'A Massive Change': How a Carbohydrate Revolution is Speeding up Pro Cycling

Published October 31, 2023 03:26AM

Riders loaded up on wild new levels of carbohydrate and crushed more records than ever before in 2023.

From Paris-Roubaix through the Tour de France, power thresholds were broken and Strava KoMs were kicked to a new dimension in a lightning-fast year of pro racing.

Bike tech and training breakthroughs played a role. But the rocket-fuel loaded into riders’ gel-packs and water bottles is what truly pressed the accelerator on cycling’s record year.

“There’s been a massive change in energy intakes in the last five or six years,” Ineos Grenadiers nutritionist Aitor Viribay Morales told Velo. “Riders are able to eat so many carbohydrates on the bike now, almost twice as much as before. That’s impacting massively on performance, but also recovery and adaptations from day to day.

“It’s one of the biggest reasons why cyclists are producing such high power, for so long, and how they are reproducing it day to day.”

This season saw 7w/kg become the new norm for grand tour contending climbers. Classics champions pushed 5.5w/kg for hours on end, and wins were forged on 1,200-watt attacks deep into a race’s sixth hour.

It’s no coincidence that carbohydrate intake rose in line with those staggering breakthroughs in output.

Dietary trends come and go, but carbs will always remain the king of the endurance world. Whether it comes from a sack of raw sugar or a stack of sweet potato, carbohydrate is the macronutrient for fuel.

From the front to the back of the peloton, riders are now crushing 100-120 grams of carbohydrate per hour. That’s almost twice what they might have managed a decade ago. It’s the carbo-equivalent of a 12 oz can of Coca Cola every 20 minutes, or more than two cups of cooked white rice per hour.

Nutrition, and particularly carbohydrate, has now become so important that it’s seen as the third pillar of pro cycling alongside training and tech.

“The ability to tolerate carbs is becoming one of the biggest factors in winning or losing,” Soudal Quick-Step-turned Astana-Qazaqstan trainer Vasilis Anastopoulos said.

“It’s impossible for a rider to be able to maintain the same power all through a long race, but a rider that’s not optimally fuelled will see much faster declines in their power profile. Carbohydrate is essential to mitigating that drop. That’s why we always need them fuelling so much now.”

When racing, more is more

Fueling with carbohydrate is nothing new. Top level cyclists have been chowing on the sugary, starchy stuff since way before down-tube shifters and toe-clip pedals.

New formulations from nutrition brands like Maurten, Precision Fuel and Hydration, and Science in Sport means the age-old carb “ceiling” of 60-90 grams per hour has been blown into another orbit.

Consumption thresholds have been shifted thanks to “hydrogel” delivery models and new glucose-fructose ratios that ensure what goes down, stays down.

The risk of “G.I. distress” from excess consumption – whether nausea, bloating, cramps, or diarrhoea – has been mitigated by these rocket-science concoctions that make stupid levels of sugars safe on the stomach.

“New products mean more and more riders are hitting 120-140 grams of carbohydrate an hour now,” Viribay said.

“Before, you might have had to take five or six gels to reach that much, but there was a lot more risk of G.I. distress if you did it. A few years ago, the safer limit was seen as 60 or 90 grams.”

Training to eat, eating to train

Eating as hard as the modern peloton does requires practice. And that practice is where the peloton is reinventing the way it thinks.

The trend for low carb or fasted training is still a “thing”, but it’s carefully periodized and structured into a training program.

Fasted or low-carb sessions promote the body’s use of fats for fuel. It’s a practice that refines a rider’s all-day engine. But it’s the carbohydrate-rich sessions that break plateaus and build the ability to make the race-winning moves.

For every low-sugar base training session, a rider will endure a top-end workout loaded with gels, bars, and energy drinks. They allow riders to figure out how much they can stomach, “condition” their gastrointestinal tract for the carb-frenzy of racing, and help them hit intervals at their hardest.

And that’s how previous power thresholds, Strava KoMs, and “fastest-ever” records fall.

Eat to train, eat to race, eat to recover

Improved understanding of, and investment in, nutrition, has been one of the markers of the peloton’s recent progress.

In-house chefs, nutritionists, kitchen trucks, and bespoke diet apps are as integral to a team’s traveling armory as the mechanics, masseuses, and crate of bike mechs that have been following racers for recent decades.

The modern peloton lives on a 5,000-7,000 calorie pipeline of energy from breakfast to bedtime that keeps them fueled for racing and recovering.

And an improved understanding of athletic recovery means that the pipeline never gets cut off.

A shift in focus from protein toward carbohydrate means riders are tasked with keeping the carbs coming deep into the final kilometers of a race or training session.

“We know that fueling on the bike gives you less degradation, less protein breakdown, and a better maintenance of your training status,” Ineos Grenadiers staffer Viribay said.

“The better you’re eating on the bike, the better your chances for recovery the next day. High-carb sports nutrition is for the day, but for the future days, too.”

The self-perpetuating carb-cycle

The increasing power outputs and climbing speeds of the WorldTour can’t be solely attributed to the recent “carbolution.”

But the ability to tolerate more carbohydrate for training, racing, and recovery is creating something of a self-perpetuating cycle.

Yet ironically, the intensity made possible by fueling more can only be sustained with … more fuel.

“Higher carbohydrate consumption has brought a twofold effect. Athletes can achieve better quality training, and more of it, and they can compete better. And then they’re fuelling better in racing so they feel liberated to race harder,” said Joshua Rowe, performance scientist for nutrition brand Maurten.

“But racing harder burns more energy and has a higher toll. So athletes need to fuel more during and after the race to sustain themselves. It’s becoming self-perpetuating.”

Physiologists and nutritionists acknowledge a limit there’s a limit for “safe” carbohydrate intake, but don’t think elite sport has found it yet.

In the meantime, nutrition brands are evolving their product lines to meet the demand for more, and physiologists tinker with test athletes to see how far things can go.