• Hannah Alton is a female cyclist and member of the Vox Performance Project, a programme supported by Precision Fuel & Hydration. Throughout the project her hope has been, that through cycling, she can show others what’s possible, and make her son proud
• On a mild and overcast day, Hannah competed in the 213km Dragon Ride in Wales, an event with over 3400m elevation. That’s sure to gain her some cool points with her son!
• During the ride, Hannah used a combination of gels and the ‘real’ food options available at aid stations to sensibly fuel her day in the saddle
• This robust strategy resulted in her maintaining an average 17.55km/h speed across the mountainous terrain, finishing in 12 hours 8 mins

Hydration

• Hannah kicked off race day by preloading with 650ml/22oz of PH 1500, something which she has found to make “the most consistent and significant positive difference” since starting to dial in her hydration strategy with the help of the team at PF&H
• Over the last six months on the project, Hannah has done lots of experimenting with her hydration strategy and found that PH 1000 was the right strength electrolyte mix for her
• Therefore, during the ride, Hannah rode with one 650ml/22oz bottle, filled with PH 1000 (Tablet), replenishing it at each of the five aid stations
• Alongside her six bottles of PH 1000, Hannah also estimates that she drank ~2.5L/oz of plain water picked up at aid stations (~500ml/16oz per station) which she drank whilst stationary
• Hannah admitted that she had to rely heavily on the aid stations due to only having room for one bottle on her bike. Unfortunately, this lack of fluid provision whilst riding led to her being “desperately thirsty” on a mountain during one section of the ride
• In total, she drank ~6.4L/216oz of fluid, equating to ~527ml/h (~16oz/h), with an average relative sodium concentration of 736mg/L
• For the cooler conditions, which averaged ~15℃/59°F, these intakes are sensible. Hannah rated her hydration strategy a 7 (out of 10), reflecting that her only problem stemmed from having limited fluid carrying capacity on her bike

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall this was a great outing for Hannah who, bar one dodgy hip issue, felt great for the vast majority of the day.
• She surprised herself with how much she was able to eat and how good she felt throughout the ride, emphasising the importance of eating much more than she previously had been before joining the Vox Performance Project
• Finally, her hydration and fueling strategy worked well, giving her the confidence to keep on trucking with the knowledge that she wouldn’t bonk. The only adjustment Hannah should make for future long rides is to add a second bottle to her bike to increase fluid availability between aid stations!