15 ways to fuel your riding

Changing what you eat before, during or after training can trigger different physiological adaptations, enhance your riding, and help you achieve specific goals. Here's how to fuel to gain optimal results

- Mark Bailey

1 Be flexible

Cyclists regularly adapt their training rides, goals and bike kit. But when choosing what to eat before, during or after training, we often stick to the same routines. In many ways, this is sensible. Knowing which fuel works for your body is crucial. And it'd be unwise to try a new plan on event day. But following the same nutritional strategy for every training session could be hampering your physiological adaptations and throttling your gains.

Most athletes are familiar with the concept of 'periodised training' - the strategic adjustment of training variables over time to optimise performance. But among professional cyclists, 'periodised nutrition' - the time-specific use of nutritional interventions to trigger targeted training adaptations - is of growing importance. While some riders follow habitual fuelling plans, it's better to take a flexible approach, using a combination of different nutritional training methods to achieve specific goals. Some strategies are highly researched. Others are more theoretical. But most pro riders now periodise their nutrition.

2 The power of periodisation

At its most basic, periodised nutrition is about fuelling for the work required. This can be adapting your nutrition for seasonal phases, such as eating fewer carbs in the offseason to avoid weight gain, or as specific as altering what you eat around each workout, such as eating fast-digesting carbs at breakfast to boost your power before hill reps.