How to plan feed stops on a long gravel or ultra ride

This guide is about planning, not sports nutrition. How much to drink and eat depends on you, the heat, the intensity and what your stomach tolerates. I don't give numbers: test in training, and for a big goal, ask a health professional or a sports dietitian.

Start from the route, not from feel

The first step happens at home, with the route in front of you. Open it in your usual mapping tool and note everything that could help: villages on the way, bakeries, shops, petrol stations, cafés, water fountains. Never rely on a single water point.

Check opening hours too. A village whose only shop is shut on Mondays or in the afternoon is no use if that's when you ride through. On a ride that starts early or finishes late, petrol stations on main roads are sometimes the only places open. On an organised event, the organiser usually publishes the list of official feed stations: note their distance, what they offer (water only, or food too) and their opening times if there are any.

Split the ride into sections

Once the stops are noted, I split the ride into sections, from one reliable water point to the next. For each section I look at three things on the profile:

• the distance, obviously;
• the climbing: twenty kilometres uphill don't drain your bottles like twenty kilometres on the flat;
• the surface and the time of day: a gravel section in the middle of a sunny afternoon will take longer and use more than a road section in the morning.

Think in time rather than distance. On loose gravel or with a lot of climbing, your average speed can drop a lot, and it's time on the bike, not distance, that empties your bottles. The longest section in time is the one that decides what you carry when you leave each stop.

Keep a margin and a plan B

On a long ride, the unexpected is the rule: a puncture that costs half an hour, a forced detour, a closed shop, a storm. For every long section I carry enough to last beyond the estimated time, and I note a fallback point a few kilometres off the route. If an official feed station might run out of something, assume it will.

Think about the remote sections too: on an ultra, the most important stop isn't always the longest one, it's the one before the isolated stretch. That's where you fill up completely, even if you're not thirsty.

Eat and drink before you need to

The advice everyone gives and everyone forgets after six hours: hunger and thirst arrive too late. Many ultra riders set a regular rhythm (every X minutes, or at each distance marker) rather than going by feel. The right rhythm is yours: find it in training, on long rides, with the products you'll use on the day. Never try a new gel or drink on the day of your goal.

A visual reminder helps a lot once fatigue sets in. That's why the sticker offers fuelling reminders: a small dot along the profile every N kilometres, with the label of your choice (“gel”, “bar”, “drink”). You choose the interval to match your own rhythm.

Put it all on the profile

Once the plan is made, the idea is not to have to think about it while riding. On a GPS unit you have to switch screens to see where the next stop is; with a sticker on top of the top tube, one glance down is enough. In the workshop:

1. import your route (see how to export your GPX);
2. in the Markers tab, add each feed stop with its distance and a short label: “Water”, “Bakery”, “Base”. You can also tap the profile at the right spot;
3. add the climbs or hard sections you want to see coming;
4. turn on fuelling reminders at the interval that suits you.

If you'd rather have a paper version for your roadbook or to share with your group, the elevation profile generator does the same thing as an image, one marker per line. The race profile sticker page explains the sizes and where each one goes.

My checklist before a long ride

• List of water and food stops, with distance and opening hours.
• Longest sections in time identified, and what I carry for each.
• A fallback point for each isolated section.
• Products tested in training, nothing new on the day.
• Feed stops and reminders on the profile, on the top tube or in the roadbook.

To anticipate the hard sections better, the guide to reading an elevation profile explains how to spot the gradients that really count.