Interesting stuff. I’ve ridden for decades and only just discovered the importance of fuelling during rides. This was on the recommendation by my local bike shop when I bought a new machine & we got to discussing my riding habits. Gel bars etc. have improved my overall endurance and enjoyment on longer rides. One of those ideas I wished I’d picked up years ago.
Damn-I needed this couple of days ago...had my longest ride ever of 130ish K’s and around 1000 m of climbing and I bonked badly...last hour was a nightmare 🙈🙈
Nutrition for athletes summed up: • Learn what macronutrients are • Keep protein at 1g per lb of Lean Body Mass, you need sufficient protein to repair and build muscle aka hypertrophy. To calculate this get a body fat measurement from an experienced gym goer they'll know better than dexa scans 9/10. LBM = total weight - BF% • figure out your total daily calorie expenditure. To do this you need to determine your metabolic rate separately, and then add on any excersise sessions preferably using a heart rate monitor but trial and error work just fine. • get in the habbit of measuring your portion size, 99% of people sadly have no clue what they're eating and eat wayyyy to much! • and finally eat, eat and REST to recover! You can't progress if you don't eat and rest adequately. Training hard every day without a day or two for rest will be a detriment to your overall progress for 99% of people. (Unless you're on HRT/Peds/sarms or are a genetic freak)
I'm 190cm at 94Kg Pre ride: 100g oats 300ml Milk 1 Banana During the ride: 1 hour in start eating every 20 mins 1 25g Bar each 20 mins. Never bonked ever since. Post ride protein/carb meal with lots of hydration
One thing I found personally is that most fuelling options have about 30g of carbohydrates. A gel, a muesli bar, a banana, a slice of bread with Nutella to name a few. And then it's as simple as eating 2-3 portions an hour
Makes sense that they reduce carbs in the drinks on hot days because fluid uptake is reduced with higher amount of carbs in the drink. That is why i have my 2 bootles of water in the summer one with high amount and one with less. On the climbs i would drink the thin solution since there is more sweating. High solition on descents.
Not many of us will be training to ride a three week grand tour - but a multi-day bikepacking trip is something many of us will be hoping to train for and undertake. Not really compatible with feeding on bars and gels - especially if the trip is going to be somewhat longer than a weekend... A video on how to fuel this type of ride would be really good, and Conor has experience of not just riding grand Tour, but this too....
Actually, I don't think there's that much of a difference - I know for a fact that on a bikepacking tour I'll go through a reasonably similar amount of calories each day (potentially even more!) and the basic strategy of keeping yourself fueled during the ride and getting as much recovery as possible in immediately after is the same. Of course, due to the somewhat lower intensity, you don't necessarily have to rely on gels so much, since your system very likely will accept solid food more easily.
@@jandl1jph766 I must admit, I've found it hard to keep up the "little and often" intake on multiday rides. Plus its often harder to eat early at the end of the day as you have camp set up etc. to do. I get that its trying your best to "copy" the grand tour riders nutrition approach - but it would be good to have a video from someone who's done both a grand tour and a long self-supported multiday ride on any tips he's picked up...
Hi I am a dentist and a (relatively) keen cyclist. When I have the chance I love to get out for long rides and I have experienced the dreaded bonk! I am very interested in sports nutrition, especially from an oral and dental health point of view as the diet prescribed for most endurance athletes is majorly at odds with maintaining a healthy dentition. I feel like there is very little awareness of this in the sporting world as the research that I have done has yielded very little. I would love to maybe work with you guys in promoting this important message. I also have a couple of ideas that may be able to reconcile this problem and give athletes, amateur and professional, the best of both worlds
Great video. I would love to see a video that is targeted to those of us who are diabetic. So many energy drinks and products are heavy in sugar. Even as a type 2 I can see spikes up and down of sugar levels which effect how I feel during exercise.
Have heard from some other pro cyclist nutritionist to actually take in simple carbs immediately following the ride, hence the gummy bears at the line for people like Sagan and more recently EF Pro Cycling at the Giro and to then wait 30 mins to an hour before taking in a recovery drink that contains protein. I'm sure many of us are aware that protein and fat digests more slowly than carbohydrates, so their argument was that taking in a mix of carbs with protein and fat actually slows your body's ability to absorb the carbohydrates and replenish your muscle glycogen stores. If you are looking to lose weight and aren't worried about performance its fine to deplete your muscle glycogen but if you want maximum recovery for the next day or to keep performing at your highest level longer, you want to prevent those muscle glycogen stores from becoming depleted. As your muscles lose their glycogen, they also become dehydrated as your glycogen stores hold water for your muscles as well as the energy they provide. If you are coming back from a ride with a large weight loss than your pre-ride weight you can get an idea of this effect and how much more you need to eat or hydrate for a similar ride.
