Carb loading isn't just for marathon runners. Here's how cyclists fill the tank before a big ride or sportive.
Carb loading isn't just for marathon runners. Here's how cyclists fill the tank before a big ride or sportive.
Carbohydrate loading is often talked about as a marathon-runner's ritual, but the underlying science applies just as much to cyclists facing a long sportive, gran fondo or race. Any event that will draw heavily on your glycogen stores over several hours benefits from starting with those stores as full as possible.
Done properly, carb loading for cycling is not complicated, and it is not about a giant pasta dinner the night before. Here is how it actually works and how to do it.
Your body stores a limited amount of carbohydrate as glycogen, and hard, sustained cycling burns through it steadily. If you start a long event with partially filled stores and cannot take on enough carbohydrate during the ride to keep up, you eventually run empty, the collapse in energy cyclists call the bonk.
Carb loading addresses one half of this equation: it ensures you begin with your tank as full as possible, giving you a bigger reserve to draw on. In-ride fuelling handles the other half.
Carb loading makes most sense before genuinely long or demanding events, typically those lasting a couple of hours or more, where glycogen depletion is a real risk. For a short, easy ride it is unnecessary, because your normal stores are more than adequate.
So reserve the effort for your target events: the big sportive, the long race, the epic ride. For these, starting with maximised glycogen can meaningfully affect how you feel in the closing hours.
In the 24 to 48 hours before a big event, increase the proportion of carbohydrate in your meals, aiming for a target based on your bodyweight, commonly in the region of 10 to 12 grams per kilogram per day for a full load. Spread it evenly across your meals and snacks rather than cramming it into one sitting.
Keep the food familiar and relatively low in fibre to avoid gut discomfort on the day, and remember that drinks and sports products count towards your total. The aim is full stores and a settled stomach, achieved calmly.
The classic error is the enormous meal the night before, which tends to leave you feeling heavy and can upset your stomach without actually loading you any better than a steady, spread approach. Another is suddenly eating unfamiliar high-carbohydrate foods that your gut is not used to.
A third is neglecting hydration, since storing glycogen also involves storing water. Steady hydration through the loading period supports the process. Calm, accurate and familiar beats dramatic every time.
Carb loading is not a substitute for fuelling during the ride; it is a complement to it. Even with full stores, a long event will deplete you without ongoing carbohydrate intake, so you still fuel steadily throughout, using dual-source products like BETA Fuel for the higher intakes long rides demand.
Think of loading as the starting reserve and in-ride fuelling as the steady supply. Together they keep you supplied from the first pedal stroke to the finish.
For a big ride, fill the tank sensibly in the 24 to 48 hours before, aiming for around 10 to 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram per day, spread evenly and from familiar foods, with steady hydration. Then fuel properly during the ride itself.
Do that and you give yourself the best possible energy platform for your target event, and a much better chance of finishing strong rather than crawling home.