Have I finally found out why I keep getting dropped?
Why hydration is more important than you think for cycling performance
So, just how do you know if you're hydrating properly, and has the answer to unlocking our full potential on the bike been staring us in the face all along?When we talk about hydration, we don’t just mean downing a few bottles of water/ Whether you're riding hard, easy, in the hot or in the cold, chances are you are to some degree sweating. After all, this is one of the things that makes us humans so good at endurance events.
Too much sodium could see you gain weight due to water retention, see an increase in your blood pressure and elevated your core body temperature, leading to accelerated fatigue; and that’s before we even get into what it could do to your bowels! . It turns out that I lose 1,208mg of sodium per litre of sweat, making me a"salty sweater". This might explain why I often struggle in hot conditions, even when I think I've fuelled properly! Jan Bakelants and Victor Campanaerts are less salty, with values of 1,044mg/L and 957mg/L respectively.
To find out mine I went head-to-head with Jan Bakelants - a Tour de France stage winner - in a heat chamber. There's something you don't get to do every day! I’ve done some research, and at 1% dehydration - or after about 20 minutes in the heat chamber - my core body temperature will already be elevated. That means I'm fatiguing quicker than I otherwise would.
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