Cycling Nutrition

What a great feeling to get through my first bike race and come out with a win. It was a pretty intimidating environment being only 1 of 4 girls in about 40 competitors. I’ve been doing triathlons for a while now, but bike racing is a whole different ball game – more about tactics and not “blowing yourself up” before the finish line. This particular race was a flat 42k, starting at 8am (so temperature in the high 20’s already!)

I love being able to go into races knowing that I’m in the best position possible with my nutrition. When it comes to athletes, there’s nothing like the feeling that you have an edge over your competitors. If nutrition is something that you can get right on race day, it can make such a difference to how you feel physically, and it also gives you a psychological boost. My nutrition plan is a tried and tested approach, as I advise for all my athletes.

Being my first bike race, I was a bit unsure what to expect. I knew to hit the sports drinks pretty hard being in the heat in Cairns. Although it was a bit of a gamble with this race; seeing there are so many males competing, they seem to not worry about the start of the race being anywhere near a toilet!!

So my nutrition tips for a bike race that lasts less than 2 hours:

1. Practice what you are going to do during the race on a training ride. Never try anything new in a race (even something as simple as having a different flavour of sports drink than you are used to can make a big difference if you don’t like it).
2. Have a good idea of your sweat rate so you know how much fluid to aim to drink. To do this: on a training ride, weigh yourself before and after and take into account any fluid you have drunk on the ride. I know in the heat I can sweat over 1L per hour! If you lose more than 2% of your weight in a race (ie 1.4kg loss in a 70kg person), this can relate to a significant decrease in your performance.
3. Choose what fluid to have on your race. Sports drink is a must for a race over 1hr. I also like to carry a bottle of water in case I get sick of just drinking sports drink
4. Have a good carbohydrate breakfast before a morning race. This is one that is so important to practice before race day as it is very individual what a person can manage. I like toast, coffee and a sports drink. Others for example like cereal (I find milk doesn’t sit very well with me!)
5. And lastly, have a good recovery meal after the race containing carbs and protein (such as a chicken and salad sandwich), and also replace 150% of any fluid loss. Being like most athletes, you are probably going to train again the next day, so if you don’t recover properly, the next training session will really hurt!

Tags: Carbohydrate, carbs, nutrition, protein, race, sports, triathlon