Gravel rides are typically long, challenging, but extremely fun days out. But let us tell you what’s not fun…blowing up mid ride and having no energy left to tackle the terrain or take in the views. O it’s not a good idea to ignore gravel riding nutrition.
You can be at your fittest but if you don’t back that fitness up with fuel and hydration, you won’t have much time to shine. That’s why when you’re taking the time to plan the perfect gravel adventure…give yourself 10 minutes to consider your nutrition too. And if you’re thinking of taking on a epic gravel event, like Dirty Reiver, then that gravel riding nutrition consideration is a must!
We appreciate fuelling whilst off road isn’t the easiest. Any of the following sound familiar?
Do you forget to eat?
Struggle to eat because of the terrain?
Lose your appetite?
Can’t carry enough fluid?
Time for some tips to perfect your nutrition for gravel riding!
ONE
Forgetting to eat is all too easy when you’re bombing down trails and just generally having a great time whilst gravel riding. However once you’ve got 3 hours deep and still haven’t touched any food; things quickly start to get a lot less fun. Ultimately, you’ve depleted your energy stores and your body just can’t run on air; well not if you want to keep up with the challenging terrain.
Start eating from hour one, to have the energy to finish strong. If pace and performance is important to you, we’d advise taking onboard 60g of carbohydrates per hour. If your speed is more leisurely and you’ll maybe have a café stop; 40g of carbs would be suffice. Our Anytime Bars supply around 40g of carbs each and are a great adventure snack for gravel rides. Stretching for 60g of carbs? Then adding an Energy Gel containing 20g of carbs will help you achieve these fuelling goals.
We’d advise setting a time when to eat; on the hour every hour is good start. If you can’t remember to do that, many cycle computers now give you the option to set up nutrition alerts, a great idea for those who can admit, they just forget to eat!
THREE
Losing your appetite on big days on the bike is pretty common, especially in those final hours. This can often be due to flavour fatigue, and just taking a lot of the same thing! Different flavours and consistencies can keep things fresh and prevent any barriers to fuelling forming. Thankfully we now have 11 different flavours of Anytime Bars to choose from and our easy to eat Duo Bars. Throw in there the refreshing taste of an orange Hydro Tab, a banana, small savoury sandwich and a few of our tasty Super Gels; loss of appetite shouldn’t be an issue, especially if you leave your favourite snack until the end.
Check out our Duo Bars
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GRAVEL RIDING