The WattPlan Podcast · Episode 58 · 10 min
Gravel race nutrition, and what to eat for a turbo race
Next episodes: Inside the winning power files from Unbound and The Traka · How much should you drink on a bike ride? · Which supplements actually work for cyclists?
Read the transcript
James. Welcome to the WattPlan Podcast, I'm James. I race gravel, I've got a family and a job, I build WattPlan in whatever time is left, and I read more sports science than is good for me. How much should you eat in a gravel race, and how do you carry it? And at the other end, what do you eat for a turbo race that's over in forty minutes? Lyra's here, she's our AI research voice, and every study we mention is linked in the show notes.
Lyra. The straight answer for gravel is the road answer. Thirty to sixty grams of carbohydrate an hour up to about two and a half hours, and ninety grams an hour beyond that. What changes on gravel is that you carry it yourself and you eat it on rough ground. For a turbo race under forty-five minutes you need no carbohydrate at all, and under an hour a mouth rinse is about as far as the evidence goes. [1]
James. Right, where's this from? Because gravel advice online is mostly people selling you a bag.
Lyra. From one of the UCI's 2026 nutrition reviews, by Jamie Whitfield, Iñigo Mujika and Louise Burke, in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. And here's the honest bit up front. There's almost no research on gravel or on indoor racing, so they interviewed riders, fourteen esports racers and nine gravel racers, and set what those riders do against the road evidence. It's experience read through the road guidelines, not a gravel trial. [1]
James. Twenty-three riders. That's not a lot.
Lyra. It isn't, and the authors say so. But the gravel answers line up, and the useful finding isn't a new number. It's that the number is the road number and the whole problem is getting it in. One rider said they'd target over a hundred grams an hour in a long race if the roads allowed it. Several said eating on the move is hard on rough terrain, so they plan their food around the easier sectors. [1]
James. That rings true. On the rough stuff nobody's taking a hand off the bars, and then the smooth bit arrives and you've forgotten to eat.
Lyra. Which is why the review's advice is about logistics. Hydration packs, which the riders said hold three to five litres and let you drink without reaching down. Clothing with extra pockets, top tube bags, stem bags. And a tactic I like, eating above ninety grams an hour on the smooth sections when you can, so the rough sections where you can't are already covered. [1]
James. And I'd add, work it out beforehand. For any race I use the Precision Fuel and Hydration calculator to see roughly what I need, and then the question is where it's going to fit.
Lyra. Where it fits is the bit most people skip. Some gravel races limit outside help, so there's nobody at the roadside, and whether you can stop at a feed station depends on the race, not on you. The review also points out that smaller riders simply can't carry as much, and that women who start in the same wave as men get a faster opening and less chance to eat. Some events now start the women ten minutes or more ahead for that reason.
James. Okay, but surely at some point the maths doesn't work? If I'm carrying five litres of water and a day's food, that's a lot of weight up every climb.
Lyra. It is, and the review doesn't pretend otherwise. It's a trade. On a hot, remote course with long gaps between water it even mentions hyperhydrating before the start, with glycerol or salt, knowing that adds weight too. The riders' own answer was packs for the long remote races and bottles plus a planned stop for the shorter ones. There's no study that tells you which is faster. You decide it from the course.
James. Let's flip to the turbo, because that's where I spend most of my week. I used to race indoors religiously, less so now. Short races, flat out from the gun.
Lyra. And for a race that short you don't need much. The review applies the road scale to indoor racing. Under forty-five minutes, no carbohydrate needed. Up to about seventy-five minutes, small amounts or a mouth rinse. Where indoor racing does want fuel is the day before, seven to twelve grams per kilo of body weight across the twenty-four hours, and a meal of one to four grams per kilo in the hours before the start. [1]
James. So the work is done at dinner the night before, not on the start line.
