How to fuel your long ride

As we head into spring and we start to ride longer fuelling on the bike becomes an important aspect to make sure we don’t get to that point where we feel our legs are falling off

When people talk about how to fuel their longer rides they miss quite an important bit out.

What they ate the day before, the night before and the morning of their ride. Get that right and you are already making sure that your ride will be strong.

Fuelling on the bike isn’t complicated, a lot of people make it that way but it doesn’t need to be.

So here’s my straightforward way that works.

After 30/40 minutes into the ride, I eat a chunk of an energy bar and then every 20 mins after that making sure I eat a whole energy bar every hour. It’s so simple and yet it’s very effective.

I like to choose one that’s roughly about 250/300 calories that has a decent carbohydrate profile.

let’s talk about the humble Banana and why I think it sucks as food for a long ride. I know I’m going to get haters for this but hold your horses. A banana is roughly 100 calories whereas my energy bar is 250 calories.

Just think about that for a moment. 

After a 5 hour ride, that means pure banana eaters are going to be down 750 calories compared to me.

Who do you think is going to have more energy to ride stronger in the later stages of the ride and who is going to recover better after the ride has finished?

Wrapping up. What you eat on the bike comes down to preference. Aim for foods that have a good calorie and carbohydrate content. See, it doesn’t need to be confusing.Thanks for reading

Simon

Performance & Nutrition Director
2 X Winner of Gym Based PT, and founder of VPCC