BONUS: From Gels & Guesswork to 120g an Hour | LITP: Chronicles

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Sitting down and having a yarn with my mate Sveino is one of my favourite marts of the month. Sharing a huge chunk of my pro career with Svein and travelling the world racing our bikes together feels like a lifetime ago now, and sometimes we land on a topic that really brings home just how far the sport has come in the time since we both hung up our racing wheels.

This month is no different. Guys, welcome back to the Life In The Peloton Chronicles, exclusively for you Pelo members.

After knocking out an epic 240km ride as part of MAAP’s Equinox Experience and Curve’s Border Run on the weekend that saw me absolutely creeping up to the Victorian border with New South Wales, I wanted to talk about nutrition in bike racing.

Fuelling in cycling - more specifically, how much carbohydrate riders can consume every hour - has transformed in the last few years. Back in my day, we’d have a gel here, a bar there, and sip on a couple of bottles throughout a stage - don’t want to eat too much, right? Might get fat…

Nowadays, pro cyclists are getting through 120g of carbohydrates an hour - or even more. It’s totally changed the game. Riders have more energy, so they can push harder day after day after day. Who would have thought having more energy would make you go better on the bike?

I caught up with an old mate of mine - Kevin Poulton. Kevin is my old coach, and now plies his trade at UAE Emirates XRG with some of the best riders in the world. Kev’s been in the sport for over a decade, and has a really good head on how fuelling has evolved at the top level, and some of the misunderstandings about the golden 120g/h number that we hear so much about these days.

At the end of the day, it’s all about training. Just like how you train your legs, you need to train your gut as well. There’s some gems in this ep, and hopefully you learn a thing or two - as well as enjoy hearing Sveino and I spin a yarn and swap stories from our time in the bunch.

Guys, as you know, these episodes are exclusive to you Pelo members. As always, I want to give you all a massive ‘Chapeau’ for pulling this bunch along and supporting me and the Life In The Peloton team. If you like what we do tell your mates and get them across to join this paceline.

Until next month!

Cheers

Mitch