• Ruth had a dominant performance at the British Gravel Champs with over a 5 minute lead ahead of second place India Lee. She finished the 70km course in Suffolk in a time of 2 hours and 16 minutes
• Despite a slight crash towards the end of the race where her bike chain came off, she had a strong smooth race and followed a simple but effective hydration and fuelling strategy. Ruth said “It was a bit unexpected. I was treating it as a bit of fun but I am very happy with the outcome. It all just went better than I thought it would”
• The best ways to fuel and hydrate during gravel races is currently a hot topic for debate amongst athletes with different strategies being used to overcome the many complications due to the terrain and nature of gravel races
• Ruth said she was a bit limited by the race. She mentioned that there was a station to refill drinks but you had to stop which she did not want to do. As a result, she was limited to what she carried with her (two bottles) for the whole ride

Hydration

• Ruth consumed both 500ml (17oz) bottles over the course of the race which equates to ~441ml (~15oz) of fluid per hour. Considering the conditions weren’t too hot this seems to be a decent amount but we do not have data on Ruth’s sweat rate to confirm this will have adequately replaced what she was losing
• Ruth felt she did what she could for the race, rating her hydration strategy as an 8 out of 10 but did mention that she could have had a squeezy bottle in her back pocket as another athlete did. This would have been helpful in the last 30 minutes of the race when she had finished both of her bottles
• She consumed ~417mg/hr sodium during the race and didn’t experience any cramping. However, she believes she could have cramped if she pushed harder and was conscious of this towards the end of the race. She said ‘in an ideal world I would have had more water but I was not stopping. Maybe if it had been 5℃ hotter it would have been more of an issue but it was alright’. Learn more about cramping

Fueling

Conclusions

• Ruth had an excellent race to be crowned National Gravel Champ! After a result like that of course she rated her race satisfaction as 10 out of 10
• Keeping things simple with her fueling and hydration, she fuelled efficiently for a race of this length in these conditions. If the race had been hotter or if she had to push harder at the end she believes her strategy would not have worked therefore thinking of adjustments for these conditions would be a good next step. One suggestion would be to use a Hydropack of some kind in future gravel races, especially if the duration of the event gets any longer
• Her recovery has gone smoothly since the race and after a slight calf injury the past few weeks she thinks it is “getting there” and that “it will be fine for the next race (IM Mallorca)”