Nutrition for road cyclists often come under the bracket of endurance sports when looking for guidelines to implement for nutritional purposes. An Australian Sports Dietician, Louise Mary Burke, has worked for 40 years as a practitioner and states that the nutritional requirements of elite endurance cyclists’ training and competition programmes are highly demanding.
Research stipulates that high performing female cyclists are typically leaner and lighter than their less successful opponents. In elite cyclists, a high power-to-weight ratio seems to be a vital physiological characteristic to allow cyclists to climb and accelerate quickly. Unsurprisingly, world-class female cyclists have lower body weight and skinfold than the sub-elite female cyclist population. Also, it is common to see that road cyclists are generally lighter and leaner than most other cycling disciplines (i.e. track endurance cyclists). To put this in perspective, a 1kg increase in a cyclist bodyweight can increase race times by ~5%, meaning the difference between winning and losing. In sub-elite road cyclists, bodyweight and skinfolds have been recorded as slightly higher (~7-10%), which is unsurprising due to balancing life and being an athlete. However, as a sports nutritionist, I prefer to work individually due to the vast differences in measurements often recorded. For example, on close inspection, the research regarding body weight can range from 48kg to 65kg and skinfolds 31.1-85mm. Therefore, in my opinion, as practitioners, we need to look at athletes from a holistic point of view and remember the importance of emphasising long term health and performance.
Sport is often possessed by the ‘new’ supplement that can do many things and ultimately improve performance characteristics. Supplement claims for road cycling are no different, and athletes should be wary of these claims. Athletes should also use “Sports Supplements Certification | Informed-Sport” and talk with their sports nutritionist to identify if there is a real need to take the supplement. Here is a brief overview of some of the road cycling talked about supplements:
Now, a research article needs more than just an infographic; in most, an entire blog post is required for just one article to appraise, interpret and critique. However, this gives you some idea of the sports’ talked about supplements.
Sources:
Burke, L. M. (2001). Nutritional practices of male and female endurance cyclists. Sports Medicine, 31(7), 521-532.
Chen, S., Kim, W., Henning, S. M., Carpenter, C. L., & Li, Z. (2010). Arginine and antioxidant supplement on performance in elderly male cyclists: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the international society of sports nutrition, 7(1), 1-7.
Dalle, S., Koppo, K., & Hespel, P. (2021). Sodium bicarbonate improves sprint performance in endurance cycling. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 24(3), 301-306.
Gervasi, M., Sisti, D., Amatori, S., Zeppa, S. D., Annibalini, G., Piccoli, G., … & Sestili, P. (2020). Effects of a commercially available branched-chain amino acid-alanine-carbohydrate-based sports supplement on perceived exertion and performance in high-intensity endurance cycling tests. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 17(1), 1-16.
Haakonssen, E. C., Barras, M., Burke, L. M., Jenkins, D. G., & Martin, D. T. (2016). Body composition of female road and track endurance cyclists: Normative values and typical changes. European journal of sport science, 16(6), 645-653.
Vitale, K., & Getzin, A. (2019). Nutrition and supplement update for the endurance athlete: review and recommendations. Nutrients, 11(6), 1289.
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