I’m going to tell you something useful about ride nutrition, and then I’m going to tell you something honest about my experience stocking it in a small bike shop. Both parts are worth reading.
Why nutrition matters on a bike
Cycling is one of those activities that burns more energy than it feels like it’s burning. You’re sitting down, there’s a breeze, the scenery is moving — it doesn’t feel like hard work until it does, and by then you’re already behind.
Bonking is the word cyclists use for what happens when your blood sugar crashes mid-ride. It’s unpleasant in a very specific way: your legs stop working properly, your mood turns sour, and the last two miles home feel like twenty. The fix is simple — eat before you’re hungry, drink before you’re thirsty — but a lot of riders, especially newer ones, don’t think about it until they’ve experienced it. It took me a long time to learn these lessons.
What actually works
The basics of ride nutrition are not complicated.
For rides under an hour, you probably don’t need anything beyond a water bottle. Your body has enough stored energy to get through an hour at a moderate pace without any trouble. Eat a snack before you leave and you’re good to go.
For rides between one and three hours, a gel or a bar somewhere in the middle makes a real difference. The goal isn’t to feel fueled — it’s to not feel depleted. Eating a little before you need it keeps your energy level steady rather than jagged. If you’re like me and gels and bars aren’t appealing, something that goes in your water bottle is a great option. Every sip of your water adds some needed calories and electrolytes.
For longer rides, plan for about 200-300 calories per hour, and drink more than you think you need. Heat and humidity increase the math. And don’t wait until that first stop or you will always be working from a deficit.
As for what kind of nutrition: drink mixes are fast and convenient, bars are more satisfying and work well when you have time to eat properly, gels are a good option if you can tolerate them, and real food (a banana, peanut butter and crackers, ice cream from the gas station) works perfectly well on longer slower rides. The best nutrition is the kind you’ll actually eat.
What I learned stocking it
When I started carrying nutrition products in the shop, I thought it made sense. Cyclists need fuel, we sell cycling stuff, straightforward.
What I didn’t fully account for is that most of the rides people do out of Evansville are short enough that they don’t need mid-ride nutrition, and the people doing longer rides tend to have their brand already figured out and buy it somewhere they get a discount on volume. The in-between market — people doing longer rides who haven’t found their thing yet — is smaller than I expected.
So I’m sitting on some inventory that needs to get used, and I’d rather sell it at a real discount than throw it away. If you’re ramping up your riding this summer, preparing for longer distance or longer duration events, or just curious about whether nutrition products would help you on longer days out, stop in. Everything is marked down significantly and I’ll give you the deets on what I think about each one.
Some of it I’d recommend to anyone. Some of it is fine but not my first choice. I’ll tell you which is which.
And all of this applies to running too. It’s not just for cyclists.
The tl;dr version
Eat a little before you think you need to. Drink more than feels necessary. Don’t wait until you feel bad to fix it. And if you want to try some options without paying full price for the experiment, come see us.
Ride nutrition is on sale at the shop right now. Stop in any time during business hours and we’ll point you toward whatever makes the most sense for how you ride.