100km Road Race - nutrition tips

[Pravda]

Hi guys,
I've got myself signed up for my first B grade road race after getting promoted during the crit season this year. It looks like it'll be a bit of a trial by fire with a 100km course over rolling terrain and about 2000 vertical meters. My longest road race to ate is a touch over 60km and pancake flat.
On the nutrition front I think I have my pre race dialed but wanted some info from the more seasoned campaigners about how much to eat during the race. I've got a healthy selection of caffeinated and non caffeinated gels as well as energy bars and isotonics. They mostly seem to say eat one every 45 minutes so I'm guessing a combination of about 5 or so should do me. I'm anticipating we'll knock the 100 out in about 2.5 hrs.
Thanks in advance.

[toolonglegs]

100km with 2000m elevation only on rolling terrain?... I have one the same length / climbing end of the month and we go up a 15km climb and a couple of 5 km ones. I would think closer to 3 hours.
Anyway a lot of my races are around the 2 to 3 hour mark.... Today's is 75 with around 1000m of climb, 1 bottle ( but well hydrated before ) and 2 or 3 gels in the pockets.
For 3 hours I would go 2 bottles of sports type drink and 3 or so gels.
When it gets over 3 hours you need to start getting a fair bit of food in.

[NeillS]

for a 3 hour or more race I'll have something to eat every 30 minutes. I rotate; a gel, a 40g packet of dried sultanas, a Winners bar in whatever order. This seems to work pretty well for me in conjuction with a 50g per bottle carbohydrate drink, drunk as I feel thirsty.

[Derny Driver]

You can get by on a lot less than what you think. My son rode the NRS Goulburn to Sydney 170km on 2 bottles of water and one gel. 4 hours 20 from memory. After the race he was still in good shape.

I agree with tll - 2 bottles and a couple of gels. Drink the water bidon first and use powerade / Endura to bring you home. One little trick is to get those 250ml PopTop juices, empty one out and fill it with powerade. Put it in your back pocket and you can drink it in the last half hour if you need a boost. Slip the gels up the front of your knicks on your quads. You wont be able to eat any thing solid if the heat is on constantly, which Im sure it will be.
Good luck.

[trailgumby]

Interesting. My understanding for fuelling for carbs is 1 to 1.2g per kg bodyweight per hour, at 80kg, that's one bidon and a gel per hour plus half a carb bar. I've found that works well for me for training and mountain bike racing.

Mind you, that's for mountain bike racing, which is like a sprint start followed by a time trial, and I tend to train on my own with no shelter from the wind provided by other riders.

You roadie guys seem to run on a lot less. Is this because the intensity is a lot less at the beginning where most guys hide in the middle of the pack, out of the wind? Or is it because you quaff a full bottle of carbs before you hit the start?

[toolonglegs]

MTB is a bit tougher IMO, 100km mtb race is more like a 200k road race ( longest RR I have done is 175kms ) ... I definitely didn't get enough food and fluids in.
It also depends what you will put up with not to get dropped on the road... If that means making your drinks last then you do, or peeing on the bike so you don't have to stop.
Getting dressed now hoping my diarrhea stops before we start in 55 minutes

[Tarquin]

2000m is a fair bit of climbing, depends how it comes though I guess.

I'd try and eat something every 40 minutes, maybe a bar, banana then a gel towards the end when you need the energy quicker.

I don't take extra carbs or sugar in my water.

[Stefan_A]

You can get by on a lot less than what you think. My son rode the NRS Goulburn to Sydney 170km on 2 bottles of water and one gel. 4 hours 20 from memory. After the race he was still in good shape.

You may get by but you won't perform your best, and if you underhydrate regularly, you'll get less life out of your kidneys.
The gold standard is to know your sweat rate under different circumstances, and replace the fluid lost.

Discussing bottles when bodyweight, bottle size, temp, humidity, and whether you sat in most of the race, leaves a lot to be desired.

I did a 120k 1800m ride starting at 6am today in Brisbane, and am still in negative fluid balance 12 hrs later. Totally underestimated the intensity of the ride. Compromised on fluid intake to save a bit of weight on a nasty climb. Wasn't a good idea.

[Derny Driver]

I never said that what my son did was right, i mentioned it to show that you dont need the nutrition plan of an an ironman triathlete to do a 100 km race. A couple of gels and a muesli bar as others have mentioned will do the job. In a bike race you often dont get the choice or the chance to execute your nutrition hydration plan. It depends on a lot of things. As for hydration well there is a lot of conflicting informstion about how much people should drink during exercise. I wont get into that argument apart from saying that trying to drink the amounts some people revommend during a race is physically impossible.

[Pravda]

Here's a rough map of the course from Strava: http://www.strava.com/routes/229366" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It's mostly rolling hills rather than any real climbs. As far as speed, a mate of mine did it last year in C and they averaged 32kph so I'm expecting a quicker race than that.

[PomBike]

Alot of energy drinks have maize starch deravatives. These are OK for a while but become revolting as time goes on. I would mix your arsenal.


