Endurance cycling places massive demands on the body, and proper nutrition is crucial to ensuring your body can meet these demands. Whether you’re training for a century ride, a multi-day event, or simply aiming to improve your long-distance cycling, nutrition is essential. This guide covers the key nutritional principles to keep you riding strong.
Energy Demands of Endurance Cyclists
Your body uses a huge amount energy when cycling. It varies depending on many factors like weather and individual metabolism, but endurance cyclists typically burn 425 to 1,000 calories per hour. Some of the energy is used to power the muscles, but a vast amount is also converted into heat.
For more, read: How Many Calories Do Cyclists Burn?
Maintaining Energy Balance
Maintaining energy balance can be very difficult for endurance cyclists because requirements can vary on a daily basis. For example, an athlete may need 5,000 additional calories on a race day, but only 500 additional calories on an easy training day.
Pro Tip: When losing body weight, it is important to keep the protein intake relatively high and that the daily deficit is not higher than 500 calories. You must also consume enough essential nutrients, which also includes fat.
Stored Forms of Energy
There are two main stores of energy in your body:
- Fat: Even lean people have a huge amount of energy stored as fat. These fat reserves are typically enough to fuel four days of cycling at a Tour de France!
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Glycogen: Glycogen is the stored form of the carbohydrate glucose. It is stored in the liver and muscles:
- Liver Glycogen: When blood sugar levels get low, the body converts liver glycogen back into glucose and sends it to the blood, where it is primary used to provide energy for organs, including the brain. Liver glycogen stores are very small and easily become depleted during exercise.
- Muscle Glycogen: The body also stores glycogen in the muscles. Unlike liver glycogen, this glycogen is solely used for supplying the energy to the muscle where it is located. For example, glycogen in your arm muscles cannot fuel your leg muscles.
Confused about glycogen? Read our Guide to Carbohydrates.
Fat Not a Good Source of Energy for Cycling
While the body can use fat for energy, fat metabolism is not efficient enough to meet the high energy demands during endurance exercise. Further, fat oxidation requires oxygen—something which is in short supply when exercising at high intensities.
Carbohydrate Loading for Endurance Cyclists
Carbohydrate loading involves consuming a large amount of carbohydrates to ensure glycogen stores are full. Endurance cyclists typically do not need to load for regular training sessions. However, it is recommended before major events.
As a general guideline, loading should start 24-36 hours before the event. Cyclists should aim to consume 10-12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. These carbohydrates should be “fast” carbohydrates without fiber.
For more, read our Guide to Loading.
The Need to Fuel during Endurance Cycling
The body can store approximately 500 to 800 grams of glycogen in the liver and muscles. This is enough energy for 90 to 120 minutes of intense cycling. After this, glycogen reserves will drop so low that the body runs out of energy (bonking).
Thus, it is important that endurance cyclists consume some fuel during their long training sessions or events.
How Much Fuel?
Fuel requirements will vary depending on the duration and intensity of the session. For example, riding in the slipstream on flat terrain won’t require the same amount of fuel as riding uphill alone.
The image below shows approximately how many carbohydrates endurance cyclists should consume per hour. Note that you don’t need fuel for exercise lasting less than 90 minutes because the body has enough energy stored as glycogen.
For more precise amounts, use our Fueling Calculator.
Why Up to 90 grams?
Endurance cycling can burn more than 1,000 calories per hour. Yet, most fueling guidelines recommend a maximum of 90 grams per hour, or just 360 calories. What gives?
This amount is because there is a limit to how many carbohydrates the body can consume at once. While some athletes can tolerate higher amounts, it is unlikely that they are absorbing more than 90 grams per hour.
Carbohydrate Type Matters
It isn’t enough to consume just any carbohydrates during endurance cycling. They must be the right type of carbohydrates. Further, they need to be in the right ratios.
Current guidelines for cyclists are:
- Combination of glucose and fructose: The body uses different pathways to absorb glucose and fructose, so combining them allows the body to absorb more energy at once.
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1:0.8 Ratio: This ratio of glucose to fructose is proven to optimize absorption and prevent GI side effects.
For more info, read our Fueling Guide.
Recovery: More than Just Protein
Most athletes know they need to consume protein after a workout to help repair muscles. However, for endurance athletes like cyclists, carbohydrates are also an important part of recovery.
Consuming carbohydrates after completing a session allows the body to replenish glycogen stores, which in turn improves long-term results and adaptations.
For recovery, consume:
- 20 to 30 grams of high-quality protein
- 1.2 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of bodyweight.
- Carbohydrates within 30 minutes of completing the session.
For more detailed guidelines, read our Recovery Guide.