Considering how Sagan performed on the sprints this past tour I'm not sure his advice is the advice I'd be following. :-) He's gone from winning almost every sprint to a 2nd-4th place finish every sprint.
I like a leisurely ride to the Asian market and fill up a pannier bag or picnic basket with pot stickers, mochi rice cakes, stir fry seasoning, rice, noodles, vegetables, coconut milk and imported black currant juice.
Hi, GCN! A question about that very recovery drink: should you always take the same amount (the indicated in the label) or should it be different depending on the length/toughness of the ride? Thanks!!
I would not reduce the drink but the meal after. Personaly i always put 60g carbs in because i usualy have to wait more than 1hour to the meal. 60g/h is a amount most people can handle without training it. Theory of the drink is that you can use the increased uptake of food that is present directly after the stop of activity. Only on intervall or high calorie deficit days of course.
Thanks so much, @@Micha112233. In my opinion it’s not the same to ride 30-50km or 100, so the recovery mix should be slightly different. However, I am not a nutritionist and I just started taking that recovery drink in persuit of improvement towards a gran fondo. Your insight clarified quite a bit my uncertainty. Thanx again!
@@nineunauk i think it all depends on the effort levels you are in during the ride. If you ride 100km really slow pace there is not that much muscle glycogen used and therefore not that much need to replenish them. On the other hand if you ride alot sweetspot or near threshold the energy is mostly out of your glycogen stores which are much more smaller than your energy stored in fat. In my case i know that every hard ride i do is a calorie deficit day so i dont change the carbs in my shake and keep it at the maxed out level. I only use table sugar since 1:1 glucose/fructose seems to be the best in studies and it is cheap. Look after your mouth ph levels of course :)
I do sedentary work. To my >3h rides I take carbs with me and electrolyte drinks. I eat every 1h and drink quite often. For the first 10km my legs feel heavy and they get tired, then they I guess warm up and operate great for hours... Am I not doing something I should before the ride? Or this is normal?
How do the riders keep from getting sick from eating so much sugar? If I eat even a fraction of that much I'd get a sore throat and lethargic feeling from candida.
You can't survive only on energy bars, gels and dextrose. You need some real food. Yesterday I did a 300km ride (11 hours) and at some point, I couldn't eat any more sweet food. Companies should come with an idea for savory food for riders. After 8 hours on the saddle your body don't want to eat sweet food anymore.
What if I want to avoid preprocessed food? Those tips at the end were good for what type of meal to cook afterwards but what about on bike small snacks that are not preprocessed? When I eat too many heavy processed foods that have been mass produced in factories, then I get rashes on my skin.
The belief that there's some specific time window for eating specific meals in order to get optimal performance/recovery is false. This is a bodybuilding type methodology that was born decades ago. Sure, you need to stay hydrated and fueled. But there are no specific windows.
Cyclist Diet, sounds like a Hobbit Meal Plan. Breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, Lunch, Tea, Supper, Dinner, Pudding.
Yes, the perfect life, constantly munching
Interesting stuff. I’ve ridden for decades and only just discovered the importance of fuelling during rides. This was on the recommendation by my local bike shop when I bought a new machine & we got to discussing my riding habits. Gel bars etc. have improved my overall endurance and enjoyment on longer rides. One of those ideas I wished I’d picked up years ago.
Wanted to send a big Thank You to Ad company for putting some GCN content in this video. Keep up good work.
Damn-I needed this couple of days ago...had my longest ride ever of 130ish K’s and around 1000 m of climbing and I bonked badly...last hour was a nightmare 🙈🙈
Thank you for doing this video. I think even many serious cycling enthusiasts would find it useful or can definitely relate!
Nutrition for athletes summed up:
• Learn what macronutrients are
• Keep protein at 1g per lb of Lean Body Mass, you need sufficient protein to repair and build muscle aka hypertrophy.
