Written and reported by
Logan Jones-Wilkins
Bikepacking has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people.
For some, Bikepacking is a strict, monastic pursuit far from any paved road, where all of the bare-bones gear you might need for the duration of your trip must be strapped onto your bike at the start. For others, it is merely the pursuit of point-to-point rides, with cafe stops, hotels, and restaurants providing respite for a mostly or entirely paved journey.
And to that difference, I say c’est la vie! Do what makes you hum, do what gets you out, and do what makes you love your bike. But feed yourselves!
In my experience as a cycling journalist, adventurer, and racer, the first advice I give anyone cycling is to eat more. Before the carb revolution, it was eat more. Since the carb revolution, it has been eat more. And in the future, it will be eat more. Nevertheless, I have noticed some people in certain cycling pursuits are better at heading the call compared to others.
Racers, as you can imagine, are all over it. They take that advice and run with it. More and more, I’m telling them something they’ve already internalized. Chances are, if you are here on the Carbs Fuel page, you are one of those people. And to that I say congratulations, you are doing it right.
Adventurers and bikepackers, however, are less inclined to heed the calls. For these types of people, efficiency is king and hauling multiple days of fuel seems ridiculous in the face of gas stations and their ripe bounties of cheap calories. And to some extent, I see their point.
Why carry a heavy bike over climbs if there is no cost to buying food on the road?
The answer is, there is a cost. The cost for cycling trips is significant, where being stronger and fueled can drastically change the enjoyment of an activity that should be done for enjoyment. If anything, feeling good on a bike pack is more important than feeling good at a race. If you feel bad at a race and do well, you succeed. But if you feel bad on a bikepack trip or a big day ride because you’re underfueled, what is the point? You should be doing it out of love, and the suffering should be optional.
Obviously, fueling plans on multi-day bikepack trips are never going to be foolproof. They also shouldn’t be done entirely on sports nutrition. Part of the joy is the scavenging process. But let’s consider some of the benefits of perhaps being more proactive with sports nutrition, especially with Carbs Fuel.
Use performance fuel as a baseline and build from there
When you are thinking about adventure fueling, the first thing you have to reset is the grams of carbs per hour that guide you. Guess what: you won’t need to scarf down 120g on these adventures. It's not necessary. Doing bikepacking or other Big Dumb Rides (say upwards of six hours of riding) at a RPE that is hard enough to justify that consumption is not really a bikepacking trip. At that point, you are racing without the race.
Where you should start is ensuring that you have at least 50g of carbs per hour and build from there.
Unless you are ultra racing or going for more than a few days, try to build a plan around 50g per hour for every hour of planned riding, where you know exactly what you need to eat when. This can be in advance — making space for 10 plus Carbs fuel gels to start — or it can be built-in store stop snacks — Snickers or M&Ms, for instance — at particular gas stations you will get to at ballpark times. Chances are you’ll already be scoping out the right stops for water anyway, so think through the snacks that will go with it.
On top of that, be sure to try to mix in different flavors and macro nutrients at different times. Don’t be afraid to be less efficient with some fatty foods or more protein-rich snacks, but really, it still revolves around carbs and hitting the right marks. 50g is the absolute floor, and many will want more. That’s where the meals will come into play and the scavenging at the stores along the way, but don’t use that as a crutch.
Best practice is to be intentional and take at least enough gels to secure a carbohydrate consumption floor for your trip. This is what the big change I made was for a two-day, 260-mile off-road bike pack trip from Flagstaff to Phoenix this spring.
In total, I had 16 Carbs gels for the sixteen hours of ride time, and it made that trip a smashing success as I was easily able to fill the gaps and concentrate instead on being strong enough to make it through long stretches without water in a short enough time to navigate 70 miles of gravel in 90-105 degrees with no water refills. Without having a carb base, I have no idea how I would make it, let alone do it enjoyably.
Electrolytes are hard to find in gas station foods
You can get a lot of things at gas stations, but can you also replenish your electrolytes? Maybe, but don’t count on it. This is where the benefits of the Carbs Fuel salted gels and the Carbs Fuel mix can play a big role in prioritizing electrolytes before the adventure begins.
I found the single-use packs of mix especially effective in my Arizona trip, knowing two things: 1) I was going to need to drink a LOT of water; and 2) a lot of it was going to taste pretty bad.
For those who don’t know, Arizona has tap water that is tough to drink. It is hard, for lack of a better description, because of the minerals that are omnipresent in the water of the desert environment. The result is that the vast majority of water I drink at home is from five-gallon jugs filled with reverse osmosis-treated water, reducing the mineral concentration and providing gloriously tasty water.
All of this glorious water consumption, however, has made my taste buds soft. If anything, it has made tap water around the world taste bad. Especially when I need to drink from he tap in the hotter parts of Arizona. It honestly makes it a struggle to rehydrate on the road when I am behind the eight ball, a common occurrence on the longer adventure-based rides and bike-packing trips.
The only thing that offsets this on the road, beyond getting bottled water if it's available, is mixing in hydration fluid. If you find the right mix, adding the requisite carbs and electrolytes to a bottle or two can both make the water more palatable and keep you from depleting your body’s minerals to a point where cramping or other dehydration-based issues can begin to stack up. Once again, planning ahead with Carbs mix, Carbs salted gels or other packable electrolyte supplements.
The power of a good alternative breakfast
Breakfast is a constant struggle for adventure rides, both on multi-day rides and classic Big Dumb Rides. For Big Dumb Rides, the start times are often early, and the caloric demands are high. Yet, the appetite doesn’t always cooperate with the needs.
The solution I have found is to eat something, but not too much. Instead, I focus on nutrition early, bumping up carb consumption by 20-40 grams per hour in the first two hours. From there, the net balance is about the same as a big breakfast, but without loading down my gut with heavier food and avoiding any unsettled stomach issues. I also seem to get out the door faster, which is always a plus.
On bikepacking trips, this is even more pronounced, as an easy big pre-ride breakfast isn’t an option when I am camping away from any towns. In these scenarios, it is either bring a stove and extra water, and ingredients to make something in the field, eat a cold breakfast, or just go with on the bike nutrition until the first available town. I always choose option C if I can.
The protocol is the same as for the Big Dumb Rides, with a quick morning snack — something solid is best — before hitting the round and overfueling for the first couple hours before you can grab a real meal. If you have fueled properly the day before, like I outlined earlier, it should be an effective alternative to a pre-ride breakfast fussing with granola or stoves or other time-consuming or weighty items. Add in some caffeinated Carbs Fuel gels, and you can also prolong the time before the first coffee is necessary without dealing with cold instant coffee, bulk coffee-making items, or dodgy hotel brews, if that is your desired bikepacking method.
Logan Jones-Wilkins is a journalist and cyclist based in the southwest of the United States. As a writer, he has covered cycling extensively for the past year and has extensive experience as a racer in gravel and road. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and PPEL from the University of Richmond. Outside of his work in the cycling world, Logan is also a Carbs Fuel athlete, racing road, gravel, and mountain bikes alongside his reporting.
