Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
I don't know what world tour pros do, but I highly doubt they carb-load either (there was an article about Sky having Froome lose a lb or two in the first week of a grand tour, so I'm sure they all monitor it to the nth degree). They're only so much your body can handle at one time, of course. There's also the issue of increased water retention when consuming additional carbs. You simply don't want to stuff yourself the day before and add multiple extra lbs of food and water weight. It'd just make you feel ugh.
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So anyway, all that to say, I personally think the notion of carb-loading is pretty ridiculous unless you've been chronically depleting yourself for whatever reason (in which case you'd simply be restoring a bit of balance). But who doesn't love an excuse to stuff themselves with extra sugar...
Thanks! That's very helpful. My longest competitive rides are now only 9-10 hours. My experience is about what you're saying. It seems crazy to me to advocate putting on so much weight in the 3-4 days before an event. Although I remember Lance talking to some reporter about Tour prep and resting up. He said something like: We don't rest up. We're on the bike 6 hours a day until 3 days before the Prologue. So maybe if one has a burn rate of 4Mj/day, one needs to eat that much for 3 days to top back up?
Before a big ride, I taper slowly over 10 days, so I'm not in a big deficit. I have a slightly carbier dinner than usual, but don't stuff myself, then a 400 Cal. carb breakfast. I start taking in carbs after about 45' on the bike or as soon as the crowd thins out a bit and it gets light. Then about every 15' all day. I TT the course. As it is said, there's no slower speed than stopped, so I wear a Camelbak and carry enough liquid food to match the Camelbak's duration. There are food stops, but I just refill my stuff, pee, and head back out. I easily come out ahead time-wise on the extra weight of the liquid food and Camelbak.