Florian's headline numbers
Florian's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
Florian would benefit from taking in a final dose of carb <30 minutes before
Florian had undergone several months of gut training ahead of Le Tour to ensure he would be able to tolerate the 100g+ carb per hour he’d aim to take whilst riding at such a high intensity. This clearly paid off, as he and his teammate Frederik Frison were able to put in a huge effort up the infamous Grand Colombier at the end of the stage and reported no GI distress whilst taking on 100g/h.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
T - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
Florian spent the majority of this stage towards the back of the peloton as his main role was as a domestique for his teammates. The upside of this was that he had plenty of access to the team car for fluid top ups whenever he needed, which was important in the 36ºC (97ºF) heat. He managed to successfully replace enough of his fluid losses through sweat to avoid dehydration related issues, and maintained a relative sodium concentration close to that of his own sweat losses.
How Florian hit his numbers
Here's everything that Florian ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“After this stage we have mixed feelings. It's rubbish to lose Caleb Ewan to injury, but seeing Maxim Van Gils take 2nd place gives me a happy feeling.”
“Florian did a superb job of finishing this challenging stage in the heat. He provided his body with plenty of available energy via his carb intake and was able to ward off any hydration-related issues via the contents of his bidons.”
PF&HFlorian's full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
There is good confidence in the accuracy of the data reported. An athlete feels that the numbers closely reflect what they consumed despite a couple of estimations which may carry some degree of error. The majority of what was consumed is recorded to a high level of specificity (most volumes are known through the use of bottles brands quantities flavours). The numbers are very plausible and align with previous data recordings (if an athlete has collected data previously).