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FUELLING MY FIRST 100-MILE CYCLE
Williamsburg → Richmond → Williamsburg.
100 miles.
Around 161 km.
A flat route.
An average pace of around 28 km/h.
No café stop.
One stop at a gas station.
And it was my first 100-mile cycle.
So there was one thing I knew before we even set off:
We couldn't just rely on finding food when we got hungry.
We had to take our fuelling with us.
And honestly, the ride taught me a lot about what actually works when you're eating for hours at a time.
THE ROUTE
The route was relatively flat, which meant we could settle into a consistent pace.
But 100 miles is still a long time to be exercising.
At around 28 km/h, you're looking at well over five and a half hours on the bike, before accounting for any stops.
That changes the way you need to think about food.
You're not fuelling one workout.
You're fuelling hours of continuous exercise.
And that means your strategy needs to be something you can actually maintain.
THERE WASN'T A CAFÉ WAITING FOR US ☕
One of the biggest differences compared with a shorter ride was the logistics.
There wasn't going to be:
"Let's just stop at a café."
We had one gas station stop.
That's it.
So we couldn't rely on getting sandwiches, pastries, bananas or whatever happened to be available along the way.
Everything needed to be thought about beforehand.
Fuel had to come with us.
And that changed the whole approach.
THE FUELLING PLAN
Our strategy was deliberately simple.
Every 20 minutes: half a RED-Scue bar.
Rather than waiting until I felt hungry, I started fuelling early and kept eating regularly.
Half a bar.
Ride.
Half a bar.
Ride.
And repeat.
The idea wasn't to eat a huge amount all at once.
It was to keep taking in carbohydrate regularly throughout the ride.
We also had Gatorade in our bottles, so carbohydrate was coming from both our drinks and our solid fuel.
That combination worked well for me because I wasn't relying on food alone.
I could drink regularly while taking smaller amounts of solid food throughout the ride.
WHY START BEFORE YOU'RE HUNGRY?
One of the biggest lessons from endurance fuelling is that waiting until you feel completely empty isn't a great strategy.
Once you're deep into a long ride and you're suddenly thinking:
"I need food."
you're already trying to catch up.
That's why we had a plan.
We weren't waiting for hunger to tell us when to eat.
We were using the clock.
Every 20 minutes.
It made the fuelling almost automatic.
And psychologically, that helped too.
Instead of thinking:
"How am I going to get through another 60 miles?"
it became:
"Time for another half bar."
Then back to riding.
BUT WE'D TRIED OTHER BARS
This wasn't the first time we'd experimented with solid sports fuel.
We'd previously tried Clif Bars.
And to be fair, they did something really useful:
they gave us sustained energy.
But there was another issue.
After a while, they became a bit claggy.
And that matters much more than you might think.
Because on a long endurance event, you aren't eating one bar.
You're eating repeatedly.
For hours.
So something can look great on paper nutritionally, but if you don't enjoy eating it after several hours, it becomes much harder to maintain your fuelling plan.
THIS IS WHERE TEXTURE BECOMES PART OF SPORTS NUTRITION
We talk a lot about:
grams of carbohydrate.
grams of protein.
calories.
electrolytes.
But there's another question that matters:
Can you actually keep eating it?
If a bar is too dry, too dense, too crumbly or too claggy, you may find yourself putting it off.
And putting it off once can become putting it off again.
Then suddenly you've gone a long stretch without eating.
That's not necessarily because you don't understand fuelling.
It's because the practical food experience doesn't work for you.
And that's exactly why RED-Scue was designed to be different.
THEN THERE WAS THE POP-TARTS
One of the guys on the ride took a different approach.
He fuelled with three Pop-Tarts.
At one point, he bonked.
Now, it's important not to say that the Pop-Tarts caused the bonk.
We don't have enough information to make that conclusion.
A drop in performance during a long ride can have lots of contributing factors:
-
total carbohydrate intake
-
timing of carbohydrate
-
exercise intensity
-
hydration
-
individual tolerance
-
fatigue
-
pacing
-
how much fuel was consumed before the ride
-
and simply how long you've been exercising
But it did highlight something really important.
Taking food with you isn't the same as having a fuelling strategy.
You can have food in your pockets and still end up under-fuelled.
The question isn't just:
"Did I bring something?"
It's:
"Am I actually eating enough, often enough, throughout the ride?"
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOOD AND A FUELLING PLAN
This is something I think gets missed in endurance sport.
Someone might say:
"I had a bar."
But that's not necessarily a fuelling strategy.
You need to think about:
What?
What carbohydrate source are you using?
How much?
How much carbohydrate are you actually getting?
When?
When are you taking it?
How often?
