British Cycling x Science in Sport — Member newsletter piece · Educational · Links to fuelling guide · MTB focus

Adapted for the member newsletter: education-led, guide-linked, no product focus. 2 July 2026.

Subject line: The climb decides the race. Here's how to fuel for it.

Preview line: A quick, practical guide to fuelling a cross country ride, from the performance nutritionists behind Sir Chris Hoy and the LA2028 Podium Squad.

Hi [First Name],

Every mountain biker knows the feeling. The descent is the part you remember, fast, loose, alive. But the race, the real race, is decided somewhere much less glamorous: on the climb, when your legs are screaming and your power has to hold. And whether it holds was mostly settled before you ever clipped in.

Here is the good news. Fuelling for that moment is not complicated, and getting it right is one of the biggest, cheapest gains available to any rider. Here is the short version you can use this weekend.

On a cross country lap, the climbs are where your power output goes to maximal and stays there. That is where a fuelled rider rides away from an unfuelled one. The descent is gravity and skill. The climb is fuel. And by the time you reach it, the decision has already been made for you, so the work happens earlier.

Every sharp effort up a climb draws hard on your fast, powerful, finite energy stores, your muscle glycogen. Those stores only partly refill on the descents in between, so the longer the ride runs, the smaller the reserve you carry into each new climb. The rider who reaches the foot of the final ascent with fuel still in the tank is the rider who holds power to the top. Everyone else watches their wattage bleed away and blames the gradient. It was rarely the gradient. It was the fuel.

1. Start full. Fuel before the ride, deliberately and to a plan, so you hit the trail with full stores rather than a hopeful guess. You cannot top up what you did not start with.
2. Feed before you're empty, not after. Take on carbohydrate before the tank runs low, at a steady drip through the ride. Carbohydrate taken before you empty keeps real power available. Carbohydrate taken after you have bonked is just damage control, and by then the damage is done.
3. Go further with dual-source carbs. Your gut can only absorb so much of a single carbohydrate per hour before it protests. Blending two carbohydrate sources lets you take on more fuel per hour without the stomach trouble, which is exactly what you want on a long, climb-heavy ride. It is the science behind how the pros now fuel.

There is even an edge most riders never think about. Carbohydrate in the mouth signals the brain before digestion has even begun, quietly dialling down how hard the effort feels. On a climb that is trying to break you, feeling a fraction fresher can be the difference between holding the wheel in front and watching it ride away.

The thrill is the descent. The result is the fuelling. You earn the right to enjoy the first by getting the second right, quietly, before anyone is watching. The mountain decides the race. You decide what you bring to it.

Want the full detail, how much, how often, and how to build it into your own ride? Science in Sport, the performance nutritionists behind Sir Chris Hoy and the LA2028 Podium Squad, have put together a complete cycling fuelling guide.

Read the full cycling fuelling guide → [placeholder URL — swap for final fuelling / hydration guide destination]

Every Science in Sport product is Informed Sport tested and approved.

The brief was clear: less brand-led, more member-benefit, and no second product push straight after the cycling packs ran. Here is how this version answers that, point by point.

• Education, not promotion. The payload is a genuine fuelling lesson (start full, feed before empty, dual-source carbs, the mouth-sensing edge) that a member can apply on their next ride. Nothing is being sold. The value is the knowledge.
• No product blocks, no shop links. The trio of cycling pack boxes and every Shop CTA have been removed. The single call to action links to an educational guide, not a product page, exactly as requested.
• Partner voice, done right. Science in Sport appears as the credible expert source of the advice, with the Hoy and LA2028 credibility used to back the guidance, not to endorse a purchase. It reads as British Cycling sharing something useful with members.
• Keeps the hook, loses the hard sell. The vivid mountain-bike voice is retained because it earns attention in a busy newsletter, but it now resolves into a takeaway a rider can use, not a checkout.
• Follow-up offered. The stronger strategic fit, a beginner fuelling piece aligned to the Sofa to Saddle launch, can be prepared for that edition. This piece keeps the current placement warm and useful in the meantime.