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[nailsaslegs]

Hydrating wise it depends on how much you sweat, how hot it is going to be as to how many bottles you need. In Tas our longest road roace, 1 bottle is sufficient as we climb Lake Peddar in cold conditions and race to the coast. Food, in the first hour a Shotz bar, then a gel every 40mins. Don't be afraid to eat over 100kms you will need it.

[Farmer Elvis]

Riding or racing that distance, I usually go for a banana, a muesli bar and half strength Gatorade in my water. I used to go the gels but got a bit sick of them. The muesli bar will often come back un opened.

[Xplora]

Over 100kms, most of your nutrition happens the day or two before, the hydration in the last two hours beforehand. Make sure you've eaten properly to max out glycogen levels, and drunk enough to take a bathroom break before you start. A gel, bottle of gatorade, a bottle of water, a banana. Done. Easy to digest, the key is preserving glycogen, you can't produce it over 2.5 hours.

You call them rolling hills, I don't know how much climbing you expect to call it a climb but I would be careful filling up those bidons, you don't want to carry 1.5kgs up the hill for nothing.

[Cul]

Over 100kms, most of your nutrition happens the day or two before, the hydration in the last two hours beforehand. Make sure you've eaten properly to max out glycogen levels, and drunk enough to take a bathroom break before you start. A gel, bottle of gatorade, a bottle of water, a banana. Done. Easy to digest, the key is preserving glycogen, you can't produce it over 2.5 hours.

This, during a "shorter" race on the bike nutrition isn't as important as the steps before hand. Two biddons with your prefered performance drink, a gel or two and a banana should be more than enough.

[macca33]

I did a 100Km race during winter last year, early in my racing career. It was a flat handicap and I rolled turns for the first 60Km with my group, then when caught, sat in, only doing a couple of short turns. I ate 2 x gels and had a solitary bidon (water) and they were nowhere near enough.

I reckon that if you are going that long, apart from pre-race hydration / eating, you need at least 2 x gels, an energy bar / Clif bar or similar, banana maybe and 2 x bidons - one with gatorade/powerade and one with high-quality H2O.

I know everyone is different, but it is no good racing for 60, 70, 80, 90, 99Km if you go completely flat and are ineffective at the pointy end.

Since that time, I have paid attention to others and was initially very surprised to see how much people who know what they are doing eat on the longer club races.....

cheers

[Xplora]

I recall an article on cyclingtips (?) that found that over a couple hours, a lot of the benefit was actually sending signals to your brain that you aren't at risk of getting thirsty or going hungry... the performance dip comes from your brain protecting itself, NOT from lack of water or lack of food. This is not the case once you're doing 150+ because you are going to run out of those fat reserves eventually... but it's really important to bear in mind that the amount of effort you put into riding 100kms vs that gel and gatorade isn't really 1:1.

I am sitting on the fence for this... the research DOES support sugar rinses, but I also recognise that even with a power meter I will never be sensible enough with my nutrition prerace to guarantee that eating midrace will be worthless. I was hurting way worse on my 120km with boaf than my 350km last Friday.

[toolonglegs]

You can put all you want in your mouth at race pace, the body can only utilize a certain amount of it, so the more you do longer races the better you get at estimating your needs.
My average race is 2 hours, a couple of gels in the pocket is fine for me, often they go unused. Drinks depend on the conditions, sometimes 500 mls is fine, sometimes 1.5l isn't enough.
But once I go over 2 hours I need to eat and drink or I start to feel it... no surprise when your burning 1100Kcal per hour or so.
Only real hunger / thirst bonk I had was on a 175km race with 4000m climbing... I thought I was getting a lot in, but I obviously didn't and the last 90 minutes were horrible .

[Pravda]

Looks like it'll be pretty warm here in Perth sp it'll definitely be a two bottle day. Going to try and bribe a mate to give me handups in the feedzone too. Bottles that is no food.

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[singlespeedscott]

I couldn't even comprehend what it would be like to race that distance with that much climbing? I reckon I would be off the back after the first climb. The rest would be a solo training ride
When I ride those distances at a normal pace I would usually only drink one 700ml bidon and 6 pitted dates.

[toolonglegs]

You've been following me long enough on Strava to know I haven't done anything like that for a loooong time

[singlespeedscott]

[KGB]

I did 175 yesterday, solo and ate a croissant, 3 muesli bar things, half a packet of snakes, a litre of sports drink and probably 3x750 biddons of water. Still wasn't properly hydrated by the end.

[ikm]

And only 8 of the A grade field finished the race? 150km and 3,000m on a warm day seemed to take it's toll.

[happysumo]

Just got word I'll be bumped up to A grade for a race this Saturday.

120km. Never raced further than 80.

Normally get by on 1.5 bidons of water and a handful of natural confec. dinosaurs.

Any word on what to eat tonight, tomorrow, saturday morning, and during the race?



Also my training between now and then will consist of 2x20's at around 90-95% of FTP tonight up a mountain around here, and a 15 minute to/from work commute tomorrow. Did 150km of endurance with a few hard spurts here and there yesterday. Sounds OK?
Nerrrvvess.....