Artikel | 10 april 2015, 11:09

#FoodFriday Preparation for the Amstel Gold Race

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Because all distances are a challenge, nutritional specialist Marcel Hesseling will answer your questions about food and energy consumption.

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#FoodFriday: Preparation for the Amstel Gold Race

In 8 days, 15.000 cyclists will start in the tour version of the 50th Amstel Gold Race. The shortest distance that can be raced is 60 kilometers, and the longest 240. Because all distances are a challenge, nutritional specialist Marcel Hesseling will answer your questions about food and energy consumption.

I’m about to start in the Amstel Gold Race tour version in a week, can I still stack up on some extra energy?

In the preparation for the Amstel Gold Race, it’s important to make sure you’ve got enough energy to finish your chosen distance. While cycling, you always make use of two kinds of energy sources, fats and carbohydrates. Which of these two sources your body will make use of, depends on several factors: gender, your muscle mass, and how trained you are. For example, those who are well trained can burn more fat at a higher intensity ride (to do with your speed) than those who are not.

If you’re cycling slowly, you’ll burn more fats than carbs. As the intensity and length of your ride increases, the carbs usage will increase as well. The amount of fat is never an issue, even well trained cyclists have enough body fat to cycle at a slow pace for several days. The amount of carbs your body can store, however, is limited. Your muscles are the storage tank for your carbs, this is also called glycogen. This is enough to cycle at a medium pace for several hours. When you run out of it, you’ve hit the wall. Cycling up the Keutenberg with the bonk, will not be fun!

Which foods should I eat before the race and which not?

During the run-up to the Amstel Gold Race, your nutrition should be rich in carbohydrates. The longer the distance, the more important the carbs. Even when you’re not that fit, you’ll use up a lot of carbs. It’s important to make sure you eat a lot of carbohydrate rich foods the two days before the Amstel Gold Race, to maximize the supplies in your muscles. You can do so by eating spaghetti, quinoa, rice, oatmeal, granola, bread, (dried) fruits and juice. It’s usually better to take the whole grain variants, because they are full of carbs, as well as a whole spectrum of other nutritional substances, as well as bio-active substances. But when you stack up on carbs, it’s easier to take the ‘white’ variants. Wholegrain makes you feel full too quickly, plus they can cause bowel problems while cycling, when eaten in large quantities. So in this case, it’s better to eat white spaghetti and white rice. Also, make sure to eat an extra carbohydrate rich snack. For example, two extra sandwiches with jelly, honey, some dried fruits, granola bread, or a fruit smoothie of banana, mango and orange.

The day of truth

What does breakfast look like?

You often see people eat enormous amounts of carbs the morning of an event, which leads to an uncomfortably full stomach while cycling. But when you’ve consciously been eating more carbs the two days before, you don’t have to eat that much of them at breakfast before the Amstel Gold Race. Your muscles will already be ‘filled’. During the night, only your liver’s glycogen supplies will have been used up for a large amount, however, this is only a small amount of your total and it’ll be easy to replenish this with a carbohydrate rich breakfast.

Below you can find two examples (to be eaten 2.5/ 3 hours before) for an average person. The amounts can vary per person and distance. The amounts below reflect the average breakfast for a Amstel Gold Race tour version cyclist. When you eat during a period closer to the start, make sure you eat less.

75-100 grams oatmeal
200 - 250 ml water, oat milk, almond milk or (soy) milk- 1 ripe banana
1 apple
1-2 hands of raisins
1-2 tea spoons of cinnamon
1-2 average sized granola rolls with jelly
Drink water with this

75-100 grams (raw weight) white rice
1 omelet of 2 eggs
1 big glass of juice
1-2 bread rolls with jelly, honey or apple syrup
Drink water with this

How much fluid should I drink and what should I put in my water bottles?

Next to plenty of carbs, plenty of fluid is important as well. When you lose too much fluid, your body cannot cool itself down properly anymore and this can affect your performance negatively. The amount of fluid one needs varies per person and depends on the weather conditions of that moment. Loss of fluid can vary, for example, between a few hundred milliliters up to 3 liters per hour. New research has shown that you do not deteriorate when you lose 2% of your body weight in fluids. Drink at least 500 ml per hour and match this with your thirst at that moment. You can choose a good sports drink that contains, next to carbs, some salt. You can use the drinks Team LottoNL-Jumbo uses, for example. A combination of water and ‘solid’ foods that are rich in carbs is also a possibility.

What should I bring on the bike?

While cycling, you body cannot process more than a certain amount of carbs per hour. When you eat more than that amount, there’s a big chance your stomach and bowels will not be able to handle it. So try to stick between 50 and 70 grams of carbs per hour for the solid and liquid foods (sports drinks and gels) combined. Make sure you add the amounts in your liquids with the amounts of carbs you take in with you solid foods such as bars, fruits and sandwiches. Below we’ll give you a list of the most used products, so you’ll be able to decide for yourself which combinations you’ll make. It’s important to eat things your body is used to, do not experiment with foods and drinks or combinations during the Amstel Gold Race.

Examples of carbohydrate rich foods for during the Amstel Gold Race *: