Ahead of The Rift – Iceland's brutal 200km gravel race through volcanic lava fields – pro cyclist Rosa Klöser shares exactly what she eats and drinks before, during and after race day.
Key Takeaways
The Rift is a largely unsupported 200km gravel race across Icelandic lava fields, and Rosa's cycling nutrition plan is built specifically around that unpredictability.
In the 24 hours before a race like this, she targets 10–12g of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight and 3–4 litres of water a day.
On the bike, she leans on liquid carbohydrate (80–100g per bottle) as the effort gets harder, keeping gels and bars as backup rather than her main fuel source.
Her hydration target sits around 500–600ml per hour, rising to nearly a litre an hour in extreme heat, as she learned firsthand at Unbound.
Recovery starts within minutes of finishing, with protein as the first priority – and AG1 anchors her daily foundational nutrition through a race-heavy season.
Rosa Klöser is a professional road and gravel cyclist who rides for the UCI Women's WorldTeam CANYON//SRAM. A breakout star of the gravel scene, she won the Unbound Gravel 200 outright in 2024 and finished 2025 as overall winner of the Gravel Earth Series, with wins including the German National Championships. Alongside her racing career, Rosa is completing a PhD at Copenhagen Business School.
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
Question | Expert Answer |
|---|---|
What should I eat before a long gravel race? | Rosa prioritises easily digestible carbohydrates in the days and hours before a race, alongside consistent hydration – she aims for 3–4 litres of water a day in the lead-up and doesn't hold back on carbs the night before, since that's the energy reserve she'll draw on during the race itself. |
"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.
What's a good cycling nutrition plan for a 100km+ ride?
There's no single number that works for everyone, but Rosa's approach is a useful template: load up on carbohydrates in the 24 hours before, lean on liquid carbohydrate (drink mix) as the effort gets harder, and carry gels or a bar for variety rather than relying on solid food alone. |
How much water and electrolytes do you need on a multi-hour ride? | Rosa targets 500–600ml of water per hour as a baseline, rising to closer to a litre an hour in hot conditions – as she found at Unbound. On unsupported courses like The Rift, that means planning and carrying your entire supply rather than relying on aid stations. |
How do you recover nutritionally after an endurance race? | Protein is the priority in the first hours after finishing. Rosa reaches for a whey shake immediately after crossing the line to support rehydration and recovery. |
Does cold or windy weather change how you fuel a race? | Yes – conditions like Iceland's mean Rosa treats her hydration and carbohydrate targets as flexible rather than fixed, adjusting for temperature, wind and how exposed a course is. |
