Cycling Nutrition Plan: A Pro Cyclist's Fuelling Guide

We caught up with Rosa Klöser in Iceland the day before the start of The Rift – a 200km, largely unsupported gravel race through some of the most remote lava-field terrain in Europe. Between a WorldTour road season with CANYON//SRAM and a gravel calendar that's included an Unbound Gravel 200 win and the overall 2025 Gravel Earth Series title, Rosa has had to get precise about her cycling nutrition – there's no margin for guesswork on a course like this one.

Meet Rosa & The Rift

The Rift's course cuts through the Icelandic highlands, much of it over jagged lava rock that punishes both bike and body. "The Rift is honestly one of the toughest races, physically," Rosa says. "Because of all the big lava rocks you find everywhere out there, you really have to give it everything with your body. But when you've got such incredible views all day, you're happy to suffer for it."

It's exactly the kind of race where a considered cycling nutrition plan stops being a nice-to-have and becomes the difference between finishing strong and grinding to a halt.

Race Week: Carb-Loading and Hydration Before the Start

Rosa's prep starts well before the start line. "For a demanding race like The Rift, it's really important to get in a lot of carbohydrates, but also to be properly hydrated," she says. "I really focus on drinking at least three to four litres of water a day, and I try to get to 10 to 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight. For me, that works out at almost 600 grams of carbs before a race like this – if you convert that into pasta or rice, it's honestly a lot."

And yes, that carb-loading extends past the dinner table. "In the evening, it's totally fine to have a bag of Haribo too," she laughs.

Her advice for anyone building their own cycling nutrition plan around a long race: don't hold back the night before. "What's really important is not holding back on carbs the night before the race, because you need that energy to get through the long seven-and-a-half to eight-hour day."

On the Bike: Fuelling and Hydration Across 200km

Once she's rolling, Rosa's fuelling shifts almost entirely to liquid carbohydrate. "In my bottles I've got a carbohydrate solution from Ministry – that's my nutrition sponsor – with a lot of carbs in it. Depending on how warm it is, I go for a ratio of around 80 to 100 grams of carbohydrate per bottle."

Solid food still has a role, but a smaller one. "I always carry gels, and sometimes a bar in between. The tougher the race and the faster it's being ridden, the more I actually lean on liquid fuelling – so the bottles are really my go-to." It's a useful principle for cycling nutrition during ride: the harder the effort, the more your body will thank you for fuel it doesn't have to work to digest. It's also why energy gels cycling riders reach for tend to be liquid-forward and easy to open one-handed – quick, low-effort carbohydrate for when chewing a bar isn't appealing at kilometre 160.

Hydration follows its own logic on a course like this. "When it comes to hydration, I try to get to around 500 to 600 millilitres of water per hour," Rosa says. "Of course I'd like to take on even more, but The Rift is an unsupported race, so I try to carry – or plan – my entire water supply myself." Iceland adds another layer on top of that: "The conditions here are just extremely rough. You really have to prepare yourself for a demanding, tough day – it can get properly windy and cold."

Build Your Own Race-Day Fuelling Plan

Carb-load in the 24 hours before, not just the morning of

Rosa's carbohydrate target is high because her race demands are high, but the principle scales down: load up on carbohydrate in the day or two before a big ride, not only at breakfast, and don't cut carbs the night before to "feel lighter" – you'll need that reserve later.

Go liquid when the effort gets harder

The tougher the ride, the less appealing solid food becomes to a body under load. Build your bottles around a carbohydrate drink mix as your primary fuel, and treat gels and bars as backup rather than your main plan.

Plan hydration around the course, not a fixed number

500–600ml per hour is Rosa's baseline, but she adjusts up in the heat and down in the cold. On unsupported routes, plan your entire water supply yourself rather than counting on aid stations – a lesson she learned the hard way.

Learn from when the plan gets tested

Even a well-drilled plan gets stress-tested. At this year's Unbound, Rosa found herself needing closer to a litre an hour through the final, hottest hours. "That's when things got tight for me, and I noticed my mouth getting dry towards the end. Luckily there was one more aid station near the finish, and I managed to top up on water. That's what got me to the finish line." The takeaway: build in a margin for conditions changing, and know where your next chance to refill actually is.

Prioritise protein the moment you finish

"After a demanding race like that, prioritising your recovery is really crucial – getting protein in is really important," Rosa says. "Often I'll have my Ministry whey shake straight after the finish line, and these days also the Cherry Tart flavour, which helps me rehydrate and recover better." Whatever's in your kit bag, have a protein source ready before you even leave the finish area.

Her Everyday Foundation: AG1 in a Race-Heavy Season

Between Unbound, the Gravel Earth Series and now The Rift, Rosa's calendar barely lets up. Staying well through that, she says, is its own discipline. "During a race phase, feeling healthy is always the be-all and end-all as a professional athlete.¹ AG1 really helps me with that, because it's super easy to bring the Travel Packs when I'm travelling.¹"

It's become a fixed point in her day regardless of time zone or start line. "The first thing I do every morning is make my AG1, and that helps cover my daily needs for trace elements, minerals and nutrients."

Final Thoughts

Rosa's cycling nutrition plan isn't complicated, but it is deliberate: carb-load with intent, go liquid when it gets hard, plan hydration around the actual conditions rather than a textbook number, and treat recovery as part of the race rather than an afterthought. None of it is exclusive to professional gravel racing – the same principles scale down to any long ride where getting fuelling wrong is the difference between finishing well and just finishing.