Fuelling advice

on a ride of up to 60km I wouldn;t need to eat, provided I ate a bowl of porridge before heading out.

On longer rides I start the ride with SIS go in both bidons, to maintain enrgy levels, and then replace with plain water once empty.

I am also partial to sports mix, far more calories in a £1 bag then any of the marketed nutrional products, but some people don't get on with those.

When I started riding I'd need 4 bidons of water, a cheese and pickle sandwich, a couple of cereal bars some sweets and a couple of good sit downs before I hit 50 miles. 

Now I'd have 1-2 bidons of electrolyte drink and a quick snack or 2 so long as I'd had some brekkie. 

Ride London saw me eat 1/2 a frittata and some smoked cheese mini sandwiches, with 3 bidons of electrolyte drink and 1 of water... And some crisps. 

it depends how well trained you are, how you feel on the day and how hot it is. 

Flapsjacks (I've just sussed them and my work mates can't get enough):

200g butter

200g brown or muscovado sugar

400g oats

3 tablespoons of golden syrup

Melt the butter and sugar in a pan until they look fairly well mixed. Add the syrup and let it mix in then add the oats and stir together until well mixed. Spread onto a basic Asda baking tray and bake at 170c for 20 minutes. Cut into small slabs before completely cooled.

This recipe equates to approx. 4000 calories so it gives 18 small slices of 220 calories each.

Unless it's really hot then 750ml / hour is OTT. And you don't need electrolytes either.

Also the sports nutrition companies' recommended carbs-per-hour figures may be appropriate for a really high intensity scenario (time trial/road race) but are totally unnecessary for recreational riding. People who overfuel, scoffing everything in their path and/or stuffing themselves with gobbling gels aren't really doing themselves any favours.

The old idea of carb loading with masses of pasta or scoffing a huge breakfast is outdated and possibly even counterproductive unless you're doing significant distances on consecutive days (or trying to put on weight).

I would reduce the size of your breakfast; don't bother gels or carb/electrolyte drinks and take no more than 2 bottles of plain water (or weak squash if you must), a banana and a flapjack. Don't touch any food for the first hour and a half at least. You won't bonk and you won't be dehydrated.

I carry a few gels incase of emergancy (love the torq raspberry ripple flavour) I always take 2 bidons one with squash and one with a tab in.

Last week I done just shy of 90km, several hours before I had porridge for breakfast during the ride I had a few haribos at the half way point I had a greggs cheese and onion pastie and a chocolate bar when I got back.

To some extent it's less about distance and more about how conditioned your body is and how comfortable you are with the distance. Some years ago, a long ride was 30 miles, then it became 50, 80, 100...  and so on.

My formula is something like:
Cheese omelette for breakfast and a pint of coffee.

A bit of cake every 40 miles. Plus some energy bars/fuit bars.

0.75 litres fruit squash  with a pinch of salt for every 50 miles or so

A sandwich/pasty and a mug of tea for lunch

On longer rides (100+ miles) there's no harm sneaking in a pint or some fish'n'chips. I suspect that I don't take cycling as seriously as I should.

So, just for one more opinion (you know the saying: they're like a#seholes, everyone's got one); a rolling 50 miles at ~3hr pace is roughly my sort of pace.  Normally I ride on my own and don't carry a lock so I don't plan on stopping anywhere other than to look at a view.  

I'll usually have toast with peanut butter before leaving home and take two bottles, one with two High5 Zero (berry) tabs, one with normal high-juice squash.  I'll also have two High5 gels, a mini malt loaf and a handful of honey roast nuts - maybe 30-50g - in a clingfilm wrap.  The tabs take care of electrolytes (but no energy at all), the squash tastes nicer, and I'll have a gel after an hour, then the nuts, then the malt loaf, then the last gel at half hour intervals.  I've bonked badly at 40 miles a couple of times so it's very probably overkill but better that than bonk again

The first time I used the tablets they caused an unscheduled and unfortunate gastric event, but I think that was just 'surprise' - Every now and again I'll make a bottle of the High5 and drink it at home, I think that helps as it now doesn't happen so my stomach must be used to them.  Although an ORS one I dropped in at a refill during RideLondon gave me really bad wind.  

Think it's all covered above really, but to reinforce some of those points...  It's personal to you and will also depend on how you ride, so the only way you'll work it out is to experiment.  But also to build up to the longer rides so that your body understands what is going on.

Important thing is not to leave it too late to start taking on fuel - if you only start refuelling when you start flagging, it is too late and everything will be a bit tough from there.

