Some good information Sina. I think I’m going the bocadillos/tortilla way.
My three kids and I race mountain bikes and train mtb and road. Here is what we do:
Pre Race: drink a +90g carb bottle between 90-30min before start time
Short race (<=90min) during: water
Long race (>90 min) during: +90g bottle per hour and water
Low intensity training ride: water and ~real food
High intensity training ride: +90g bottle and water
*you have to train your gut to absorb the carbs. From what I understand: by subjecting your gut to high carb load, SGLT1, GLUT2, and GLUT5 transporter quantity and activity will increase over time and allow you to absorb more carbs. Fructose is transported by GLUT 5 and there are always less GLUT5 transporters hence the reason for a lower Fructose concentration in prepared high carb drinks
-Pick a standard drink mix you like just for the flavor. I’m using Gatorade endurance currently.
-Get maltodextrin in bulk. 12lb bags from Amazon
-You can also get Fructose in bulk and experiment adding more of that, but fructose will potentially cause more stomach upset due to less transporters in small intestine
-Use the drink mix for flavor and over the course of multiple rides, add more and more malto
-I recently tried a ~new carb called cyclic dextrin. It is more expensive than malto and I did not perceive a difference
Thanks for this Max. Some interesting pointers. Biggest problem for me though is some of the ingredients, they are difficult to come by in Norway and not all sellers on Amazon ship to Norway AND THEN the big problems start A) Norwegian laws don’t allow many things like that to be imported and B) If they are allowed, they whack on a massive import duty.
But having said that, I’ll see whats available and if its reasonably priced.
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I understand. One avenue you might investigate is the possibility of a bakery sourcing it for you. Cluster dextrin is used as a food thickening agent. A bakery might be able to order it for you from their distributor.
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During endurance days I purposely try to get depleted. When I feel the bonk coming on (3hrs+/-), I down a gel (currently GU roctane), then start heading home. A while later, a bar (currently Clif bar). I can definitely feel the effect of the gel within 15min or so. The bar is insurance that I get home, which is a 3mile climb at the end. I live in Reno NV.
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Yes, thats an idea. Thanks
Wow, lot’s of great information here! What works for me:
90-120 grams of carbs per hour, start to finish.
Longer events, greater than 3 hours, start to introduce protein, 20 grams per hour.
Gels, Drinks, Tortilla with Peanut Butter, Bars, heck even a chicken breast during longer 8+ hour events.
For the past 6 months or so, I have been using CGM (continuous glucose monitoring). This has really helped:
- Identifying fuels that provide energy without a huge crash.
- Maintaining a constant stream of energy.
- Fueling begins a few days out from an event.
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Uncrustables ftw. Toss em in your pocket frozen - it’s easy on the stomach and mostly mess free. I use these guys too - cheap and fairly low effort prep: Energy Balls Recipe - Low Waste Bikepacking - BIKEPACKING.com
I’ve had good luck with scratch sort mix on shorter rides, but the tailwinds endurance is my go-to if I need to pack in extra carbs. The lemon flavor with a squeeze of real lime is really tolerable and never once gut bombed me.
But how do you get 90-120g of carbs in per hour? I’ve tried Neverseconds C90 drink and even sipping every 10 minutes can’t get through a 600ml bidon.
Branding adds a little more depth to this answer. Here’s what we do:
Heed
30 grams Carbs per Scoop, 2 Scoops per 1Liter bidon
60 grams available per water bottle
Hammer Gel
23 grams Carbs per 30ml.
5 servings per flask
115 grams available in Flask
Hammer Perpetuem
13 grams Carbs per 1 30ml
2 grams Protein in same 30ml
.5 gram Fat in same 30ml
5 servings per flask.
10 grams protein available in Flask
2.5 grams fat available in Flask
65 carbs grams available in Flask
At the start of a long effort we’ll have on bike or jersey
- 2 bottles, 120 grams available
- 1 flask of gel in jersey pocket, 115 grams available
- 2nd flask of Perpetuem in jersey pocket, 65 grams carb, 10 grams protein, 2.5 grams fat available.
Fueling
Drink 1 bottle per hour, 60 grams
Gel 2 servings per hour 46 grams
Perpetuem 1 serving carb 13 grams
Thats about 119 grams of carbs planned.
Having a little more planned for works for us, as fueling is always a challenge.
We’ll mix the ratio of Gel and Perpetuem according to taste and needs. We’ll also introduce solids in, CICO bars and Tortilla wrapped peanut butter to have a change of pallet. We find mixing up what’s available to eat encourages more fueling.
We added a picture of our Fuel Flask. Not to be confused with our After effort flask, haha…
Fuel Flask
After Effort Flask
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what the body will take depends. For example, on a 300 km ride on a day that gets hot. I try to use real food, like p.b. sandwiches and oatmeal cookies - I don’t really like chocolate; some people like chocolate cookies; I sometimes use plain oatmeal cookies and at other times use oatmeal cookies with raisins. These are my favorite cookies. Others might like other flavors? This eating normal food normally works for a few hours. And, I stop at and buy chocolate milk, some times a whole litre, when there are stores along the road. Again, this is real food. I used to drink pop, but read that chocolate milk is best or I actually like strawberry flavored milk when it’s available. As the day goes on and I get tired and hot, I just can’t eat sandwiches or cookies or real food of any sort. It just won’t go down! At this point I start consuming synthetic food, mostly gels, sometimes bars. All brands and flavors seem to work about the same. I also always have some gels along as gels work on recovering from a bonk. Several times, I have experienced recovering from a bonk after taking one or 2 gels. At times, I carry gels for many rides and they do not get used, but sometimes they are essential to avoid a big bonk.
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Kudos! Great strategy, and thanks for sharing.
I forgot how nutrient rich cookies were. THANKS. There’s a lot of calories in that 100 cm by .5 cm serving.
I ussing this tips more years. It works for me. Maybe you find usefull:
I using for rides between 2-5 hours fast carbohydrates. Any kind of candyes, raisins or little gingerbreads. I prefer soft candyes not the hard one. You can chawing them and drinking watter during. They are splits to small pieceies. It is easy to eat during ride not necessery to stop. Usually I put something 5-15 minutes.
I focus don´t have fats in this foods. It dependece of your ride intesity.
More then 5 hours a try to have any bigger solid food. But start with these foods like around 3 hour of ride and combine with fast carbohydrates. I ussing sandwich or any bigger homemade nutrition bar with rice(rice cakes), oats and some source protein and some of fats. Can be helpfull BCAA or EAA. Be aware of fibre. There is more kind of fibre and your body can respond to different.
Don´t forget for watter. Your body can diggest something like 850ml/hour. If you eating your body need more watter for diggesting. Also need more watter if you will drink coffe during!!!
Also try to find salts in nutritions table foods. It helps for cramps. If you find some tablets can be helpfull but remeber you have to find form whic are used. Because some forms of minerals which are used in sport nutritions supplements our body can´t use.
I use 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Can be more or less it dependece by rider by weight and high. You have to try it also it denepdence by conditions: temperature, training history by last week, sleeping,…
Don’t wait until your hungry or thirsty to eat and drink.
And don’t be exact strict about specific amounts of protein or fat just eat what tastes good so you keep eating. 
After ride you should consume 1-1,2g/bodyweight carbohydrates. And next 24 hours 6-8g/bw. It match with recomendetation you should eat your basal kcal intake in this 24hours.
Some good information Rastilav and it sounds like we are very similar although I have never tried candies.
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