Whether you are training indoors or riding a gran fondo, hydration is crucial for your health and performance. Physiology, weather, and time all play a role in what to drink when cycling. Finding the best hydration drink for cycling helps you create a hydration plan that’s easier to follow and sets you up for success.
Cycling Hydration Options
There are a lot of options when it comes to what goes into your bottle. Depending on your hydration and nutrition needs, these are the best hydration drinks for cycling.
- Water
- Electrolyte Drinks
- Hydration Tab & Mix
- Carb Drink Mix
For more information on hydration drinks for cycling, check out Ask a Cycling Coach Ep 256.
The Importance of Hydration
It’s hard to overstate the effects of dehydration on cycling performance. Your hydration level significantly influences blood plasma volume. As you become dehydrated, plasma volume decreases, which causes a decrease in cardiac output and a rise in body temperature. What does this mean when your riding? Essentially, you won’t be able to produce the same power, and these effects become more significant throughout a long endurance event.
The simple solution to dehydration is to drink more water while cycling. However, the problem is a bit more complicated. We not only lose water while we sweat but sodium as well. Replacing the lost fluids with water alone can lead to hyponatremia. This condition is the dilution of blood sodium levels, which is dangerous and potentially deadly. It occurs when you lose a lot of sodium and drink too much water. The good news is that with the right hydration strategy, you can ensure that you are drinking enough during your ride.
How Much to Drink When Cycling
Deciding how much to drink can range widely based on many variables. Your physiology plays a significant role, along with the intensity and weather conditions on your ride. But some general principles can apply to everyone. How much you sweat and the rate at which you lose sodium is highly individual. Sweat a lot? You’ll need to drink more. Do you have salt stains on your bibs or jersey? You will want to drink something with sodium.
Regardless of your sweat rate, it will increase as the temperature and intensity rise. In hot or humid conditions, your body will sweat more to keep you cool, which in turn, means you’ll have to drink more. Additionally, your core temperature will rise with the intensity of your ride. If you are going for an easy spin, you won’t need as much as if you are doing a hard race.
Drink when you’re thirsty is an old cycling adage. There is plenty of merit to this idea. However, it is not necessarily the best advice in some circumstances. If you are completing a long, endurance event, the conditions are hot, or you’re a heavy sweater, drinking to thirst may not be enough.
With that being said, a general rule of thumb is to aim for a bottle an hour. Pro Tip: You can set a timer on your phone as a reminder to drink. You’ll need to adjust based on the conditions and your physiology. Your needs when cycling might be higher or lower than this. The best thing is to listen to your body and keep notes on what is working for you.
The Best Hyrdation Drink for Cycling
There is a multitude of options when it comes to what to put into your bottles. Depending on your hydration and nutrition needs, this could be a simple as water or a sports mix. Determining the best hydration drink for cycling really comes down to personal preference, weather conditions, time, and intensity. In general, these options fall into four categories.
Water
The first thing to drink while cycling is plain water. If your ride or workout is a short one, water can be a good choice. Just remember that you may need some sodium from another source. However, for longer or hotter rides, water is a poor choice. This is because carbohydrates play a vital role in the absorption and transport of electrolytes.
Cycling Electrolyte Drinks and Powders
These drinks and powders focus on providing sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes with little to no carbohydrates. Electrolyte drinks are great when you get enough calories from other sources like gels, chews, or bars. A good example is Precision Hydration’s Tablets. Each tablet has three grams of carbs. However, if this is your only source of nutrition on the bike, you’ll most likely be better off with a more carb-dense cycling drink mix.
Hydration Tabs & Mix
The next option is using hydration tablets or a mix. These mixes usually contain some carbohydrates and electrolytes. These drinks include 3-4% carbs because they help transport water and sodium across the small intestine. Skratch Labs Sport Hydration Mix is a good example. If you use a hydration mix and are aiming for 60-90g of carbs an hour, you’ll need another way to get more carbs.
Carb Drink Mix
A third way to hydrate during cycling is to use a carb-dense drink mix. Usually, these drinks have more carbs than a hydration mix but with similar sodium content. For example, SiS Beta Fuel has 80g of carbs and .56g of sodium. These types of drinks are an easy way to get both carbs and hydrate at the same time. Using a carb mix in one bottle with water in another is a popular choice because it can help avoid GI distress from too many carbs.
Conclusion
Whatever you choose to drink when cycling, listen to your body. Learning your needs and accounting for the weather and intensity, you can create a hydration plan to help you achieve your goals. For more information on hydration, check out Hydration, Sweat, and Cramping with Precision Hydration’s Andy Blow.
For more cycling training knowledge, listen to Ask a Cycling Coach — the only podcast dedicated to making you a faster cyclist. New episodes are released weekly.
