Maximize Your Cycling Talent

If your sleep, recovery, nutrition, and/or hydration isn’t on point, it’s ludicrous to think you can overcome this by doing more or going harder. The discipline to ride isn’t impressive. We all already love to ride. The desire to improve is as common as bearings on a bike, as everyone who competes in bike racing wants to improve.

It’s the desire to prepare properly that actually sets athletes apart, and that’s where you can gain an advantage, because the overwhelming majority of athletes do what is comfortable or convenient or habitual, and feel like it’s talent that is their liability, when in fact, most of what affects your ability as a bike racer is actually quite controllable.

While plenty of bike racers blame a lack of talent as an excuse, there is so much that we can control that impacts performance, that you see a lack of discipline in things like recovery, nutrition, and sleep that self-handicaps athletes. They’re hiding behind a wall of “lack of talent,” because they haven’t actually tapped the talent that they do have.

So, before we bemoan that we have a lack of talent, let’s look at some controllables that are more important than talent.

Sleep— We don’t make the rules, and your body enforces them. The data is clear- as an adult athlete, you need to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night to maintain standard function (not optimal, standard). If you average less than 7 hours of sleep per night, your chances of infection and injury skyrocket, as well as causing substantial cognitive and metabolic impairment. As a young adult (juniors/U23), you need at least 9 hours per night on average. If you fall below these targets, your body racks up sleep/recovery debt like congress.

Protein for bodyweight— In terms of nutrition, and particularly for muscle building, repair, and recovery, you need 1g of complete protein to support 1lb of lean body mass. In short, whatever your target weight is, is the amount of protein in grams you should aim to consume daily. Want to get down to 150lb? Eat 150g of protein per day. Want to get up to 150lb? Eat 150g of protein per day. The daily minimum is 100g of complete protein across the board regardless of sex or size. Whole food complete protein (meat, eggs, fish) should dominate, protein powder and dairy in second, and bars/nuts/wheat/beans/etc practically don’t count.

Salt— You have a baseline demand of 3-5g of sodium daily before adding in training. For training/racing, demand rises as you spend 700-1100mg+ of sodium per hour. Yes, if you’re an average sized athlete and do a good hard 3hr group ride, you absolutely need 7-8g of sodium to replace everything you’re using that day. You should be consuming a minimum of 300mg of sodium per hour during training and racing. Your daily potassium demand is about ¼ that of sodium, so a general target of 2-3g is safe. It’s worth considering a daily Magnesium supplement, though not always necessary.

If you are getting sleep, protein, and electrolytes correct, then you are in a position to make the most of your talent, no matter what that talent level is (or what you think it is). Most athletes don’t check all these boxes properly on a regular basis. Therein lies a potential advantage if you do. The best part though, is how much better you’ll feel and perform on the bike. 

-Christian & Noah Williams