Are you taking small amounts regularly?
Can you tolerate it?
Does your gut handle it?
Can you keep eating it?
Because if the answer to that last question is no, the strategy becomes much harder to maintain.
WHY CARBOHYDRATE MATTERS ON A RIDE LIKE THIS
When you're cycling for several hours, carbohydrate becomes an important fuel source.
Your body can use both carbohydrate and fat during exercise, but as intensity increases, carbohydrate becomes increasingly important for supporting higher-intensity work.
And with a ride lasting several hours, you're also using up stored carbohydrate, particularly muscle glycogen.
That's why endurance fuelling isn't just about eating when you're hungry.
It's about providing carbohydrate throughout the session to help support the work you're doing.
For longer endurance exercise, sports nutrition guidance commonly recommends consuming carbohydrate during exercise, with the appropriate amount depending on duration, intensity and the individual.
For this ride, we deliberately made carbohydrate intake a regular part of the plan.
WHY THE GATORADE MATTERED TOO
The bars weren't doing all the work.
We were also drinking Gatorade.
That meant carbohydrate was coming from two different places:
SOLID FUEL
RED-Scue bars
LIQUID FUEL
Gatorade
And that can be useful on a long ride.
You don't necessarily want to get all your carbohydrate from solid food.
But you also don't necessarily want every calorie to come from a drink.
Having both meant we could drink regularly while continuing to take smaller amounts of solid fuel.
WHY HALF A BAR?
For us, half a bar every 20 minutes was a practical way of breaking the food down.
It wasn't:
"Here's one huge bar. Finish it now."
It was:
small amount → regularly → repeatedly.
That made it easier to eat while riding.
And it meant we weren't waiting until we were starving before taking the next bit.
The exact amount someone needs will depend on the individual, their body size, pace, duration, overall diet and the carbohydrate content of their chosen foods and drinks.
So this isn't a prescription for every cyclist.
It's one athlete's real-world strategy for a specific 100-mile ride.
AND THIS IS WHY I LOVE FOOD-FIRST FUEL
For me, the biggest takeaway wasn't:
"Everyone should use bars."
It was:
Your endurance fuel needs to be something you can actually keep consuming.
Gels have their place.
Sports drinks have their place.
Chews have their place.
Bars have their place.
And regular food can have its place too.
But if you're riding for five, six or seven hours, the experience of eating becomes part of the strategy.
You need something you can carry.
Something you can access easily.
Something you can eat while moving.
Something you actually want to eat.
And something you can keep coming back to.
THAT'S THE GAP RED-SCUE IS TRYING TO FILL
RED-Scue was created around a simple idea:
sports fuel shouldn't have to feel completely separate from food.
Our bars are designed as food-first carbohydrate fuel.
Not a powder.
Not a drink.
Not something that feels like you're forcing down another sports product.
A solid, smooth, food-like option that can sit alongside other fuelling sources.
And that's particularly relevant for long endurance sessions.
Because when you're eating every 20 minutes, you need to want to eat the next bite.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM 100 MILES
The ride taught me a few things.
1. PLAN BEFORE YOU GO
If there aren't cafés or reliable food stops, you need to carry what you're going to need.
2. DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE STARVING
Start fuelling early and make it part of the plan.
3. REGULARITY MATTERS
Small amounts taken regularly can be much easier to manage than leaving huge gaps and trying to catch up.
4. DRINKS CAN CONTRIBUTE TOO
We used Gatorade alongside our solid food, so our carbohydrate intake wasn't coming from one source.
5. TEXTURE MATTERS
A food can provide carbohydrate and still not be something you want to keep eating for hours.
6. PRACTISE YOUR FUELLING
Just like you practise your pace, you can practise your nutrition.
Don't leave your race-day or event-day strategy until the event itself.
7. HAVING FOOD ISN'T THE SAME AS FUELLING
The food needs to become part of an actual plan.
8. YOUR FUEL DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ONE THING
Different forms of carbohydrate can work together.
100 MILES CHANGES YOUR PERSPECTIVE 🚴♂️
When you're doing a short ride, you can sometimes get away with thinking about fuelling afterwards.
A 100-mile ride makes you think differently.
Because you're going to be eating for hours.
You're going to be drinking for hours.
You're going to be making decisions while tired.
And eventually, what you packed, when you eat it and whether you actually want to eat it all starts to matter.
That was probably the biggest lesson for me.
Fuelling isn't just about finding a food that works once.
It's about finding something that works again, and again, and again.
At mile 10.
At mile 40.
At mile 70.
And when you're still riding towards home.
That's what makes a fuelling strategy sustainable.
Food-first fuel for the long haul.
RED-Scue.
