• Wendy is a keen gravel rider who raced well at the end of 2021 to win the Standard Deluxe Dirty Century (100 miles with 1,950m elevation)
• Wendy said although she raced at a “decent pace (2:30mins/km), the field wasn’t too competitive so it was more of a casual event” which she really enjoyed. She finished the 100-miler in 6 hours 43 minutes to come 1st overall

Hydration

• Wendy drank ~2.8L/95oz over the whole race which equated to an average ~417ml/14oz fluid per hour. This was primarily from refilling her 700ml/24oz bottles with either plain water or PF 30 Drink Mix throughout the ride
• In her opinion, Wendy didn’t believe she drank enough during the race and rated her hydration strategy as a 5 out of 10. She felt cold, which in turn meant that she didn’t feel thirsty and therefore didn’t proactively worry about drinking
• As the conditions were cool (10℃/50°F) and she wasn’t racing at a very high intensity, we can assume Wendy’s sweat rate would have been on the lower side during this race. Whilst we shouldn’t disregard how Wendy felt post-race, drinking over 400ml/hr (14oz/hr) is a suitable intake and would have replaced her sweat losses adequately
• During the race, Wendy got sodium on board from her PF 30 Drink Mix (500mg per serving) and a proportion from some of the solid food she ate. As a result she consumed ~259mg sodium per hour and the relative sodium concentration of her intake was ~623mg/L
• Our Online Sweat Test indicated that her sodium losses are likely to be high. In the cool race conditions, she took on a seemingly decent amount of sodium to replace a proportion of her likely losses and she didn’t cramp at all during the ride
• Wendy drank a cup of water in the morning before the race. In future, we would recommend Wendy follow our preloading protocol, of 1 x PH 1500 in 500ml/16oz of water, to make sure she’s starting with a large reservoir of fluid to draw from

Fueling

Conclusions

• After a long ride the previous weekend, Wendy produced a great performance at the Standard Deluxe Dirty Century. With less competition, it was more of a fun ride for Wendy, rating her race satisfaction as 9 out of 10 and saying, “I really enjoyed it, I’m proud of myself and the course was gorgeous!”
• Wendy fueled and hydrated effectively to ride at a more moderate intensity and win the race. In future races, where the conditions may be warmer and she is riding at a much higher intensity, being more aggressive with her carb, fluid and sodium intake would be beneficial to her performance