Lyra. Mostly, yes. And there's one survey of what indoor riders actually eat, by Andy King and Rebecca Hall, from 2020. Riders training and racing online were taking about forty grams of carbohydrate an hour in training, and roughly eight or nine in ten were below the recommendations before, during and after a ride. The review's authors say that for short races that may have been fine. The gap matters more on the long indoor rides. [3]
James. Fair. Now the bit I really want to ask about. Heat. My setup's a Wahoo KICKR Bike with the Headwind fan in front of it, and I love the thing. But is the fan doing anything the bottle isn't?
Lyra. Yes, and more than the bottle. The review expects indoor racing to be hotter work than the same effort outdoors, because there's no moving air, though nobody has measured it in a race. The study it leans on is from Saunders and colleagues. Nine riders cycled for two hours at thirty-three degrees and high humidity, with air blowing at them at four different speeds, from nearly still up to fifty kilometres an hour. Heat storage, body temperature and how hard it felt were all higher at the two lowest air speeds, and there was no difference between thirty-three and fifty. [4]
James. So a fan that feels like road speed is enough, and more than that doesn't buy you anything.
Lyra. That's what the data say. And the detail I'd underline is this. At thirty-three kilometres an hour of airflow, drinking more, replacing eighty percent of sweat instead of sixty, changed none of it. Air did the work. Extra fluid didn't. So indoors the fan isn't an accessory, it's the thing that lets you hold the power. [4]
James. Which is a nice cheap answer for once. Can I raise something that bothers me about indoor racing, though? The weigh-ins.
Lyra. Go on.
James. Online racing calculates your speed from the weight you type in, so there are weigh-ins, and people cutting weight and dehydrating to make a number for one worries me. Cycling already has a problem with weight, and I think some platforms make it worse.
Lyra. The review shares the worry. It says some riders have borrowed the weight-making habits of weight-category sports, like boxing or rowing, before a weigh-in, and that nobody has studied what that does to esports riders or their racing. It calls for research rather than offering a protocol, and so will I. There's no advice in this episode on cutting weight, and there won't be. [1]
James. Good. Supplements, quickly, because the review has a whole table.
Lyra. It's a table of possibilities from other disciplines, not results from these two, and the review says that plainly. Caffeine is the best supported, a modest dose before a short indoor race, or a dose timed for a key sector in the first hour of a gravel race. Bicarbonate might help the explosive start of both, with the catch that it upsets some guts and its capsules are awkward on rough ground. We've done whole episodes on caffeine and bicarbonate, so I'll leave the doses there. [1]
James. Let's land it. If you're new to this and you've entered your first gravel event, what's the one thing?
Lyra. If you're new to this, forget grams per hour for a moment and plan where you'll eat. Look at the course, find the smooth sections and the steady climbs, and decide that's where the food goes. Then practise eating on rough ground in training, because race day is a bad time to find out you can't open a wrapper one-handed.
James. And if you train with power and you've got the kit?
Lyra. If you train with power, you've already got a course model. WattPlan's free pacing calculator reads your GPX, predicts your riding time, and tells you roughly where along the route each feed should fall. Shift each of those feeds to the nearest easy sector and you've got your plan. In the app, Route analysis places feed zones along the predicted ride the same way. On the turbo, the player reminds you to drink and eat on longer workouts and stays quiet on a short session, which is what the scale says it should do.
James. And if you race?
Lyra. If you race gravel, the review's tactic is to eat above target on the smooth sections, because the rough ones will cost you intake whether you like it or not, and to decide the pack versus bottles question from the course, not from habit. If you race indoors, eat the day before, get the biggest fan you can in front of you, and if it's an evening race, think about whether the caffeine is worth the sleep.
James. So, this week. I'll put my next race's route through the calculator and move the feeds onto the bits I can ride one-handed. I'll practise eating on the rough stuff. And on the turbo, fan first, bottle second, no gel under an hour.
Lyra. And when the gravel plan feels complicated, remember it's the road plan with a carrying problem attached. Solve the carrying, and the rest you already know.
