Fuelling on a budget: cheap carbs that work on the bike

The cycling nutrition aisle is expensive because it sells convenience and precision, not because it sells a different kind of carbohydrate. Your gut turns a banana, a jam sandwich and a branded gel into the same glucose and fructose. For most riders on most rides, the cheap version does the job. The honest caveats are that cheap food is bulkier, sits worse at high intensity, and needs a little arithmetic to get the grams right. This post does the arithmetic.

What the studies that compared them found

Several groups have put real food head to head with branded products, and the results are boringly consistent.

• Bananas versus sports drink. Nieman's lab had trained cyclists ride 75 km eating bananas or drinking a 6% carbohydrate drink at matched carbohydrate doses. Performance, blood glucose and inflammation markers were the same. The banana group got potassium and antioxidants thrown in.
• Potatoes versus gels. Salvador's group fed cyclists either mashed potato or commercial gels at 60 g of carbohydrate an hour through a two-hour ride and a time trial. Blood glucose, glycogen use and time-trial performance were no different. The potato group reported more bloating, which is the honest bit.
• Raisins versus chews. Too's study compared raisins with a commercial sport chew during a running trial and found no difference in performance or blood glucose; the raisin group again reported slightly more gut fullness.
• Solids versus liquids in general. Pfeiffer measured the oxidation of a solid carbohydrate bar against a drink at the same dose and found the same rate. The form does not matter for delivery once it is digested; it matters for how comfortable that digestion is.

The pattern is: same fuel, slightly more gut noise from the whole-food version. That is the trade you are making.

The numbers that matter

Jeukendrup's guideline is roughly 30 g of carbohydrate an hour for rides of one to two hours, 60 g an hour for two to three, and up to 90 g an hour beyond that (the top figure needs a glucose-plus-fructose mix; the older Coggan and Coyle review put the practical ceiling for glucose alone at around 60 g an hour, which is still the number most riders should build up to first). Whatever you choose to eat, the question is how many grams are in a pocket-sized piece. These figures are the "carbohydrate, by difference" values from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy entries, per 100 g; the portion sizes are ours.

So a jam sandwich is about 47 g of carbohydrate, a banana and a small box of raisins together are about 59 g, and two dates plus a honey sachet are about 50 g. Two pocket items an hour gets most riders to the 60 g target with supermarket food.

What it costs

These are our own rough supermarket prices, and they vary by country and shop, so read them as estimates. Bananas, potatoes and white rice come in at a few cents per 30 g of carbohydrate. Raisins, dates and jam are a little more. A branded energy gel or bar with the same 25 to 30 g typically costs somewhere between ten and thirty times that. Over a season of long rides the difference is the price of a decent set of tyres, which is the real argument for doing this rather than any claim that real food is better fuel. It is not better. It is the same, and cheaper.

What cheap food does badly

Being honest about the limits is what keeps the cheap approach working.

• Intensity. Above threshold, blood goes to the legs and skin rather than the gut, and solid food sits. Every comparison study above was done at steady, moderate intensity. For a race or the hard final hour of a hilly ride, liquid carbohydrate (a drink mix or a home-made syrup gel) is the better tool. Our post on energy drinks versus real food covers that split.
• Bulk. 90 g of carbohydrate as bananas is four bananas. Nobody carries four bananas. Long days need the denser options: dates, raisins, honey, rice cakes.
• Fibre and fructose. Dried fruit brings both. Some riders tolerate 200 g of dates an hour; some bloat on 50 g. Build up in training, which is the whole point of gut training.
• Precision. A packet says 25 g and means it. Your banana is somewhere between 20 and 35 g depending on size and ripeness. That matters if you are trying to hit 90 g an hour in a race and does not matter at all on a Sunday club ride.
• Heat and squashing. Bananas bruise, jam sandwiches flatten, potatoes need a bag. Wrap things. Foil is cheap.

A budget shopping list for a long-ride month

For a rider doing four long rides of three to four hours each, this is what we would put in the basket, with the caveat that it reflects what we would eat rather than any study.

1. A bag of white rice and a jar of honey. One batch of rice cakes a week; our post on home-made rice cakes, bars and gels has the recipe and the maths.
2. A kilo of raisins or dates. Weigh out 40 g portions into small bags on Saturday night.
3. A loaf and a jar of jam. Two sandwiches a ride, cut into quarters and foil-wrapped.
4. Bananas. One per ride, eaten early while it is still whole.
5. Table sugar or maple syrup and salt. For a home-made drink mix or gel for the hard end of the ride. A litre of drink at 6% carbohydrate is 60 g of sugar; add a small pinch of salt.
6. Salt. For the bottle, not for the food. Real food is generally low in sodium and long hot rides need some.

Where to spend money, if you spend any

If the budget allows one branded product, make it a drink mix with a glucose-to-fructose ratio designed for high intakes. Drinks solve the two problems real food has (intensity and bulk) and are the one place the manufactured product is genuinely different from the shop-cupboard version: mixing your own maltodextrin and fructose at the right ratio is possible but fiddly. Everything else, including bars and gels, has a kitchen equivalent.

The bigger risk on a long ride is not eating the wrong thing but eating too little. If your rides come from a Moveee plan, the session card tells you the duration; multiply hours by 60 g and pack for that, in whatever food you can afford. The grams are the plan. The packaging is a detail.