or fueling preparation before your event, and you’ll be good to go [12].
In summary, depending on when your next ride is, your goal should be to either maximize the rate of glycogen synthesis immediately after your ride or keep the good habits you’ve already established following a high carbohydrate availability approach to fueling.
Guide Index:
References
- Jeukendrup, A.E. and M. Gleeson, Sport nutrition. 2019.
- Krogh, A. and J. Lindhard, The Relative Value of Fat and Carbohydrate as Sources of Muscular Energy: With Appendices on the Correlation between Standard Metabolism and the Respiratory Quotient during Rest and Work. Biochem J, 1920. 14(3-4): p. 290-363.
- Brooks, G.A., IMPORTANCE OF THE ‘CROSSOVER’ CONCEPT IN EXERCISE METABOLISM. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, 1997. 24: p. 889-895.
- Bergström, J. and E. Hultman, Synthesis of muscle glycogen in man after glucose and fructose infusion. Acta Med Scand, 1967. 182(1): p. 93-107.
- Sherman, W.M., et al., Effect of exercise-diet manipulation on muscle glycogen and its subsequent utilization during performance. Int J Sports Med, 1981. 2(2): p. 114-8.
- Sherman, W.M. and D.L. Costill, The marathon: dietary manipulation to optimize performance. Am J Sports Med, 1984. 12(1): p. 44-51.
- Thomas, D.T., K.A. Erdman, and L.M. Burke, Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. J Acad Nutr Diet, 2016. 116: p. 501-528.
- Hargreaves, M., J.A. Hawley, and A. Jeukendrup, Pre-exercise carbohydrate and fat ingestion: effects on metabolism and performance. J Sports Sci, 2004. 22(1): p. 31-8.
- Jeukendrup, A.E. and S.C. Killer, The myths surrounding pre-exercise carbohydrate feeding. Ann Nutr Metab, 2010. 57 Suppl 2: p. 18-25.
- Cornford, E. and R. Metcalfe, Omission of Carbohydrate-rich breakfast impairs evening 2000-m rowing time trial performance. European Journal of Sport Science, 2018: p. 1-8
- Miall, A., et al., Two weeks of repetitive gut-challenge reduce exercise-associated gastrointestinal symptoms and malabsorption. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 2018. 28: p. 630-640.
- Burke, L.M., et al., Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2011. 29: p. 17-27.
- Atkinson, F.S., K. Foster-Powell, and J.C. Brand-Miller, International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008. Diabetes Care, 2008. 31(12): p. 2281-3.
- Kuipers, H., et al., Carbohydrate feeding and glycogen synthesis during exercise in man. Pflugers Arch, 1987. 410(6): p. 652-6.