What to eat on race day

Q

I am new to cycling and I am not sure what I should be eating for breakfast before one-day events and what I should eat/ drink during such an event. My ride usually lasts 2-3 hours. Please advise.

A

The goal of your breakfast is to top up your glycogen stores after the overnight fast, and so should be primarily carbohydrate-rich foods.

Depending on your tolerance and the amount of time available to you prior to the start, the portion that you eat may vary, but it makes sense that you should eat as much as you can at this time. This is particularly so if you find you are unable to fuel regularly throughout the race.

So a good breakfast could be a large bowl of oats porridge (made with milk to contribute a good value of protein) with a large glass of fruit juice. You may then like to have a bottle of your favourite energy drink to sip on whilst making your way to the start. Then from the start of the race you should aim to fuel at regular intervals using your choice fuel to provide approximately 30-60g of carbs per hour.

These can be given in the form of fluids or solids, and in fact a mixture of each would be ideal. An average energy bar and 500ml of most sports drinks will provide about 30g carbs. Any additional fluid requirements can be met with water.

The goal is to keep topping up your stores to prevent the drop in blood sugars which brings the onset of fatigue as it is very difficult to correct this without some impact on your performance. Ideally a strategy should be calculated individually during training sessions to avoid trying anything new on the day.