Lyra. The full article and every study we mentioned are on the WattPlan blog, linked in the show notes. And if you've enjoyed this, follow the WattPlan Podcast wherever you're listening, so you don't miss the next one.
James. And if you want a plan built around the time you've actually got, get WattPlan on the App Store or Google Play. Thanks for listening.
Voices produced with ElevenLabs. James's voice is a clone of his own, Lyra is an AI voice, and James reviews every episode.
Gravel race nutrition follows the road scale, 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate an hour up to 2.5 hours and 90 g beyond, except that you carry it. A 2026 UCI review by Whitfield, Mujika and Burke adds that most indoor races last under an hour, where the guidelines ask for nothing more than a carbohydrate mouth rinse.
What did the UCI review look at?
The review is part seven of our series on the UCI's nutrition position statement, one of the 14 topic reviews behind it. Jamie Whitfield and Louise Burke, of the Australian Catholic University, and Iñigo Mujika, of the University of the Basque Country, published it in the May 2026 issue of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Neither discipline has much research of its own, so the authors interviewed 14 esports riders, 6 men and 8 women, and 9 gravel riders, 5 men and 4 women, and set their answers against the road evidence.
The two disciplines sit at opposite ends of the clock. Gravel races run from 50 km to more than 320 km. Indoor races usually last under an hour and start flat out, and at the 2024 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships the men's winning 300 m sprint took 25 seconds at about 994 W. That shape, short and all out from the gun, decides what fuelling can do.
How much should you eat in a gravel race?
The review gives gravel the road scale, and the UCI position statement uses the same one.
| Race or ride | Carbohydrate | What the review adds |
|---|---|---|
| Under 45 minutes | None needed | Most turbo sessions |
| 45 to 75 minutes | Small amounts or a mouth rinse | Most indoor races |
| 1 to 2.5 hours | 30 to 60 g an hour | A bottle of carbohydrate drink carries it |
| Over 2.5 hours | 90 g an hour | Fructose with glucose or maltodextrin, about 0.8 g to every 1 g |
| Above 90 g an hour | Of interest, not yet proven | When the terrain allows, to cover the stretches where you can't eat |
| Fluid at about 20 °C | Finish less than 2% lighter | Hyperhydration where you can't carry enough water |
| Day before an indoor race | 7 to 12 g per kg | Then 1 to 4 g per kg, 1 to 4 hours before the start |
The gravel riders the authors spoke to already aim high. One said they would target more than 100 g an hour in a long race if rough roads allowed it, and several described eating on the move as hard on rough terrain, so they plan their food for the easier sectors. The amount is the road amount, and the problem is getting it in, because the race dictates whether you can stop at a feed station and some events limit outside help. The authors' answers are a hydration pack, which the riders said holds 3 to 5 litres and lets them drink without reaching for a bottle, clothing with extra pockets or a bladder, top tube and stem bags, and eating above 90 g an hour on the smooth sections so the rough ones are covered. Smaller riders can't carry as much, and women who start alongside men face a faster opening and less chance to eat, which some events answer by starting the women 10 or more minutes ahead. Our guide to how much to drink covers sweat rate and sodium, and the winner's files from Unbound and The Traka show where the expensive efforts fall.
What should you eat before and during a turbo race?
For indoor racing the review applies the road rules, 7 to 12 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight in the 24 hours before and a meal of 1 to 4 g per kg in the hours before the start. During the race the range runs from nothing, or a mouth rinse of about 10 seconds in a brief event, to 60 to 90 g an hour in a longer one. The riders interviewed said their key races were short, 90 minutes at most, so carbohydrate drink and gels covered them.
Two things differ indoors. Races happen at odd hours, so the pre-race meal has to fit around a job and a bedtime, and some riders avoided caffeine before evening races to protect their sleep. And the one study of what indoor riders eat found them short. Andy King and Rebecca Hall surveyed riders who trained and raced online in 2020 and reported an average of 39.3 g of carbohydrate an hour during training, with 79%, 86% and 89% of riders below the recommendations before, during and after a ride. Indoor racing also has a weigh-in, and the review warns that some riders have borrowed the weight-making habits of weight-category sports before it, a practice nobody has studied.
