Each year, 176 cyclists compete in the most challenging race in professional cycling: the Tour de France. This 21-stage race covers roughly 2,200 miles, with cyclists biking around 100 miles day-to-day and burning between 5,000 and 7,000 calories per stage. Consequently, nutrition is a critical component of their success. Each team has a designated nutritionist and chef to ensure the athletes receive the proper calories.
The typical diet of a cyclist during the tour includes simple glucose-based carbs like pancakes, pasta, bread, and rice cakes. Additionally, they intake fructose-based carbs to boost glycogen with table sugar, maple syrup, honey, and even soda. But aside from replenishing carbohydrates, what else do these cyclists consume to maintain the energy needed for the miles ahead?
Ketones
Ketones remain controversial in the pro cycling community; some cyclists even refer to it as a “gray area” performance enhancer. Although legal, some teams argue that they create a lack of fairness and uncertainty, especially with the EPO era scandals still looming over the community. Let’s dive into ketones, why they benefit cyclists, and how they affect the body.
When you consume carbohydrates, your body turns them into glucose, a sugar you use for energy. Some glucose is used immediately for energy, while the rest is stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen, an energy reserve for your body.
Ingesting ketones helps the body use less glycogen stored in muscles, preserving a cyclist’s energy and ensuring they are fully charged for an upcoming hill or sprint. Ketones are an alternative energy source when glucose is not readily available, reducing carbohydrate metabolism – the fundamental biochemical process that ensures a constant energy supply to living cells.
Since ketones reduce carb metabolism, one of two things can occur. Either the cyclist has a boost of energy at some point in the race (yay), or it blocks the stored energy in the muscles (uh oh). However, ketones have been shown to be more effective during the recovery period for cyclists than during a stage.
After 3 to 4 hours of racing, replenishing glycogen is essential for muscle protein synthesis (when the body repairs and builds new muscle after exercise) so cyclists can be prepared for the next day of racing.
To test the potential of ketone ester (the purest form of ketone) for cyclists, Dr. Peter Hespel, Professor and Head of the Athletic Performance Center at Katholieke University, and his team designed a study that resembled a similar workload to the tour. The study put subjects through three 3-weeks of intense training, with one group given a placebo and the other given ketone ester.
The study showed that ketone-supplemented athletes sustained a 15% higher training load and a 15% greater power output during the second half of a 120-minute endurance test.
“Recovery is arguably where ketones deliver(ed) their greatest gains,’ shared Hespel in an article with Cyclists. “Our subjects undertook intense exercise to deplete their glycogen stores and then consumed a ketone ester during their recovery. We showed that muscle protein synthesis rates were higher.”
Additionally, eating can become tiring for these cyclists since they consume so many calories. Ingesting ketones allowed athletes an alternative to fuel their bodies during their recovery periods.
Still, few cyclists stay away from ketones because of reported side effects, which include nausea, constipation, acidosis, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), dehydration, and lethargy. Additionally, athletes have described it as having an intensely unpleasant flavor. Furthermore, a study conducted last year found that cyclists who ingested ketones performed worse than those in the placebo group. However, the researchers concluded that further research is needed to determine the effects of ketone ingestion on longer-duration endurance events.
For now, we will keep an eye out for any changes, announcements and studies from the World-Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
Sodium Bicarbonate
You most likely have a box of sodium bicarbonate (bicarb soda) in your kitchen cabinet or under your sink. Otherwise known as baking soda, cyclists and other athletes have been using bicarb soda for decades as a performance supplement. But what makes it so beneficial for athletes, and what are the side effects?
During intense training or racing, the body produces lactic acid due to anaerobic respiration – when muscles don’t get enough oxygen. This increases acidity in the blood and muscles, causing muscle fatigue and that burning sensation we all know and love. The lactic acid buildup leads to metabolic acidosis, impairing muscle function and contributing to fatigue.
Sodium bicarbonate, being alkaline, helps buffer this acidity, slowing down the chemical processes that cause muscle fatigue. By counteracting the rising acidity levels, sodium bicarbonate helps maintain muscle performance during strenuous efforts.
Your stomach, pancreas, and kidneys naturally produce sodium bicarbonate daily to keep the body’s acid-base balance stable. These systems work to keep your pH within a narrow range, but increased acid production, such as during intense exercise, can challenge this balance.
By ingesting additional sodium bicarbonate, athletes can neutralize the acid accumulating in the muscles during high-intensity exercise.
An umbrella review from 2021 summarizes the results of eight meta-analyses. The study overviews hundreds of individual trials and concludes that “sodium bicarbonate supplementation acutely enhances peak anaerobic power, anaerobic capacity, and performance in endurance events.”
“Using bicarb isn’t all about how a rider’s legs’ feel,” shared Mathieu Heijboer, Jumbo-Visma performance director, in a VeloNews article. “We’ve seen the power outputs for 20 or 30-second sprints is higher with bicarb. The riders cope better with the lactic acid which is produced in those hard efforts.”
Despite all the hype, there are reasons why sodium bicarbonate has yet to be a popular supplement for all athletes. A major problem is often GI discomfort; depending on the individual, how athletes react to the product can be unpredictable.
If you plan on trying sodium bicarbonate, speak with a healthcare professional beforehand. Extreme cautions should be taken if you also have electrolytes in conjunction with bicarb soda during exercise, especially if you’re losing lots of sweat or have limited access to plain water, as it could easily lead to hypernatremia (high blood sodium).
The Future of the Tour de FranceÂ
The Tour de France remains the pinnacle of professional cycling, pushing riders to their physical and mental limits over three grueling weeks. As we look ahead, integrating advanced nutrition and supplementation strategies will play an increasingly significant role in how cyclists prepare, perform, and recover. As athletes continue to explore the boundaries of their capabilities with the help of cutting-edge nutrition and supplements, we can expect to witness even more remarkable performances in the years to come.
Written by Jessie Tobin, MA, BA
After receiving her master’s in professional communication, Jessie began her professional career at a healthcare technology startup, where she managed all content writing, paid media, email marketing and partner relationships. She is deeply passionate about using storytelling to build strong emotional connections between brands and their audiences, a skill she has refined through her YouTube channel, which has over 17 million views. Aside from copywriting, she shares her writing expertise teaching night courses as an adjunct professor at The University of Tampa.