Fuelling for Ride London 100?

[mattb46]

Im doing this years Ride London and would love to have some input from PH'ers who have adopted a scientific approach to fuelling for this kind of sportif. I appreciate that there are some very knowledgeable (and fast) peeps on here. So, please forgive the basic questions:

- what to eat when getting up on race day (probably be about 3.00am!)?
- what to eat if anything immediately before the start?
- how many calories to consume during the actual ride and at what intervals?

I did the event in 2016 and managed 4 hrs 20 odd. However the last 30 miles were awful and I just got slower and slower.

My current plan (possible to be ridiculed) is:
- carb load the night before and drink loads of fluids
- breakfast - big bowl of porridge with a banana (3.00am) and loads of fluids
-another banana just before start and a load of fluids
-during event- take an energy pouch every 45 mins. I have bought some SIS gels but they only have 67kcals each which seems pathetic. Surely you need 200kcals plus from your pouch each time??

Ta

[Marcellus]

I'm doing pretty much the same plus taking a pot of Porridge with me to the start to eat whilst in the pen, bidons will have SiS in and as it'll be hot I'll carry 2x500ml bottles of water in my jersey pockets and start hydrating now!

As for calories, poss 2,500/3,000? so not really too much of a worry really.

I think hydration will have a greater negative impact on riding than calories... what is it they say? 1% drop in body fluids will equate to an x% drop in performance!

[lufbramatt]

Porridge sounds good for breakfast. Stick a big dollop of peanut butter in for added energy

Carb loading needs more than a big bowl of pasta the night before- look at a couple of days previous.

I think it works better if you look at grams of carbs rather than calories. IIRC the body can absorb up to ~90g/hour if you're smashing it but it needs to be a mixture of glucose and fructose as they are absorbed in different ways- off the top of my head 2:1 glucose:fructose.

Gels and energy drinks tend to contain maltodextrin which is absorbed via the glucose pathway. Fructose is in bananas, dates, etc.

Too much carbs may lead to stomach issues.

Pack something salty/savoury for later in the ride when you're fed up with sugar.

[mattb46]

Thanks chaps, much appreciated

[lauda]

There’s possibly not a huge benefit to drinking loads of fluids the night before and the morning of the ride. Your body only needs so much water and it will just piss out what it doesn’t need.

Try to make sure that you’re staying well hydrated in the days leading up to the ride and make sure you drink constantly during the ride, when your body will actually need it. Better to stop drinking early evening the day before and get some uninterrupted sleep than drink loads and have to keep getting up and peeing during the night.

I’d try and take a few bars or flapjacks with you for the actual ride. Having some real food always makes me feel better than just gels. Although I am crap at eating on the bike so I definitely have to slow down to chow.

Oh, and not the easiest thing to eat on a bike, but a few handfuls of Walkers Sensations Honey Salted peanuts are awesome when you’re flagging a bit.

Good luck!

[Tom1312]

What are the food/fuel stops like?

[Rich_W]

mattb46 said:

...

I did the event in 2016 and managed 4 hrs 20 odd. However the last 30 miles were awful and I just got slower and slower. ..

If you're rattling around at that sort of speed , you don't need advice!


I'm expecting around 6 hours! (Did a long course Tri 1 july, so this is purely a social / charity raiser )


Breakfast will be Tescos crunchy nut Cornflakes. Slightly smaller than normal weekday
Lucozade sport bottle sipped between then and the start.

4 bottles of Torq Lemon Lime mix 6% concentration (I'm putting on the behind the seat double holders from my Tri bike since its going to be toasty and I'm not planning on stopping! )
3 Torq bars (varied)
2 gels more for variety than anything else
Contemplating a ham and cheese roll as a "for the love of god I hate these bars" moment

[lufbramatt]

Is ham going to be a good idea sitting in the heat for a couple of hours?

[whatleytom]

I managed just under 4 hours a few years ago. Probably drank too much before the start as I remember desperately needing a piss half way round. Seem to remember I took two large bottles, one with a zero tab. Then I think 3 gels, one strong caffeine one and a couple of SIS bars. Seemed to get me to the end feeling pretty well.

[Marcellus]

Tom1312 said:

What are the food/fuel stops like?

Quite busy... you can lose a lot of time in them

[bakerstreet]

mattb46 said:

Im doing this years Ride London and would love to have some input from PH'ers who have adopted a scientific approach to fuelling for this kind of sportif. I appreciate that there are some very knowledgeable (and fast) peeps on here. So, please forgive the basic questions:

- what to eat when getting up on race day (probably be about 3.00am!)?
- what to eat if anything immediately before the start?
- how many calories to consume during the actual ride and at what intervals?

I did the event in 2016 and managed 4 hrs 20 odd. However the last 30 miles were awful and I just got slower and slower.

My current plan (possible to be ridiculed) is:
- carb load the night before and drink loads of fluids
- breakfast - big bowl of porridge with a banana (3.00am) and loads of fluids
-another banana just before start and a load of fluids
-during event- take an energy pouch every 45 mins. I have bought some SIS gels but they only have 67kcals each which seems pathetic. Surely you need 200kcals plus from your pouch each time??

Ta

At 4hrs 20m ride time, what advice do you need from us??

For whats its worth:
Breakfast (What ever I can get near my hotel+ a banana) 0500 ish
Banana in the pen
As a general rule of thumb, I will have half a drink bottle ever 30 minutes
Cliff Bar type thing every 50 minutes ish

Thats pretty much it for me. I will probably stop several times to top up water bottles, but I am going to try and avoid stopping for for the first 30-40 miles, but we will see how that goes. I managed around 19mph average for the first 20 miles last time, so would be nice if I could match that this year.

[Marcellus]

is anyone else in 05:44 Black start pen?

[Matt_N]

A good bowl of porridge for breakfast and a bidon, maybe two if it's warm should see you through.

[upsidedownmark]

^^ If that's the case, you're definitely not trying hard enough

[Master Bean]

800ml water bottles and a flapjack or three. Plus emergency gels and jelly babies.

[Matt_N]

upsidedownmark said:

^^ If that's the case, you're definitely not trying hard enough

I guess your sarcasm detector is broken

The above was the default answer for most hardened cyclists.

[Marcellus]

Here's a link to a BC article that landed in my in box this week on fuelling;

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/nutrit...

[tjdixon911]

lufbramatt said:

Is ham going to be a good idea sitting in the heat for a couple of hours?

Not very helpful, but a mate had a 2 day old ham sandwich which had been left on the parcel shelf during a trip down to Le-mans, he as fine!

[Rich_W]

lufbramatt said:

Is ham going to be a good idea sitting in the heat for a couple of hours?

Fine then!

I'll just go with Cheese



To do 4 hours ish, you've got to average 25mph (40k) I'm half decent I like to think, but there's no way I could average that for 100miles. Is the draft effect from the sheer numbers of other riders that good?

Edited by Rich_W on Friday 27th July 20:58

[HardtopManual]

Rich_W said:

Is the draft effect from the sheer numbers of other riders that good?

Yes. You can get around rather quickly while doing very little work. The groups are so big that you can surf wheels in total anonymity without being asked to do your bit on the front, although the standard of some of the group riding means this approach can be a little hairy.