What to eat in a gran fondo: a km-by-km fuelling plan

A gran fondo isn't finished by your legs. It's finished by your stomach. You can turn up with 3,000 km in your legs, but if food stops going down after km 100, your race is over all the same. After years spent between kitchens and races, this is what actually works. No impossible protocols, just good judgement.

The rule that sorts out everything else

In a 4 to 7 hour gran fondo your body can burn more than 3,000 kcal, but it can only absorb between 60 and 90 g of carbohydrate per hour. That's the bottleneck. Your job isn't to eat a lot: it's to eat steadily, right from the start, before you even feel hungry.

The number one mistake isn't eating too little. It's starting to eat too late.

The night before: no heroics

Forget the giant plate of pasta. A normal dinner, high in carbs and low in fibre and fat: rice, pasta or potato with a bit of light protein. Food your stomach already knows. The real glycogen loading happens over the two or three days before, not in a single dinner.

Breakfast: 3 hours before, and keep it boring

Between 2 and 3 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight, around 3 hours before the start. For someone weighing 70 kg: white bread with honey or jam, a banana, oats if they sit well with you. Coffee if it's part of your routine. Nothing new on race day. The perfect breakfast is the one you don't notice during the first hour.

Km 0 to 40: start before you need it

First golden rule: your first gel or bite goes in 30-40 minutes after the start, even if you feel fresh. What you eat now is your energy at km 90. From then on, something every 30-40 minutes, without fail.

Target: 60 g of carbohydrate per hour as your baseline. If your gut is trained, up to 90 g/h on the hard sections.

Km 40 to 100: the quiet work

This is where a gran fondo is won or lost, and where most riders get it wrong. You're feeling good, there's a group, there's a rhythm, and you forget to eat. Set an alarm on your GPS every 30 minutes if you need to.

Mix up the textures so your palate doesn't get fed up: gel, something small and solid if you tolerate it, gel again. A real-fruit gel with 40-46 g of carbs covers a whole feed on its own and goes down without a fight. Feed stations are for refilling bottles, not for discovering new flavours.

The last 40 km: liquids and gels only

Once fatigue sets in, your blood is in your legs, not your stomach. Solid food stops going down. Now it's all about gels and your bottle: one feed every 30 minutes, with small, frequent sips of water alongside each gel. If your stomach shuts down, take a gel with extra water and ease off a couple of notches for 10 minutes. It comes back.

Hydration: the short version

Between 500 and 750 ml per hour depending on the heat, with sodium (300-500 mg/h in summer). A trick from the kitchen: if plain water bores you and you stop drinking, that's the problem to solve. One flavoured bottle, one plain water, and keep alternating.

The final numbers for a 5-hour gran fondo

A 70 kg rider aiming for 70 g/h: about 350 g of carbohydrate during the race. That's, for example, 6 gels (about 260 g), a banana and half a bottle of carb drink. It fits in two pockets. You don't need more, but you don't need less either.

The 4 mistakes we see every Sunday

Starting to eat at km 60. Trying the gel they handed out in the race goodie bag. Only drinking when you're thirsty. And relying on the feed stations for everything: carry YOUR food, the food you've already tested on your long training rides.

Train your stomach like you train your legs

Handling 70-90 g/h is something you train. On your two or three long rides before the gran fondo, copy the plan exactly: same gels, same timings, same drink. On race day you don't improvise anything, you just carry out what you already know works.

To make the maths easy: our gels carry 40-46 g of real-fruit carbohydrate each, a ratio close to 2:1 and 300 mg of sodium. One full feed per gel, easy on the stomach. For a gran fondo, the 12 PICOS MIX | Rodaje pack covers the race and one long prep ride. If you haven't tried them yet, start with the Tasting Pack: 4 flavours for €10.90 with free shipping and test them on your next long ride, not on race day.

Enjoy the ride,
Lucca