A few things that work for me:

* Eat large bowl of porridge for breakfast before ride.  Keeps stomach fairly full (I hate the feeling of being starving when I ride) and plenty of slow release energy

* Water bottle filled with energy drink (mixed fairly weak by preference from a powder)

* High 5 plus energy gels.  These are the only gels I personally get on with - they are nice and small, so I can ingest them quickly when going flat out, and I like the flavour of the berry ones.  [Aside, I once ran out before a race, couldn't buy more in time and bought something else for the race - got horrible stomach cramps and found the sachets/format harder to deal with when going flat out!]

* Soft brown bread sandwich with jam - one slice folded in half is easy to handle on the road and easy to ingest in small mouthfuls

* Home made energy bars: oats, peanut butter, honey, ground flax seeds, chopped dried apricots if I have any, a few other seeds if I have them in the larder (warm all ingredients together in a pan, pour into a small rectangular dish (e.g., similar to a fudge tray), leave overnight in fridge, chop up into bars and wrap in foil/greaseproof paper for easy handling on the road

I will sip the energy drink as I go along (little and often), then consume my first gel/energy bar/jam sandwich at 20miles (1 hour), and then consume something every 7-10 miles (20-30 minutes) after that.  If I feel particularly tired, or flagging earlier than I expect, I might consume a bar and a gel in much quicker succession.

I have also tried brioche rolls with jam, but find these very hard to swallow and the jam leaks out and makes my hands sticky.  So suggest you avoid these!

Have fun and let us know if you find any new and interesting ideas

Lots of good advice here, especially "little and often". Soreen works well for me but other kinds of 'real' food too. if you're unsure, drink a bit more than you feel the need for (again little and often). The body has an efficient way of dealing with any excess!

A good meal a couple of hours beforehand will give you a solid foundation. Porridge and bananas can't be beat - but avoid overly sugary or fatty meals before a ride (which is just good eating advice anyway).

Bananas and oranges work very well. Oranges replace more electrolytes than do sports drinks, although they're a bit bulkier, and they're particularly refreshing on a hot afternoon of riding. 

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Chem_p...

They're great for cycle touring, as they're cheap and available pretty much everywhere you can find a shop.

Soreen is also good if you can get it; if not, Dundee cake, which in French is 'cake anglais'.

Once I got used to riding 30 to 50 miles. I could do 30 miles with only one 750mil electrolyte drink and 50 miles 2 drinks and a banana. Extend your distance and as you become accustomed to it you will need less fuel, but you will need something.

Everyone is different but general rule 750mil per hour also 50g of carbs. Carbs can be sandwiches, flapjacks or gels or any combination.

I can't handle carb drinks as they make me feel ill and don't hydrate me very well either, and on a 50 miler you don't really need it anyway. Electrolyte drinks are handy when its very hot, but I generally have at least one bottle of just water.

The food part of the equation is down to trial and error. I always take a couple of gels minimum, normally one has caffeine in it. They're mainly to give me a kick if I have a mechanical or need to stop for some reason. Over the years I've leaned more towards things like the mini soreen and cereal bars and peanut butter sandwiches, wherever possible a stop for a proper lunch is always a good thing. It depends how long the ride is and whether I want to stop or not. At the Tour of Cambridgeshire this year I was determined not to stop over the 80 miles. There's only so much of this real food you can fit in your pockets!! I ended up squeezing what I could in and then sliding as many gels in as I could. Other foods I've tried over the years are mini pork pies and pasties, making my own rice cakes and cinammon rolls, energy bars and flapjacks of various mixtures.

Whatever you do, try stuff in training, never try new on the day. The last thing you want is your day spoilt by gastric distress from either end!

I heard an interview with Steve Cummings in which he said he only ever had water in his bidon and only ate 'real food'.

It works for him.

I'll do a 50 mile club ride on a Saturday morning on two bits of toast and a cup of tea beforehand. Half way through I'll have one of those Nakd fruit bars, drink maybe 750ml of water, and that's it for the whole ride. 

I absolutely accept that this might not work for many.

As for the sports nutrition stuff; mostly pants. Graeme Obree broke records galore on jam sandwiches. And they taste infinitely better than energy gels...

The longest ride I do is the Manchester to Blackpool night ride which I've done twice averaging around 2h 50m for 52 miles. My winning formula is chicken fried rice from the village chippy about 3 hours before the ride. That's a massive amount of rice and some protein (I give a lot of the chicken to Floyd, my cat). That and a 750ml bidon of fruit juice does me nicely. Your mileage may vary .

