Tour of Britain

During stage one, Danni sourced her carb intake from PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, PF 30 Chews, a caffeinated gel and some rice cakes. This fell short of the general recommendations for a race of this duration and intensity. Over this kind of multi-day event, Danni should try to push towards 90g/h during each stage to sustain high performance in the latter days of the race and avoid accumulating too much fatigue early on. In order to successfully achieve this increase in carb consumption, Danni should undergo some gut training so she can comfortably tolerate this volume of carbs while racing at a high intensity. She didn’t experience any gut discomfort on day one but did mention feeling sick at times on days when she was drinking her team’s highly concentrated energy drink mix. As a result, Danni may want to rely more on chews, gels and solid foods when looking to increase her carb intake, since it seemed to sit better on her stomach. Also, it’d be worth incorporating a final carb dose in the last ~15 minutes before each stage with the aim to spike her blood glucose levels and preserve her glycogen stores for later.

Staying on top of fluid and sodium losses is extra important in multi-day events, as it’s easier to accumulate a large hydration deficit and experience race-impacting levels of dehydration. To support effective recovery and replenish her sweat losses ahead of the next stage, Danni concluded each day by drinking ~500ml of water mixed with PH 1500. During stage one, Danni drank only PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, and with the mild and wet conditions, it was enough to replenish her lower than normal sweat losses. That being said, she did consume slightly more on days five and six to account for the longer durations of these stages. As the event progressed, the relative sodium concentration of Danni’s intake dropped slightly from drinking more of a carb drink mix provided by her team, which contained fewer electrolytes. Despite this, she continued to take on solid quantities of sodium and fluid before, during and after stages allowing her to avoid any hydration-related issues, including cramping.

Danni is an avid coffee drinker but only took on small doses (20mg in each caffeine gel) during a few of the stages, falling short of the recommendations for optimal performance. Introducing a greater caffeine dose at strategic points during the race could be advantageous for her next time, especially during later stages when both mental and physical fatigue are most prevalent.