Originally Posted by
rsbob
I do watch a few GCN vids and they are real coffee devotees. J
I did exactly the opposite of GCN's stance on coffee and alcohol. The alcohol part is real geniune gem of info
. On actual road rides, the effects of coffee is debatable. If you've been drinking coffee all your life then skipping or reducing dosage on coffee would actually deteriorate your performance. But performance between being a coffee drinker vs long timer no caffeine seems identical. This is comparing myself to other roadies I ride with who drinks coffee and also myself to the time I was drinking coffee. My performance have actually improved over my coffee days, including COVID infection, etc. Although it could also be the result of better quality training.
The only significant difference I can see is the quality of fueling when looking at one's ability to hold power like in a long climb.
Since most, if not, the vast majority of adults drink coffee. It makes sense for them that maintaining their dosage caffeine would be critical to their performance but compared to someone who hasn't had any coffee nor caffeine for more than 1 year, they don't seem to perform any better or worse than regular coffee drinkers.. How you fuel up and pace the ride still matters far more.