Why does the fan matter more than the bottle indoors?
Indoor racing combines hard work, high sweat rates and almost no moving air, and the authors expect, though nobody has tested it, more heat stress than the same effort outdoors. Saunders and colleagues had 9 riders cycle for 2 hours at 33 °C and 59% humidity under facing air of 0.2, 10, 33 and 50 km/h. Heat storage, body temperature and perceived effort were higher at the two lowest air speeds, there was no difference between 33 and 50 km/h, and at 33 km/h replacing 80% of sweat losses instead of 59% changed none of those measures. A fan that moves air at something like road speed does what extra drinking cannot. Our post on why power is lower indoors covers the size of the heat effect.
Do supplements help in gravel and indoor racing?
The review's supplement table is a set of possibilities from other disciplines, not results from these two. Caffeine at 3 to 6 mg per kg is the best supported, about 3 mg per kg before a short indoor race, or a dose timed for a key sector in the first hour of a gravel race, with repeated doses in races over 5 hours. Sodium bicarbonate at 0.3 g per kg before the start may help the explosive opening of both, but it can upset the gut and its capsules are hard to take on rough ground. Our caffeine and sodium bicarbonate guides go into dose and timing.
What does this mean for your training?
Our view at WattPlan is that gravel fuelling is a logistics problem before it is a physiology problem, so plan where you will eat before you decide what, and that a turbo session under an hour needs a fan and a bottle rather than a gel.
WattPlan's free pacing calculator reads a GPX file in your browser, predicts your riding time for your FTP and weight, and prints the kilometre marks where a feed falls at 45-minute intervals of predicted riding, with none in the last quarter of an hour. In the app, Route analysis, part of Premium, places a feed zone every 45 minutes along the predicted ride, each for 60 g of carbohydrate and 500 ml of fluid, and leaves them out on a route under an hour and in the final 15 minutes.
On the turbo, the workout player's in-ride reminders start only on structured workouts of 60 minutes or more, with a drink reminder every 15 minutes and a feed of 60 g every 45 minutes, so a 45 minute interval session gets no reminder, which matches the scale. On a free ride they run whatever its length. The feeds add up to about 80 g an hour on every ride, so on a gravel race over 2.5 hours treat each reminder as the cue and set the amount at 90 g.
What to do this week
- For your next gravel event, upload the GPX to the pacing calculator, note the feed kilometres, and move each one to a section where you can take a hand off the bars.
- Add up what your bottles and a pack hold against the hours between water stops, and decide whether a pack saves you a stop.
- On long training rides, build towards 90 g an hour with a fructose and glucose mix, and practise eating on rough ground.
- For turbo sessions, put the biggest fan you can in front of you and skip the gel for anything under an hour. Before an evening race, eat 1 to 4 g of carbohydrate per kg 1 to 4 hours out and decide about caffeine with your sleep in mind.
- Try any supplement in training first, never on race day.
What we don't know yet
There are no fuelling trials in either discipline, so everything above is road evidence read through interviews with 23 riders, and the authors list the research they want, including supplement timing before short all-out starts. The extra heat stress of indoor racing is expected, not measured, intakes above 90 g an hour in gravel are unproven, and the effect of mass starts on women's fuelling has been described by riders, not studied.
Sources
- UCI Sports Nutrition Project: Nutrition for the Emerging Cycling Disciplines of Esports and Gravel, International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
- UCI Sports Nutrition Project: Position Statement on Nutrition for Cycling, International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
- Nutrition and indoor cycling: a cross-sectional analysis of carbohydrate intake for online racing and training, British Journal of Nutrition
- The effects of different air velocities on heat storage and body temperature in humans cycling in a hot, humid environment, Acta Physiologica Scandinavica