If you asked most athletes whether they fuel their rides, they’d say yes. They ate breakfast. They grabbed a gel mid-ride. They had dinner after. Boxes checked.
But fueling isn’t one box, it’s three separate windows, and most athletes are quietly skipping at least one of them without realizing it. Here’s where each one tends to fall apart, and what to do instead.
Before: Start Fueled, Not Underfueled, Not Rushed
This is the window that gets skipped most often, and it’s almost always for one of two reasons.
The early morning ride. You wake up, you’re not hungry yet, you figure you’ll be fine, it’s “only” 60 or 90 minutes. Maybe you grab coffee and head out the door. The problem isn’t necessarily that you bonk on that ride. It’s what it costs you in the hours after: flat energy, a harder time recovering, a system that never got the message it was about to work.
The midday ride. You had lunch three or four hours ago and figure that’s covering you. It’s not. By the time you clip in, that meal has largely been used up, and you’re starting the ride already behind.
The fix isn’t complicated. Being fueled means a simple carbohydrate 15-30 minutes before you head out like a banana, a piece of toast, a gel. It doesn’t need to be a production. It just needs to happen.
During: Fuel By the Clock, Not By Feel
Once you’re moving, the general target is 30-90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, scaling up as the ride gets longer and more intense. Easy spin? Go for the lower end. Long, hard effort? Aim to hit the higher end.
If you’re a cyclist riding with power, your total work done (measured in kilojoules) can actually be converted into a specific grams-of-carb-per-hour target, rather than relying on a generic range. It’s a more precise way to know your number, and it’s exactly the kind of calculation we walk through in 1:1 sessions and inside the course.
The bigger issue for most athletes isn’t the math, though. It’s timing it to the clock instead of to hunger. Hunger cues lag behind actual need, especially once you’re a couple hours in. By the time you feel like you should eat something, you’re often already behind.
After: The Window Life Actually Steals From You
This is the one I think gets missed the most, and it’s rarely because athletes don’t know recovery fueling matters. It’s because life gets in the way the second the ride ends.
You walk through the door, and laundry needs doing. The dog needs attention. Kids need something. Or you drove to a trailhead, and what’s usually a 20-minute drive home turns into 45 because of traffic. By the time you’re back, you’re cranky, hungry, and reaching for whatever’s easiest instead of what actually supports recovery.
None of that is a willpower problem. It’s a planning problem, and it’s fixable with a little intention:
- Premake your recovery mix and leave it on the counter, or keep it ready in the fridge, so it’s grabbable the second you’re home.
- Dry-scoop it. If you’re driving somewhere to ride, bring the powder dry in a bottle or a small container. You can find water almost anywhere so you can mix it up in the car, or bring a cooler with your milk of choice, and sip it on the drive home as a bridge until your next real meal.
These are small moves, and they seem insignificant. But they’re the difference between walking in the door already recovering and walking in the door already behind.
The Real Takeaway
None of these windows require a rigid plan or a perfect log of grams and timing. What they require is knowing they’re three separate opportunities, not one blurry “did I eat today?” Building a couple of simple habits so each one actually gets covered, especially on the days life is working against you.
