Guides › Cycling
CyclingRide length sets the number. Your body weight doesn’t. · 3 min read · Updated October 1, 2026
How we made this guide: we built it from the research below and checked every number against it: Burke et al., carbohydrates for training and competition (2011); Jeukendrup, carbohydrate intake during exercise (2014); Smith et al., carbohydrate dose-response (2013); Currell & Jeukendrup, mixed carbohydrates (2008); Carter et al., carbohydrate mouth rinse (2004); ACSM position stand on exercise and fluid replacement (2007); Belval et al., practical hydration solutions (2019).
Most nutrition numbers are per kg of body weight. Carbs during a ride are the exception.
| Ride length | Carbohydrate during the ride |
|---|---|
| Up to about 1 hour | Little or nothing needed; a carbohydrate mouth rinse can help a hard hour |
| 1 to 2.5 hours | About 30–60 g per hour |
| Over 2.5 hours | Up to about 90 g per hour, using a mix of sugars (like glucose and fructose) |
From Burke et al., 2011 and Jeukendrup, 2014. Based on trained athletes; at lower intensities you may need less.
Jeukendrup’s review (2014) states that carbohydrate intake advice during exercise is independent of body weight and training status. The limit is how fast your body can take up and burn sugar from the gut, not how big you are. A 55 kg rider and a 90 kg rider on the same long ride get the same target.
In a study of 51 cyclists and triathletes (Smith et al., 2013), performance in a 20 km time trial after 2 hours of hard riding improved as carbohydrate intake rose, up to an estimated best of about 78 g per hour. Beyond that, the extra benefit got smaller. That is above the 30–60 g in the table, so note the conditions: the riders drank a blend of three sugars, rode hard (2 hours near their lactate threshold) and were then timed. Treat 78 g per hour as what one lab study estimated under those conditions, not a target for every ride.
Your body can use one type of sugar (glucose) from the gut only so fast, roughly 60 g an hour. Adding a second type that uses a different route, like fructose, lets you absorb more. In a study of 8 trained male cyclists (Currell & Jeukendrup, 2008), a glucose and fructose drink made a time trial 8% faster than glucose alone after two hours of riding. This mostly matters for rides of 2.5 hours or more.
For a hard effort around an hour, rinsing a sports drink in your mouth and spitting it out improved 1-hour time-trial performance (59.6 versus 61.4 minutes) in a small lab study of 9 cyclists (Carter et al., 2004), likely by signaling the brain rather than fueling the muscles.
Fluid needs vary between riders. The ACSM position stand on fluid replacement (2007) recommends avoiding losing more than 2% of body weight to dehydration and suggests estimating your own sweat rate by weighing yourself before and after exercise. A newer expert panel (Belval et al., 2019, convened with sponsor support from Gatorade) describes the method, puts the line at losses of 2–3% rather than 2%, and warns against overdrinking too.
Our worked example of the before-and-after method. Repeat it in different weather, since sweat rate changes with heat.
Jeukendrup recommends practicing your fueling strategy in training. Log what you took on each long ride and how you felt late in the ride, and you can see what works for you. We built My Track Record so logging what you ate and drank is one spoken sentence after the ride.
General information for healthy adult cyclists, not medical advice. Drinking far more than you sweat can be dangerous, especially on long, slow rides. If you have a medical condition, talk to a doctor before changing how you eat or drink.