Bangalore Bicycle Championships Fuelling Strategy

Unived Elite Saurabh Singh competed in this year's 2024 Bangalore Bicycle Championships this past May. We caught up with him after the race to chat about his fuelling strategy for the race and how he has gone about finding what works for him in terms of nutrition. Continue reading to find out more about what Unived products he incorporates in his fuelling strategy.

What was the distance for BBCh Classic road race?

162km

You mentioned that you were going to try a different fueling strategy for this race. Can you elaborate on what your strategy focused on and how was it different from your previous fueling strategies?

As we can only carry two bottles on the bike, for a race as long as this one, we need to plan our nutrition by carrying gels with us and taking feed bottles from support vehicles trailing us.

Earlier, I used to start with two 750ml bottles, one with Elite Drink Mix 320 and the other with plain water. And I would plan to get a bottle of hydration mix every hour from the support vehicles. I would also supplement with gels as needed, as the hydration mix would give me 80g of carbs each hour, and a gel would give me another 25g of carbs, if the race gets too hard.

But what would end up happening is that I would get taste fatigue after the first bottle of drink mix, and start needing plain water. So I would end up going a couple of hours without a drink mix, and 'saving' my gels for the end of the race when I 'really' need it. Add to that, the fact that when the race got hard, it wasn't easy to communicate to the support which bottle I needed, and I would end up getting plain water when I needed drink mix, or I would end up taking another teammatesbottle, that may have some other drink mix that they like. All of this would eventually derail my entire nutrition strategy, and I would end up being dehydrated because I would drink less water.

In this race, the new thing I tried was to carry just plain water during the race across all my bottles.

Before the race, I drank a bottle of hypertonic drink mix on my way to the race, and during the race I took two Unived Gel 100s and one Elite Gel 180 every hour (20, 40, 60 minutes), giving me 90g of carbs, electrolytes, and caffeine(if needed) every hour. It took away the mental load of getting the right bottle every time, and I could also take bottles of plain water from neutral support.

All of this ensured that I finished the race without being dehydrated, and I was able to focus on racing the race, instead of having to figure out nutrition while I was racing.

What was your nutrition/diet the day before the race?

Since it was a long hot & humid race, the focus was on hydration and carb loading. We did a route recce on Saturday, during which I carried one bottle of Elite Hydration Mix and a couple of gels. After the ride, I got home and took one sachet Elite Recovery Mix, to make sure I got in carbs as soon as possible.

Rest of the day was focused on eating carbs and protein, and fruit juices (without pulp), to make sure I got in enough carbs (~900g) through the day. I also took in a couple servings of Elite Hydration Mix through the day to ensure I was getting in enough electrolytes

On the morning of the race, how did you fuel for the race? Did you eat breakfast?

I got up at 3:30am and had my usual race day breakfast of:

1. Two slices of French toast
2. Bread & jam sandwich
3. Peanut butter & banana sandwich
4. One serving of Elite Hydration Mix in 500ml water
5. 500ml of plain water

I left for the race 4:30am and on the way (1h drive) had one bottle of hypertonic Elite Drink Mix 320 (Bare Naked), to make sure I had in enough water, carbs, and electrolytes.

Can you take us through your race fueling strategy in detail. Which Unived products did you consume, how many calories did you consume per hour,  etc. 

Pre race - 

1. One serving of Elite Hydration Mix (82kcal, 14g carbs)
2. One hypertonic solution of Elite Drink Mix 320 bare naked (320kcal, 80g carbs)
3. One Elite Gel 180 Caramel Latte (180kcal, 45g carbs, 35mg Caffeine)
4. 1500ml water

During the race (4h15min)- 

1. 20 min - Gel 100 Vanilla Orange (100kcal, 25g carbs)
2. 40 min - Gel 100 Salted Caramel (100kal, 25g carbs)
3. 1 hour - Gel 180 Vanilla Sea Salt (180kcal, 45g carbs)
4. 1h20min - Gel 100 Vanilla Orange (100kcal, 25g carbs)
5. 1h40min - Gel 100 Cocoa Choco (100kcal, 25g carbs, 50mg caffeine)
6. 2h - Gel 180 Vanilla Sea Salt (180kcal, 45g carbs)
7. 2h20min - Gel 100 Vanilla Orange (100kcal, 25g carbs)
8. 2h40min - Gel 100 Cocoa Choco (100kcal, 25g carbs, 50mg caffeine)
9. 3h - Gel 180 Vanilla Sea Salt (180kcal, 45g carbs)
10. 3h20min - Gel 100 Salted Caramel (100kal, 25g carbs)
11. 3h40min - Gel 100 Vanilla Orange (100kcal, 25g carbs)
12. 4h - Gel 100 Cocoa Choco (100kcal, 25g carbs, 50mg caffeine)

Total - 

1520kcal

380g carbs

150mg caffeine

3000-4000ml water

Post-race - 

1. One Elite Recovery Mix soon after the race
2. Food (rice and eggs) at the race venue

How did you feel after the race? Did you notice any difference from previous races? 

Yes. 3 major differences I noticed - 

1. I did not have any major cramping issues during the race. Every race before this one involved me crossing the finish line with my legs locking out due to severe cramps.
2. I was not feeling very dehydrated at the end of the race.
3. I was not very hungry after the race.

How did you recover? 

Soon after the race, I had one Elite Recovery Mix, followed by the lunch provided by the organizers. I sipped on water with hydration mix on my drive back home.

After reaching home, I had some pasta, a protein drink, and slept.

Were you satisfied with this fuelling strategy or are you planning on tweaking it for future races? 

I was pretty happy with this strategy and will make minor tweaks to it, depending on the weather and the support situation during the race. In hotter weather, I may take salt capsules to keep my salt intake high, or I will experiment with carrying hydration mix in bottles.

What advice would you give other cyclists regarding fueling? 

Just like how we practice race effort, you need to practice race-day nutrition as well. Right from the morning pre-race breakfast to the recovery drink you take after the race, everything needs to be dialed in, and practiced, to make sure your gut is ready to handle that kind of load.

We should never wait for race day to try something new. Always experiment during your training rides to find out what works for you, and then use that during the race.

The big factor influencing my decision to go with gels for all my on bike nutrition in this race was that I was able to try this during my training rides, and knew that my gut was ready to take in this amount of gels. I have had situations in the past, where I would end up with severe gut issues and bloating after 4-5 gels because I thought 'Gels are for race days'.