To calculate this get a body fat measurement from an experienced gym goer they'll know better than dexa scans 9/10. LBM = total weight - BF%
• figure out your total daily calorie expenditure. To do this you need to determine your metabolic rate separately, and then add on any excersise sessions preferably using a heart rate monitor but trial and error work just fine.
• get in the habbit of measuring your portion size, 99% of people sadly have no clue what they're eating and eat wayyyy to much!
• and finally eat, eat and REST to recover! You can't progress if you don't eat and rest adequately. Training hard every day without a day or two for rest will be a detriment to your overall progress for 99% of people. (Unless you're on HRT/Peds/sarms or are a genetic freak)
Stephanie!!!❤️
I've been putting the Paris-Roubaix nutrition video on as a sleep story for the last months now...😋
I listen to her speaking during indoor training as nutrition supplement
Great video. Was really interesting to get info direct from someone on a world tour team. More like this please.
I'm 190cm at 94Kg
Pre ride: 100g oats 300ml Milk 1 Banana
During the ride: 1 hour in start eating every 20 mins 1 25g Bar each 20 mins.
Never bonked ever since.
Post ride protein/carb meal with lots of hydration
One thing I found personally is that most fuelling options have about 30g of carbohydrates. A gel, a muesli bar, a banana, a slice of bread with Nutella to name a few. And then it's as simple as eating 2-3 portions an hour
Makes sense that they reduce carbs in the drinks on hot days because fluid uptake is reduced with higher amount of carbs in the drink. That is why i have my 2 bootles of water in the summer one with high amount and one with less. On the climbs i would drink the thin solution since there is more sweating. High solition on descents.
The morning after a big ride, have a protein drink as breakfast before you start. Muscles seem to like the extra boost.
Not many of us will be training to ride a three week grand tour - but a multi-day bikepacking trip is something many of us will be hoping to train for and undertake. Not really compatible with feeding on bars and gels - especially if the trip is going to be somewhat longer than a weekend... A video on how to fuel this type of ride would be really good, and Conor has experience of not just riding grand Tour, but this too....
Actually, I don't think there's that much of a difference - I know for a fact that on a bikepacking tour I'll go through a reasonably similar amount of calories each day (potentially even more!) and the basic strategy of keeping yourself fueled during the ride and getting as much recovery as possible in immediately after is the same. Of course, due to the somewhat lower intensity, you don't necessarily have to rely on gels so much, since your system very likely will accept solid food more easily.
@@jandl1jph766 I must admit, I've found it hard to keep up the "little and often" intake on multiday rides. Plus its often harder to eat early at the end of the day as you have camp set up etc. to do. I get that its trying your best to "copy" the grand tour riders nutrition approach - but it would be good to have a video from someone who's done both a grand tour and a long self-supported multiday ride on any tips he's picked up...
Our club puts on a bit of a spread of cake cookies etc after the race
Burning 3000 calories with efforts is hard work and this is well deserved.
Hi I am a dentist and a (relatively) keen cyclist. When I have the chance I love to get out for long rides and I have experienced the dreaded bonk! I am very interested in sports nutrition, especially from an oral and dental health point of view as the diet prescribed for most endurance athletes is majorly at odds with maintaining a healthy dentition. I feel like there is very little awareness of this in the sporting world as the research that I have done has yielded very little. I would love to maybe work with you guys in promoting this important message. I also have a couple of ideas that may be able to reconcile this problem and give athletes, amateur and professional, the best of both worlds
👏👏 one of your the best videos ever
I've learnt to eat a lot, although you need to pace it, spread it out so it's digested
Great video. I would love to see a video that is targeted to those of us who are diabetic. So many energy drinks and products are heavy in sugar. Even as a type 2 I can see spikes up and down of sugar levels which effect how I feel during exercise.
Have heard from some other pro cyclist nutritionist to actually take in simple carbs immediately following the ride, hence the gummy bears at the line for people like Sagan and more recently EF Pro Cycling at the Giro and to then wait 30 mins to an hour before taking in a recovery drink that contains protein. I'm sure many of us are aware that protein and fat digests more slowly than carbohydrates, so their argument was that taking in a mix of carbs with protein and fat actually slows your body's ability to absorb the carbohydrates and replenish your muscle glycogen stores. If you are looking to lose weight and aren't worried about performance its fine to deplete your muscle glycogen but if you want maximum recovery for the next day or to keep performing at your highest level longer, you want to prevent those muscle glycogen stores from becoming depleted. As your muscles lose their glycogen, they also become dehydrated as your glycogen stores hold water for your muscles as well as the energy they provide. If you are coming back from a ride with a large weight loss than your pre-ride weight you can get an idea of this effect and how much more you need to eat or hydrate for a similar ride.
