How much carbohydrate does a professional cyclist eat during the Vuelta?

Professional cyclists are periodising their carbohydrate intake more than ever before so that they are fuelling for the training load appropriately.

A recent case study demonstrates a meal by meal and stage by stage basis fuelling strategy used by a professional cyclist during the 2021 Vuelta Grand Tour.

Now I can vouch for the fact that professional cyclists eat a tonne of carbohydrates. July 2021 I was the acting performance chef feeding the Bike Exchange boys at their altitude camp for a month in Andorra before the Vuelta 2021.

So I happen to know the rider in this case study as I spent a few weeks at altitude camp with him and ensure that he was appropriately fed during that period preparing him for the Vuelta.

How does a professional cyclist fuel the Vuelta?

Professional cyclists adapt their carbohydrate intake both overall and in grams per hour to suit the demands of that stage (and what's on the cards tomorrow).

I like to refer to it as fuelling for the watts required!

Different days have different nutrition needs - whether that's in a training block or competition racing something epic like the Giro.

Not every day is high carb or low carb.

Here you can see this rider varies between 41 and 106g per hour carbohydrates depending on what that stage looked like.

Vuelta Espana 2021 consisted of 3417km, 21 stages, 2x rest days, 2x individual TT, 6 flat stages, 4 hilly stages and 9 mountain stages with the following energy expenditure during exercise

Rest day mean: 563kcal
Individual TT mean: 1701kcal
Flat stage mean: 3022+381kcal
Hill stage mean 4040+788kcal
Mountain stage - 4602+985kcal.

Throughout the race the athlete, performance chef and sports nutritionist used a weighed food diary - recorded race foods and sports products consumed during stage using remote food photographic method. The recovery meal was weighed and packed by chef then the rider weighed any unconsumed food. or additional foods eaten. The nutrition team then calculated carbohydate intake during stage and provided within fuelling feedback and recommendations for carbohydrates to consume for rest of the day.

Test your race nutrition knowledge

In summary this riders intake throughout the 21 stages of the 2021 giro looked like:

Total Daily carbohydrate intake

Mean absolute daily intake was 812+215g
- Range 340-1118g per day
Relative relative to body mass— 12.2+3.2g/kg
- Range 5.1-17.7g/kg per day

Carbohydrate pre-race meal (Breakfast)

Average carbohydrate at breakfast 124+24g.
Absolute CHO at breakfast: 71-152g
Relative to body weight: 1.1-2.3g/kg

Carbohydrate intake and type during exercise

Total carbohydrate consumed during exercise: 185-508g
Carbohydrate intake per hour ranged from 41-106g/h)
Carbohydrate intake consisted of:
- Wholefoods - 37%
- Bars - 21%,
- Gels - 14%
- High CHO drinks - 15%

Recovery carbohydrate intake post stage

Average post stage recovery carbohydrate: 189+43g.
Range of carbohydrate intake post-stage 70-267g
Relative to body weight: 1.1- 4g/kg

Dinnertime carbohydrate

Average CHO at dinner - 195+76g
Dinner carb range: 80-326g,
Dinner carb relative to body weight; 1.2-4.9g/kg

Periodising carbohydrate to exercise demands

This case study highlights application of a periodised carbohydrate approach to match highly variable event demands. There can be substantial day by day variation in CHO intake during multi day events and training, and manipulated the CHO intake according to energy expenditure can ensure sufficient fuelling and recovery.

Practical application

Generic daily carbohydrate recommendations in g/kg don’t reflect the dynamic requirements of grand tour racing.

Athletes are able to fuel competitively using predominantly whole foods for CHO, strategically adding concentrated dual source CHO drinks at key moments.

Integration of athlete data via Trainingpeaks allows periodisation of nutrition advice by the sports nutritionist or sports dietitian.

Fuel for the watts required

Do you adapt your fuelling to the demands of the day?

Whether you are a professional cyclist, age grouper or weekend warrior, fuelling your training works.

If you are ready to fuel your training and transform your performance, health and body composition for life, learn to use the Cycling Nutrition Framework.

Gemma

P.S. Just an FYI.... I fed this athlete for an altitude training camp in prep for the Vuelta last year in Andorra, so this approach was also used in training...

Reference: Strobel, N., et al. (2022). "Case Study: The application of daily carbohydrate periodisation throughout a cycling Grand Tour." Sports Performance & Science Reports 158.