UCI Gravel World Championships

Paul ‘hit a wall’ just after the halfway point at the Gravel World Champs, which he felt was partly because he ‘burnt some matches’ to make up ground chasing the lead group in the first 20 minutes. This substantial energy lull (aka ‘bonking’) can occur when the body cannot adequately supply fuel to the working muscles. To avoid this happening again, Paul should look to optimise his carb loading strategy in the 48 hours before a race to make sure he starts with enough glycogen, the stored form of carbohydrate. Additionally, he fell short of the hourly carbohydrate recommendations for a race of this intensity and duration, so he should also work on increasing the amount of fuel he consumes whilst on the bike to ensure his muscles can continuously generate force. We’d recommend implementing these practices in key training sessions to increase his gut’s tolerance of this higher amount of fuel.

Paul is an experienced age-group rider, but feels he has a history of under-hydrating during both training sessions and races, including this one. By drinking only two 750ml bottles across the 4 hours and 12 minutes of cycling, Paul’s fluid intake was the lowest we saw from any of our riders on the day. Though the conditions were mild, temperatures did rise throughout the race and Paul subjectively felt he didn’t drink enough to support his performance. Considering his low intake, it was no surprise he suffered from a small amount of cramp in some of the later climbs. Ahead of future races, Paul would benefit from collecting sweat rate data and having a Sweat Test to help him understand his individual sweat losses and therefore be able to tailor his fluid and sodium needs accordingly.

Given the evidence demonstrating caffeine’s performance-enhancing potential for cyclists, Paul should trial the stimulant in and around his training to see how he responds. Practically, he could do this by incorporating a couple PF 30 Caffeine Gels in his strategy.