With the final curve of the race season in full view, we cycling fans are focused on the remaining professional calendar, as well as our own regular season end. Whether the last event on your calendar is a road race, cross country race, criterium, or century ride, you can dial in a good nutrition plan to fuel your best efforts. Chances are that your nutrition plan will just need a little tweaking before you head into the off season or prepare for cyclocross training and racing.

Full tank
Regardless of the distance or intensity of your race, you need to arrive to that start with enough fuel to go full throttle at race pace. You likely also have a planned pace for any organized ride, whether completing the full 100 miles, or shorter distances of 50 or 75 miles. Two days out, start focusing on providing your body with a supply of good fuel. As you prepare for an event, training tapers and your nutritional intake can modestly or even greatly exceed your nutritional needs, resulting in muscle glycogen stores filled to capacity. Protein intake should be adequate for muscle repair and rebuilding, though requirements are modest when training is tapered. An intake of healthy fats ensures that muscle fat stores are replenish Fat intake should cover any long rides over 4 hours, so the muscle fat stores are adequate for long rides.

For longer races and events, two days of loading up on carbohydrates is safe planning, taking some of the pressure off the day before the event. The day before a longer race or event, you may want to finish the day early, in anticipation of an early start time the next morning. If this is the case, finish dinner at a reasonable hour and get to bed on time. It is important that you wake up with a normal appetite for your pre-race meal, rather than feeling a bit stuffed from a day of carbo-loading the night before.

When loading up on carbohydrates for longer events, aim for 3 to 4 grams of carbohydrate per pound of weight. Even for shorter races, where high intensity efforts bring you to the finish line first, aim for at least 3 grams of carbohydrate per pound, you can quickly burn through muscle glycogen at the required higher speeds.

Plan ahead for these high octane days by shopping, prepare foods ahead of time, and packing snacks for work and school. Make sure that the foods you consume are easily digested and well-tolerated, so that you have no GI problems on the big day.

Morning Fuel
The morning of the race or event, stick with tried and true choices that have sat well with you all season. Pre-event carbohydrates boost depleted early morning liver glycogen stores, helping to keep blood glucose levels nice and steady and prevent hunger in the hours leading to the start. Your best pre-event fuel is a combination of food and fluid choices, with portions and timing specific to your start time and tolerances.

Ideally you will leave two-and-a-half to three hours digestion time for the pre-race meal and then top off fuel gently until the start. For every hour of digestion, aim for half a gram of carbohydrate per pound of weight. For three hours digestion time, a 160-lb. cyclist could consume over 200 g of carbohydrate. Many cyclists will opt for some liquid carbohydrate choices, and easy to digest starchy foods proving plenty of grams of carbohydrate. Protein can be added as you tolerate and fat is usually kept to a minimum. While longer efforts necessitate a larger pre-event meal, higher intensity efforts also demand more digestion time. Of course, you should also hydrate in the hours before a start, usually with a sports drink that adds more carbohydrate, stopping 30 to 45 minutes beforehand to empty your bladder. Many racers like to down a gel or two in the time leading right up to the start to top off glucose levels and provide some in-gut fuel for the early part of the race.

On the bike
Cooler weather has hit some parts of the country and may be on the calendar for your race or event, so reassess your hydration and fueling plan in contrast to the sweltering days of summer. You should still drink to minimize dehydration, but recheck your sweat rate. While a season of good training usually means reaching your own high level of sweating, temperature changes may necessitate some adjusting in fueling and hydration strategies on the bike, with maybe a drop in sweating and an increase in fuel needs.

Check your weight before and after training. Every pound of weight loss represents 16 ounces of sweat losses not replaced with hydration on the bike. Gaining weight could mean that your sweat losses have diminished and you could even be over-drinking. Knowing your own sweat rate allows you to minimize dehydration and not over hydrate as well. Sports drinks of course provide the best mix of carbohydrates, fluids, and electrolytes. By this time in the season, you have determined your favorite brand and flavor, so stick with that.

Some extra fuel may be needed for longer efforts, and for events taking place in cooler weather. Add in gels, blocks, and bars as tolerated. Just keep in mind that these are more concentrated forms of carbohydrate and will empty more slowly from your stomach. They should be consumed with a good eight ounces of water.

Every cyclist should have their own personalized nutrition plan that leaves them well fueled for the start, and with specific hydration an fueling strategies during the event. Bon appétit, and have a great end of the season. See the table below for some even specific advice.

Monique Ryan, MS, RD, LDN is a nationally recognized nutritionist with over twenty-four years of experience and is owner of Personal Nutrition Designs, a Chicago based nutrition consulting company that provides nutrition programs for endurance athletes across North America (www.moniqueryan.com). Monique has consulted with the Chicago Fire Soccer Team for seven season, and was the nutritionist for Saturn Cycling from 1994 to 2000. She has also consulted with the Volvo-Cannondale Mountain Bike Team, the Gary Fisher Mountain Bike Team, and the Rollerblade Racing Team. Monique has consulted with USA Cycling, and was a member of the Performance Enhancement Team for the Women’s Road Team leading to the 2004 Athens Olympics. She has also provided nutrition consultation services to USA Triathlon for coaching clinics, athlete clinics, and for the resident athlete team and was a member of the USAT Performance Enhancement Team for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Monique is the author of "Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes," 2nd edition (March 2007), from VeloPress, which provides sports specific nutrition for road cycling, mountain biking, running, triathlon, swimming, rowing, and adventure racing. She is also author of "Performance Nutrition for Winter Sports"(PeakSports Press), "Performance Nutrition for Team Sports" (PeakSports Press), and "Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition." Monique is a regular contributor to VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, and Outside. She is a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics. As part of the FeedZone column, Monique will answer selected questions online. Please send your questions to RyanWebQA@aol.com.