For easy tours lasting between one and one and a half hours, cyclists don't need to worry too much about nutrition. However, if it is to be a ride or a cycling marathon lasting many hours, it is sensible, indeed necessary, to think about eating and drinking on the road. Because without the right "supplies to ride", performance will decline over time and energy levels will dwindle.
The human body can only store a limited amount of carbohydrates - its favourite fuel - in the form of glycogen in the muscles and liver. An untrained person can store 300 to 400 grams, a very well-trained endurance athlete around 600 grams, amateur athletes are somewhere in between. This is not particularly high when you consider that a racing cyclist burns around 100 grams of carbohydrates per hour, even at a moderate pace. Although the proportion of fats in the energy supply increases with moderate exertion - and we can store these almost indefinitely - the body always uses carbohydrates as an energy source to a certain extent. This is because they are easier to break down and can therefore be converted into energy more quickly. However, even with the "fuel mix" described above, the glycogen reserves are not sufficient to supply us with energy for the entire time on long, rather slow tours. So we have to refuel if we don't want to get hungry. And cyclists can get a good head start on this with the last meal before setting off.
Before: Carbohydrates and caffeine
"If the journey is going really smoothly, you don't need to eat super-quick carbohydrates in the form of white bread or similar beforehand," says Christian Kramer. Instead, the former professional triathlete, who coaches athletes on training and nutrition, recommends wholemeal bread with honey or porridge with fruit, cinnamon and ginger as the last major meal before setting off. This can be high in carbohydrates, but the carbohydrates should arrive slowly in the system so that they only provide energy when the athlete is actually in action. Road cyclists should eat this meal at least one hour before the planned descent so that there is still some time to digest it. "If you want, drink another espresso just beforehand and off you go," says the nutrition expert. This is because the caffeine contained in this coffee shot stimulates the central nervous system, increases the heart rate and contraction force of the heart and causes the adrenal glands to release adrenaline. But be careful: if you never drink coffee, you should get used to caffeine slowly, otherwise your heart may start to race and you may generally feel a little shaky.
On the road: From festival to liquid
If you set off around an hour after breakfast, your energy stores are usually well filled, meaning that cyclists only need to start taking in energy after around one to one and a half hours. However, as this time also varies from person to person, Christian Kramer advises that you should "start to take in energy as soon as you start thinking about food. This is a sign that energy is lacking". As the digestive system is not under so much strain during long, more relaxed sessions or very moderate cycling marathons, it is okay to eat something solid at the start, such as a banana or a bar. "You can alternate with your food during training and see what you like and can tolerate," suggests Christian Kramer, adding that this doesn't rule out a piece of cake during a coffee break on a relaxed weekend tour.
An amateur cyclist should consume approximately as many grams of carbohydrates per hour as they weigh in kilograms. On average, this should correspond to plus/minus 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrates per hour. As a guide: a gel containing around 30 to 35 grams provides an average of around 20 grams of carbohydrates, a bar weighing 40 to 45 grams slightly more. However, its carbohydrates tend to arrive in the bloodstream a little later, as bars often contain a certain amount of fat (e.g. chocolate or yoghurt glaze), protein and fibre (e.g. oatmeal as a base). In general, it is advisable to consume carbohydrates at the start of the journey that cause the blood sugar level to rise only slowly - from solid to liquid and from various sources.
The body transports different types of sugar into the intestine via different transport systems. The fastest transporter is for maltose, maltodextrin, glucose and sucrose, which have the highest absorption rate, but also place a greater burden on the digestive tract in larger quantities. Fructose, galactose and isomaltulose are somewhat slower to enter the intestine. A mixture of different "fast" carbohydrates makes sense; a glucose-fructose mix of 2:1 is considered ideal.
Some suppliers of sports nutrition products take this into account, but not all of them. It is therefore worth taking a look at the ingredients. If you don't want to stuff yourself with sweets for hours on the long, slow lap, you can also take savoury food with you. However, this means taking a closer look at the ingredients of the food you choose and selecting foods that provide sufficient carbohydrates and at least a small amount of sodium. This applies to the classic banana, but toast with cream cheese is also an option, as are small boiled potatoes without the skin. Whatever tastes good is allowed, because even the most sophisticated energy gel is useless if it remains untouched in your jersey pocket. But don't overtax your body! It needs to get used to the nutrition on the road as well as the hours of physical exertion itself. "Practise eating small amounts of carbohydrates during training," recommends Christian Kramer. "If this works, you can build up the amount in the long term." For example, work your way up from 40 grams per hour to 60 to 80 grams. The gastrointestinal tract of most amateur athletes has a hard time with more.
