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Whether it’s a long ride with friends, a race, or a strenuous interval session, fueling up correctly before a bike ride is key to keeping energy high and maintaining stable blood sugar levels. However, not all rides call for the same nutrition strategy; distance and intended intensity both factor into what you should eat before hopping on the saddle.
“For a short distance lasting about 45 minutes or less, regularly timed meals and snacks will likely be enough to support the ride,” says Jordan Hill, a registered dietitian at Top Nutrition Coaching. “If it’s lasting 90 or more minutes and requires a high-intensity output—like a bike race—there may be benefits in carb-loading two or three days prior.”
The ideal preride meal or snack can also vary based on the individual’s food tolerances, but there are some general nutrition principles that apply across the board.
“An athlete’s gut may be very accustomed to high-fat foods like fatty meats, cheese, etc., but I advise avoiding them in the hours prior to moderate- to high-intensity exercise,” Cliff McArthur, RD, a certified specialist in sports dietetics at Wenzel Coaching who regularly works with ultra-endurance cyclists tells Bicycling. “[You] may tolerate these foods well, but that doesn’t change the laws of basic exercise physiology or make them good and performance-enhancing.” (In other words: Just because you can gobble down a double cheeseburger before a ride doesn’t necessarily mean you should.)
Factoring in timing, portion sizes, and macronutrients can make preride fueling seem overly complicated, but these experts break it down, offering specific suggestions on best practices and sample meals. Read on to learn what to eat before a bike ride for optimal energy levels and minimal digestive discomfort.
3-7 Days Before Your Ride
In the days leading up to a ride, eating balanced meals at consistent times can go a long way in preparing your body for exercise. Aim to consume about 225 to 400 grams of carbs (or more) a day in this time, depending on your bodyweight, McArthur suggests.
McArthur tells his athletes to avoid greasy, fried, fatty foods at this point and opt for fruit, whole grains, and starchy and non-starchy vegetables instead. Spinach, broccoli, turnip greens, beans, potatoes, yams, and mushrooms are all ideal nutritious options (and provide carbs). McArthur compares these foods to fuel for an engine: “They are rich in the nutrients that make an engine run and contain phytochemicals—top-tier fuel additives—that put the highest-quality final touches on recovery.”
His specific suggestions for cyclists are to:
- Make meals 25-30 percent protein, 20-25 percent non-starchy vegetables, and 45-55 percent starchy carbs like pasta, rice, breads, and potatoes
- Include 1 to 1.5 cups of cooked vegetables at two meals each day
- Include 1.5 to 2.5 cups cooked grains, cereals, and breads at three or four meals each day
- Consume two to three servings (one serving = 1 cup) of a variety of fresh or frozen fruit
- Limit high fat processed meats like sausage and bacon
- Snack on nutritious and recovery-enhancing nuts and seeds (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pumpkin seed kernels, chia seeds, etc.)
1-2 Days Before Your Ride
A day or two before the ride is when it’s best to cut down on high-fiber foods and increase carbohydrates such as pasta, rice, cereals, and bread, aiming for somewhere between 300 to 500 grams of carbs (or more) per day, McArthur says. Starchy food items like winter squash, turnips, and beets are fair game, and McArthur particularly recommends potatoes for fulfilling your need for starchy carbs, plus they offer high levels of potassium and vitamin C.
Meal size can start to factor into your nutrition strategy at this point. “Make lunch the larger meal, have a snack between then and dinner, and make dinner a smaller meal to help with a better night’s sleep,” McArthur advises.
Meals should now be composed of 25 to 35 percent protein, less than 25 percent non-starchy vegetables, and 50 to 65 percent starchy carbs, McArthur says. A sample lunch might include:
- 4-6 ounces grilled chicken breast or salmon
- ½ cup steamed broccoli
- 2 cups rice
3-4 Hours Before Your Ride
This is a critical time window for amping up your water intake. McArthur’s rule of thumb for daily hydration is to drink half one’s bodyweight in fluid ounces—for a 150-pound person, this means 75 fluid ounces (a little over 9 cups of water)—plus another 16 to 24 fluid ounces. But with just a few hours to go, drinking 16 to 20 ounces of water is ideal.
That morning, eat a balanced breakfast consisting mostly of carbohydrates with moderate protein and low fat and fiber to avoid gastrointestinal upset. This helps keep you satisfied without blood sugar spikes or dips.
A sample meal could include syrup-drenched pancakes and Greek yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese for some protein. “Contrary to popular belief, protein is not the right fuel to add to the tank before exercise or competition,” says McArthur.
In the two hours or so before exercise, he advises athletes to consume 1 gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight, with just 2 grams of protein for every 10 grams of carbs. An example could be a banana-based smoothie with berries, a few almonds, 10 to 15 grams of protein from powder, and juice.
60-90 minutes Before Your Ride
With just an hour or so to go before the ride, the goal is to get in some final calories that will satiate hunger without causing any upset to the gut. Hill recommends eating a nutrient-dense snack focusing primarily on simple carbohydrates and a small amount of protein or healthy fat, such as a rice cake with banana slices and peanut butter.
A bonus of eating a salty snack like crackers or salted peanut butter? It can help with fluid retention before you start sweating during a ride.
10-20 Minutes Before Your Ride
Cyclists are encouraged to grab a final snack and a few sips of water about 10 minutes before getting on the bike. Hill suggests noshing on an easily digestible carb snack like toast, energy chews, or a gel and cautions against high-fat and fiber intake so close to the start of a ride, as these take longer to digest and can cause gut issues if eaten right before exercise.
It might seem risky to eat so close to the start of exercise, but McArthur says that many athletes he’s worked with have confessed the same pitfall after an unsatisfactory or problematic ride: They did not consume enough carbohydrates beforehand (and in the first hour of the ride itself). “Even in the last 20 minutes before a high-intensity effort, there are foods that every athlete’s body can tolerate well,” he says. You just have to find what works for you.
Paige Triola is a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colorado, who covers a range of topics in the athletic and outdoor recreation sphere. She spends much of her time cruising the trails on foot or by bike, testing out the newest gear designed for playing outside. Paige has written articles and product roundups for a variety of publications including Runner’s World, Bicycling Magazine, Gear Junkie, and Trail Runner Magazine.
Dr. Namrita Brooke is a full-time endurance sport coach and sport nutritionist advising active individuals and amateurs to professional athletes. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Movement Sciences and Health at University of West Florida. Professionally, she also serves on the Board of Editors of the Sports Nutrition Care Manual and remains involved in nutrition and exercise-related research, student mentorship, and coach development. Namrita's personal athletic experience ranges from ultra-endurance mountain biking to off-road triathlon, cross-country mountain bike racing, gravel cycling, duathlon, cyclocross, running, and trail running. Her research background includes hydration and sports drink research, and the interaction of nutrition, physical activity, and the brain.