Considering how Sagan performed on the sprints this past tour I'm not sure his advice is the advice I'd be following. :-) He's gone from winning almost every sprint to a 2nd-4th place finish every sprint.
Well done Conor
I like a leisurely ride to the Asian market and fill up a pannier bag or picnic basket with pot stickers, mochi rice cakes, stir fry seasoning, rice, noodles, vegetables, coconut milk and imported black currant juice.
Great video! Thanks Conor👍
Beans on toast, my go to recovery meal 🇬🇧✅
Too much soy, try avocado sprinkled w pumpkin seeds
Enervit no longer ship to the UK 😞
Brilliant well done…
Excellent content.
My go to recovery drink is a chocolate milk. It has sugar and protein (though casein is not fast digesting).
Hi, GCN!
A question about that very recovery drink: should you always take the same amount (the indicated in the label) or should it be different depending on the length/toughness of the ride?
Thanks!!
Listen to you body bud
@@tihomirbrkic2914 thanks for your answer, but that’s brings no light to my question. I’d like to know what the theory is on this matter.
I would not reduce the drink but the meal after. Personaly i always put 60g carbs in because i usualy have to wait more than 1hour to the meal. 60g/h is a amount most people can handle without training it. Theory of the drink is that you can use the increased uptake of food that is present directly after the stop of activity. Only on intervall or high calorie deficit days of course.
Thanks so much, @@Micha112233. In my opinion it’s not the same to ride 30-50km or 100, so the recovery mix should be slightly different. However, I am not a nutritionist and I just started taking that recovery drink in persuit of improvement towards a gran fondo.
Your insight clarified quite a bit my uncertainty.
Thanx again!
@@nineunauk i think it all depends on the effort levels you are in during the ride. If you ride 100km really slow pace there is not that much muscle glycogen used and therefore not that much need to replenish them. On the other hand if you ride alot sweetspot or near threshold the energy is mostly out of your glycogen stores which are much more smaller than your energy stored in fat. In my case i know that every hard ride i do is a calorie deficit day so i dont change the carbs in my shake and keep it at the maxed out level. I only use table sugar since 1:1 glucose/fructose seems to be the best in studies and it is cheap. Look after your mouth ph levels of course :)
I do sedentary work. To my >3h rides I take carbs with me and electrolyte drinks. I eat every 1h and drink quite often. For the first 10km my legs feel heavy and they get tired, then they I guess warm up and operate great for hours... Am I not doing something I should before the ride? Or this is normal?
How do the riders keep from getting sick from eating so much sugar?
If I eat even a fraction of that much I'd get a sore throat and lethargic feeling from candida.
Stephanie is so cute, I just want to listen to her speak about nutrition.
You can't survive only on energy bars, gels and dextrose. You need some real food. Yesterday I did a 300km ride (11 hours) and at some point, I couldn't eat any more sweet food. Companies should come with an idea for savory food for riders. After 8 hours on the saddle your body don't want to eat sweet food anymore.
I know in longer rides I take some boiled potatoes with a bit of salt are great to break the sweets.
makes sense, but only when you're told. Build your body up..
What if I want to avoid preprocessed food?
Those tips at the end were good for what type of meal to cook afterwards but what about on bike small snacks that are not preprocessed?
When I eat too many heavy processed foods that have been mass produced in factories, then I get rashes on my skin.
White sandwiches with jam, homemade rice cakes ...?
Have you seen Manon's cooking video ?
Bananas dates nuts beef jerky
I take some cashews, or almonds, and even apples. I like to bring apples because there is no mess on my back pocket for carrying them.
Gels aren't great for our planet. Any alternatives to this?
so.........2 pints of strong lager is not good post ride nutrition? I think I am doing this all wrong
Oh. I should have watched the video first.
Through the their foreheads.
The belief that there's some specific time window for eating specific meals in order to get optimal performance/recovery is false.
This is a bodybuilding type methodology that was born decades ago.
Sure, you need to stay hydrated and fueled. But there are no specific windows.