What to do if your stomach rebels?
Some athletes have a naturally sensitive stomach, some cannot tolerate certain energy products, others suffer from an intolerance, for example to fructose, or have simply had too many gels. The result is the same: The stomach shuts down, the gut rebels and the tour requires one (or more) unplanned pit stops. Depending on the cause of the gastrointestinal complaints, it can help to eat more often but in smaller portions, to study the list of ingredients carefully or to opt for liquids. "The body often absorbs this better," says Christian Kramer. Maltodextrin has proven to be a tolerable alternative to energy sources such as fructose or glucose. This is available to buy as a powder and can be mixed with water and table salt to make a sports drink that is neutral in flavour and gluten-free.
Drinking: important in the heat, but also in the cold
Not only is food important on long rides, cyclists should also keep an eye on their fluid intake. A recent British study found that dehydration of just four per cent reduces endurance performance. A dry mouth or loss of concentration are sometimes signs of mild dehydration. To be on the safe side, cyclists should therefore "drink regularly for the first one and a half to two hours", advises Christian Kramer. This also applies when temperatures are rather low and you don't feel thirsty at first. You should drink 500 millilitres of fluid per hour.
Basically, water with a pinch of table salt is enough to compensate for the loss of minerals through sweating. If you prefer, you can of course also mix a sports drink with powder, which often provides additional electrolytes such as magnesium, sodium or calcium, or mix yourself a juice spritzer. It is important to balance the energy you get from the drink with that from gels, bars and the like, otherwise it will quickly become too much. And you should pay attention to the osmolality of the drink. This describes the concentration of substances, i.e. how many dissolved particles are in one kilogramme of liquid. The higher the concentration of substances, the more dissolved sugar particles are contained, the faster the blood and intestines absorb them and the more likely gastrointestinal irritation is to occur. To avoid this, a sports drink should be labelled as slightly hypotonic (fewer dissolved particles than in the blood) or isotonic (the same number of dissolved particles as in the blood). A spritzer consisting of one part juice and two parts water is considered isotonic. Tip: It is better to drink more often in small sips, as this is better tolerated than drinking a large amount once.
Afterwards: Refuel once, please!
No matter how well you nourish yourself on the road, you will not be able to replenish the entire amount of calories consumed on long distances with gels and the like. Ideally, you should start to compensate for this deficit as soon as possible after crossing the finish line or at the end of the training session. "Milk with cocoa is great for this," says Christian Kramer. It's easy to consume because you don't have to chew it and provides quickly available carbohydrates and protein. The latter is important so that the body can repair and efficiently regenerate the muscle structures that have been damaged by exercise. A wheat roll with poultry sausage or cheese as well as rice pudding or quark with fruit are also good snacks after cycling. Indiscriminately eating the contents of the sweets cupboard or ordering up and down the menu at the fast food restaurant, on the other hand, makes little nutritional sense, and "cravings after exercise are also a sign that you haven't had enough energy on the road," says Christian Kramer. In such cases, he recommends calculating the energy content of the food you have eaten on the go and eating slightly more calories next time.
Later, for dinner, after many hours in the saddle, fish with sweet potato and salad, chicken breast with wholegrain rice and vegetables or tofu with hummus, sprouts and pita bread are all good options. They provide the body with the macronutrients carbohydrates, fat and protein as well as some of the micronutrients it needs to recover from long periods of activity. Zinc and selenium, for example, support the immune system, which is temporarily weakened after exhausting exertion. Before going to bed, you can have a quark or yoghurt with honey and nuts or berries ... Or a few pieces of chocolate, a handful of jelly babies or an ice cream. "If you do this from time to time, a lot of things are tolerable, you should leave the church in the village," says Kramer, but: "If you eat a bar of chocolate, a bag of jelly babies and three scoops of ice cream at nine in the evening, your body has a lot to do at night to accommodate all the carbohydrates. Not only do you sleep less well, but the excess carbohydrates are also stored in the form of fat."
