Reaching for a bottle is not frowned upon among racing cyclists - on the contrary. The steeper the mountain or the hotter the sun, the more often cyclists reach for a bottle. Although the consumption per kilometre is very individual, the supply is usually identical: two bottles of 0.5 or 0.75 litres, stowed in two bottle holders.
Anyone who has ever wanted to swap bottles with a training partner on the road or inaugurate the finisher's bottle from the latest cycling marathon will quickly realise that even things as banal as drinking bottles and bottle holders can cause trouble - and officially so. Either the bottle doesn't go into the holder in the first place or, once it's in, it doesn't come out again - especially if there's still drink residue sticking to the bottle and holder. If you're already on your last legs on the mountain, craving liquids and can't get the bottle out of the holder, your mood won't improve. If, on the other hand, the bottle slips into the holder almost by itself, that's not necessarily a plus either. If it just rattles, this is at best annoying for the owner and all the other riders; but when the peloton chases over railway sleepers or cobblestones in big everyman or marathon races, it is not uncommon for dozens of full bottles to tumble across the road and become nasty crash traps.
What goes together?
It is not immediately obvious which combinations of holder and bottle work best. There is a huge range of colours, shapes and materials available for both holders and bottles - so we'll guide you through the maze step by step.
The buying guide for the following brands can be found below as a PDF download:
Camelbak, Elite, Rapha, Specialized, Tacx, Topeak, Tune, Zefal
Downloads:
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