Hydration for Cyclists

Being well hydrated is crucial to getting the most out of your cycling. Whether it be in a race or training, your body needs to be well hydrated, but not over hydrated.

One of the most frequently overlooked parts of racing and training is keeping your body adequately hydrated throughout the day and in particular leading up to the ride. The process of hydrating the body before a ride starts the day before. In the evening, you’ll want to drink a litre of water in the evening, flavoured with lemon juice if flavouring is needed. Avoid sugars like cordial as it is High GI and will be stored and not used as energy. Also avoid any type of caffeine as it will dehydrate you being a diuretic. A good practice is to keep a water bottle by your bed as you sleep.

In the morning, try drink a further litre of water to flush your system, but make sure you stop drinking about 120mins before your ride ( the last thing you want to do is need to take a “natural break”)

During the ride some people decided to take one bottle with plain water and one with electrolytes, some prefer both with electrolytes. I would suggest using one of these two options rather than taking two bottles of water, the electrolytes are important to help replenish glycogen stores. Some powders like “Staminade” also contain magnesium which may help to prevent cramps.

1 bottle per hour is the usual rule of thumb, however if the weather is hot this must be increased to account for the amount of fluid lost in sweat. Drink every 10 – 15 minutes, a wise old cyclist once told me if you feel thirsty then you should have already drank 10 minutes ago.

After your ride you need to warm down and replenish your glycogen stores. To do this replace as much water as your body can soak up to hydrate the body and also ingest simple sugars to help replace the glycogen stores. A coke is great for this as it has so much sugar in it, however understand that coke also is high in caffeine and is a diuretic thus plenty of water needs to be ingested in addition. Coffee is not a good idea for this as it is a diuretic and actually works in the opposite way, so if you do stop for a coffee after your ride, make sure you also ingest plenty of water, and don’t worry too much about heaping the sugar into the coffee :)