Over 50 miles of average terrain in average Scottish summer temperatures at an average speed of 18mph I'll average one 750ml bottle of water with half a high five zero tab in it and a 100g bag of Tangfastics... Assuming I had breakfast.

No breakfast = more Tangfastics.
Over 20C = more water
More hills = more Tangfastics and more water
Stopping at a shop= clearing them out of savoury stuff

Tangfastics have the same or better nutritional value than most leading sports energy products. They also taste much better

Over that kind of distance I take 2x 650ml bottles of plain old water (sometimes one is flattened cola), and most of a maltloaf; I break the maltloaf into pairs of slices and heavily butter them to make little sandwiches which I then wrap in greeseproof paper. I eat and drink as regular as clockworth from the first hour milestone then about every 30mins after. I make sure that by the time I've arrived I've drunk all the water and eaten the food. For me that guarantees avoiding the bonk.

"Little and often" would be my advice and minimal gels etc as it's mostly marketing cobblers. Eat and drink before you get hungry/thirsty. Don't overlook water as just drinking isotonics can add to your dehydration. I rarely carry food for less than 60 miles but for longer I will go for one bottle of water, one of high 5 electrolyte, homemade ham and egg rolls (salty) and jelly babies for a boost.
It is a matter of personal preference (as you'll struggle to consume what you don't like) so experiment a bit. A bit of sweet and savoury is a good idea as just one type can get monotonous.....
Good luck !

If you're not used to using "performance" products e.g. energy drinks, gels, bars etc then I think keeping it simple is the key.

During exertion, the body shifts blood flow away from the gut towards muscles and lungs, so anything you eat or drink isn't going to be digested as quickly or easily as when at rest. There's a study about it here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8460288 (with standard caveats about taking gospel truth from a single scientific paper.)

As an example, if that iso drink you tried was the Powerbar "isomax", it's got fructose in it as well as glucose which can cause... um... gastric distress, let's say, in some people.

Things to try as a test then:

* jam sandwiches - heavy on the jam, easy on the butter (my personal recipe) and bananas

* avoid fructose in drinks

* if that drink was non-fructose, dilute it to about half strength,

or

* just use water with an electrolytes tab.

Personally, I mix an extra electrolyte tab in with my drink powder and that keeps headaches away afterwards. Many will disagree with that - the truth is out there somewhere.

All just my tuppence worth. Hope you find something that works for you.

I'm a fan of frusli bars, Soreen lunchbox loaves (like mini individual malt loafs but a bit less sticky), and jelly babies. I use an isotonic energy gel from time to time (SIS GO or High5 IsoGel; usually late in a long ride - I'm sure it's 80% placebo but it does seem to give me a quick boost) - but prefer to use "real food" for the majority of the time.

For me, I prefer to eat often, so I try to have something every 20-30 minutes - a typical ride routine for me if I'm going at a reasonable pace would be either 4 jelly babies, one frusli bar, or one soreen lunchbox loaf every 30 minutes (sometimes 15-20 minutes if I'm going particularly quickly). I think I'm on the upper end of the range when it comes to how much I consume though, and I've been able to ease back on it as I've got fitter.

I usually have two water bottles with High5 Zero in them, how much I drink depends an awful lot on the weather but largely drinking to thirst (or ideally, just slightly ahead of it) works well for me. You don't want to go crazy having huge amounts to drink (that can be dangerous, particularly if it's plain water), but likewise you need to make sure you're getting enough - listen to your body on that one, and aim to keep thirst well at bay. Remember, also, that you can't process carbohydrates without water, so (unless you're using energy drinks or isotonic gels - most gels are NOT isotonic), you need to drink each time you eat.

I'll usually have a sachet of energy drink powder in my saddle bag in case I run out of fuel on the road - I can find some water to mix it with in one of my drinks bottles.

Here's a blog post I wrote before Ride London 100 two years ago about what we planned to use then: http://markandaudrey.co.uk/teamsheep/2014/08/05/eating-while-riding/ - we ended up following that pretty closely and didn't have any problems running out of energy (however as it was the 2014 edition, we did have problems as we didn't take wetsuits and diving flippers with us  ).

It's good that you're thinking about this up front though, with some practicing you'll have no trouble finding something that works for you - at the end of the day, the human body is pretty good at processing what you give it, so keep it relatively low fat, relatively high carb, and be sure to eat / drink enough, and you'll be golden.

How long it takes you to do 30 miles?