What to Drink While Cycling to Stay Hydrated

As we head towards summer, many of us will start to think about staying hydrated while out riding.

Not only does becoming dehydrated while riding lower your performance, but it can also make you feel pretty unwell.

To help you decide on how to stay hydrated, we have created a guide on what to drink while cycling to stay hydrated.

Being hydrated is something that we can’t overstress how important it is. You might think that as we are made up with 60% of water, we can safely lose a few percentage points.

We can’t though. A dehydration headache is a pain that can easily be avoided so why run the risk?

The best tip to beat dehydration

Beating dehydration starts even before you pedal. Indeed if you are feeling thirsty as you go out for a ride, you’ve already lost this battle.

The best possible way then to beat dehydration on a cycle is to go out fully hydrated.

One of the best ways to beat this is to drink 2 cups of water around 15 minutes before you head out.

When You jump onto your saddle though your body might be screaming at you that you need to pee. You can relax though as that is an adrenal response, even if you don’t drink you’ll get the same feeling.

Post-ride hydration

Pre-ride hydration was pretty simple and really cheap but what about post-ride hydration? What you should remember is that your body can only take on a finite amount of liquid at a time. Around 800ml an hour.

As with not drinking enough, you also want to avoid over-drinking. Over-hydrating yourself is called hyponatremia. It can lead to a slippery slope and death so don’t just hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate. Think about what your drinking.

If you want to be really safe or are a person of an anorak style persuasion, you could weigh yourself before you go out.

Then weigh yourself when you come back in. For every pound you’ve lost you’ll need to drink a half liter of fluid.

Unlike your pre-ride hydration, you can’t just drink water here. You’ll have lost water through sweat so you’ll be needing to also top up on sodium and electrolytes.

Nuun Sport Hydration Tablets

As well as being good for you while riding, Nuun Sport Hydration Tablets are a great way to get electrolytes back into your body after exercise.

The best type of recovery is to get what your body needs into and not leave it wanting, and the Nuun tablets do that effectively.

Not only do the Nuun tablets help you after exercise they can also be used to help fight off a hangover. They will help you stave off a bit of muscle soreness and will get you back in top form to ride the next day again.

Staying hydrated as you ride

So we ’ve looked at pre, and post-ride hydration, all that is left now is to look at hydration during your ride.

Sticking to a system here will help you in the long run. It is hard though to give you an exact measure of what to drink as everyone is different.

There are a lot of factors that can influence how much you need to drink on a ride.

• Were you hydrated when you left? You should always answer this question with a yes.
• Genetics. Your genetics can inform how well you’ll cope with fluid loss as you exercise and indeed how much fluid you’ll actually lose.
• Sweat rate. Sweating can also come under genetics but is also influenced by the weather, the clothing your wearing, and how fit you are.
• How well trained you are. The more you’ve trained the easier you’ll find it to deal with fluid loss.
• How intense the riding session your doing. A one hour pottle is very different from a one hour maximum effort ride.
• How long your ride is. If your ride is under an hour you might not need to think about hydration. If it is an 8 hour pedal you’ll need an hydration plan.

Is there a hydration rule of thumb?

The first one is that if your ride is under an hour, those 2 cups of water you had will be more than adequate.

Then you’ll be wanting to try and take on 8 ounces of fluid for every 20 minutes of activity. You’ll also want to try and make it between 5 and 8% carbohydrate fluid as well.

The reason for the 5 to 8% figure is that it has been proven to help your body take up fluid faster. Keeping you more hydrated and fresher feeling as you ride.

If you can see white salt crystals on your clothing, you’ll also want to be making sure you’re taking extra sodium. Especially if you have to brush them off your clothing at the end of the ride.

Skratch Labs Sport Hydration Mix

Skratch Labs are one of the makers of hydration drinks that make sure they put enough carbohydrates in the mix to help you have fast and efficient hydration.

Yes, you could buy a drink mix with no carbs and try and eat the correct mix as you drink, but out on the road, most of us will make a mistake there. It’s just easier to have it all thought out for us.

You’ll also find that Skratch Labs have over twice the amount of electrolytes of similar powders and under half the sugar of those powders. A winning combination if you’re trying to deliver the best performance that you can.

Laird Superfood Hydrate Original Coconut Water with Aquamin

The Laird Superfood Hydrate is another electrolyte drink that contains carbohydrates. It is made using coconut water which is one of nature’s best electrolyte drinks. It also features potassium which is something that a few other beverages forget.

That means you can leave the banana at home. They always somehow manage to become a mushy mess in your back pockets anyway.

The Aquamin part of the name is also a natural ingredient. It is a marine alga. It will bring you calcium, magnesium, and another 72 minerals.

Like the Skratch Labs above it is also pretty low in sugar. Your teeth will thank you for this as most sports drinks are great for your dentist and less great for your bank balance.

Portland Design Works Sparrow Bottle Cage

There is probably no point in us telling you what to have in your water if we also don’t give you ways to carry it.

We like the PDW Sparrow bottle cage as it is a bit quirky and isn’t just another boring carbon fiber bottle cage bought from a Taiwanese catalog.

It is made from 5052 aluminum and comes with 2 stainless steel bolts for attaching it to your bike. Stainless steel bolts are a nice touch as they won’t rust and can take a bit more abuse than uber-light titanium bolts.

CamelBak Podium Big Chill 25oz Insulated Water Bottle

One of the worst things about riding in summer is when your drink becomes lukewarm. It becomes much harder to stick to your drinking regime when that happens. The CamelBak Podium Big Chill is designed to stop that happening.

It will keep your fluid colder than all the other plastic bottles that are currently available.

The other nice touch is CamelBak’s Jet Valve. The Jet Valve is a self-sealing valve that still brings you a high volume of water when you need it most.