I Had My Cycling Nutrition Wrong for a Decade

How's no one talking about the guy who finished 70km sans saddle?? 🤯 What a legend!!💪

I started cycling at 50 years of age at a solid 97kg girth, because of a video you did with your wife in the Noosa Tri. I entered the Noosa Tri but fell in love with cycling. One and a half years later, now 82kg. I still cycle and rode in this years Tour De Brisbane and qualified for the UCI worlds. I cramped badly probably due to poor nutrition but managed to crawl home in 3 hours 12 mins. Thinking I should get a coach and train but all I mainly do are solo unstructured rides not really knowing what I am doing. Videos like this are awesome, I definitely didn’t eat anywhere near enough.

I believe the term is ‘Carb the fuck up!’- Harley Johnstone

Hope everyone is doing well. I spoke with Kate (Koja Owner) before publishing this video, mentioning I was giving her bars a plug. She provided me with this 1 X use discount code CAM20 - Please note that is not an affiliate code. This is my bar of choice: www.koja.com.au/collections/oat-bars/products/cinn…

Good stuff Cam. 90g/h is kids stuff ;) Build it up over time. I tolerate about 120g/hr now and I'm 15kgs lighter than you. Dramatic improvements in longer rides. The trick is to custom mix your bottles to both have approx 120g of carbs in them. Preferably, at a 1:1 ration. Sucrose, or table sugar is the cheapest option and just as effective as Maurten etc. Jesse Coyle does a great job of explaining it on his YouTube channel. High Fueling your long ride once a week for around 6 weeks is usually enough to build gut tolerance. Best of luck.

There's a reason triathletes call it the fourth discipline...taking in the right amount of carbs before and during the race is critical. Glad you touched upon this as it really has helped me as well in my races.

Fueling was the big lesson I learnt cycling. In my youth I used to compete in competitions that lasted all day, start off strong and then fade. Back then, in the early 80's and in to my 20's, I always put that down to not being strong enough and not doing the right training, but riding since my mid-30's and now watching this kind of content showed me that I just didn't fuel enough. A few sandwiches spread across a day wasn't enough. Even now, I fade on the bike, but when I have enough to eat I fade less and feel great after.

Great video mate. Always enjoy hearing more about your cycling journey.

Love your channel. Keep up the great work!

This is a real eye opener. Thanks, Cam. Great video.

One of your best vids Cam. Well done on the race result. Steph seems to know her stuff! I’ve always been a huge fan of those Koja bars too, but maple is my go to. Thanks for the discount! 🙏

Cam, good job! Good job on the race and mostly on getting your point accross in this video. I watched it as I was carbing up for a ride and you motivated me to double up on my carb intake. I ended up riding stronger than I ever have and set a few PRs at the end of the ride, which as you felt too, ended with me feeling that I had a lot more left in the tank. Kudos and thanks for sharing!

Awesome video Cam. Really appreciate the honesty and a real world example of how/what to eat and the effect it had on your ride. I don’t race but I train for riding up mountains in the Victorian high country. I constantly get cramps towards the end of my rides but have never consumed the amount of carbs you talk about. Will certainly try this on my next mountain. Thanks for the insight and advice!!

Awesome effort, Cam. Great video, too!!!

Great insight, and great result!💪

Thanks for this Cam, I was in your age group wave but was too far back to say hi sorry :) Great result for the race & also with your fuelling. This vid is especially helpful for me as I bonked at Cootha and incorrect fuelling played a major part which I am now trying to piece together for another crack at next year's TDB event.

Way to go, Cam! I'm honestly quite surprised you had never done this before, considering how much you feature Steph on RCA channel and how well she presents her guidance. I was inspired by her advice a few months ago to really be proactive in planning my nutrition and hydration and instead of fading after ~4 hours, I felt strong throughout my 7-8 hour rides. I tried my first ~12 hour ride last weekend and found that after about 10 hours my gut revolted and I had to back way off on the carbs, and the final couple of hours was pretty rough.

Well done Cam! You didn't podium, but you came pretty close! Good to get the nutrition right and to see the result on the bike.

Thanks for the thorough advice and great data!

This was such a major unlock for me too. I’d been chronically under eating during events. Well done, strong result.