Best Energy Bars for Cycling (UK, 2026): 6 Compared for Long Rides

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. Updated October 2026. Flaming Phoenix makes Phoenix Bars, one of the six cycling foods compared here.

The best energy bars for cycling deliver 35 to 50g of carbohydrate in a bar you can eat one-handed, so one or two an hour reach the 60g that British Cycling's head of nutrition, Nigel Mitchell, says the body can deal with. On labels checked in October 2026, my top pick of the six for long-distance riding is Phoenix Bars: up to 557 calories and up to 66g of carbohydrate in a compact, 120g bar, the most calories and the most carbohydrate per bar here, so three bars carry you from one café stop to the next on a 200km audax.

On a long ride the bar is rarely the whole plan. A carbohydrate drink in the bottle, a café stop every few hours and a pocket of bars between them is how a lot of British club riders, audaxers and sportive riders get round. This page is about the pocket.

Which bar for which ride?

• Best overall for long-distance riding, audax and bikepacking: Phoenix Bars, up to 557 calories and up to 66g of carbohydrate in a compact, lightweight 120g bar (our own bar).
• Short, hard efforts and racing: Torq Bar, 34g of carbohydrate and 0.7g of fat in a 45g bar.
• A crisp rice bar: Styrkr BAR50, 50.4g of carbohydrate in 70g.
• A baked oat bar for training rides: SiS Energy Oat Bar, 40g of carbohydrate and 10g of protein.
• The one most bike shops and supermarkets sell: Clif Bar, 38g of carbohydrate in 68g.
• Malt loaf for the pocket: Soreen lunchbox loaves, 88 calories each.

How did we compare cycling bars?

I compared six foods UK riders carry, five sports bars and one supermarket staple, on what matters with your hands on the bars: carbohydrate per bar and per 100g, how easily you can open and eat it one-handed at speed, how the wrapper and the bar cope with a warm jersey pocket, and how many you need to get from one café stop to the next. Figures come from each brand's own page or from Tesco and Sigma Sports listings, checked October 2026.

We make Phoenix Bars. They come first on calories, carbohydrate and protein per bar, which decides how many bars you carry between café stops, and on bikepacking trips and overnight audaxes they also carry the most calories per gram.

What makes a good energy bar for cycling?

A good cycling bar gives you a known dose of carbohydrate, opens with one hand, survives two hours against a warm back, and goes down while you are breathing hard.

One-handed eating. You will be steering with one hand on a descent, in traffic or in a group, so the bar needs a tear notch that works with gloves, and a size you can finish in two or three bites. Big bars are better broken up before the ride and carried in a top-tube bag, where you can reach them without looking down.

The wrapper. Tear the corner of the next bar before you set off or at the café, so it opens with a pinch on the move. Keep the empties folded small in a back pocket or a frame bag.

Eating at speed. On a hard climb or in a fast group you are breathing too hard to chew a dense bar, and fat and fibre slow digestion. That is when a gel or a small, low-fat bar suits best. The steady miles, which make up most of a long ride, are where dense bars do the work.

Heat. Cycling UK's beginner guide to eating on a long ride puts it plainly: "anything squishy or melty is likely to end up a sticky mess". Chocolate chips soften against a warm back in summer, and British Cycling's Nigel Mitchell warns that bananas "can go a bit mushy in your pocket".

Riders usually manage more solid food than runners, partly because the stomach is not bounced around with every stride, so bars and real food do more of the work on a bike than in a run. If you also run long, our ranking of the best energy bars for ultra running shows how the choice changes on foot.

How many carbs per hour do you need on a long ride?

Aim for about 30g of carbohydrate an hour on shorter rides and around 60g an hour on long ones. That is the range in Cycling UK's guide; British Cycling's event-day advice gives a rule of thumb of one gram per kilo of body weight per hour, with 60g as the figure Nigel Mitchell says the body can deal with, eaten "little and often". He also warns that "an easy mistake some people make is to over eat on the bike". To estimate how many calories a ride actually burns, use our cycling calorie calculator.

Here is the worked example for a common UK day out: a 200km audax or long sportive with café stops roughly three hours apart. At 60g an hour, each three-hour stretch needs about 180g of carbohydrate. To carry that in bars alone:

• Phoenix Bars: 3 bars, up to 198g of carbohydrate and 1,587 to 1,671 calories.
• Styrkr BAR50: 4 bars, 202g of carbohydrate.
• Clif Bar: 5 bars, 190g.
• SiS Oat Bar: 5 bars, 200g.
• Torq Bar: 6 bars, 204g.
• Soreen lunchbox loaves: 10 loaves, 180g.

Phoenix Bars need the fewest wrappers and bring by far the most calories, 1,587 to 1,671 against 918 for six Torq Bars, which matters more the longer the ride. In practice a bottle of carbohydrate drink covers part of the 180g, so the real count in your pockets is usually lower.

The best energy bars for cycling, compared

Per-bar figures from the label, checked October 2026.

1. Phoenix Bars: best overall for long-distance riding, audax and bikepacking.
Phoenix Bars hold up to 557 calories, up to 66g of carbohydrate and up to 19g of protein in a compact, lightweight 120g bar, which is 441 to 464 calories per 100g: the most calories, carbohydrate and protein per bar of the six, and the most calories per gram. Soft, so you can break one into pieces in a top-tube bag and eat one-handed. £5.25 a bar. Adam Eustace, bikepacking across Vancouver Island, wrote that they "Didn't break up in my bag, and could snack on them as needed".

2. Torq Bar (Zesty Orange): for short, hard efforts.
153 calories and 34g of carbohydrate in 45g, with 0.7g of fat and 1.6g of protein. Organic, small enough to eat in two bites, and nothing in it to melt.

3. Styrkr BAR50 (Dark Chocolate Chip): a crisp rice bar.
249 calories and 50.4g of carbohydrate in 70g, with 8.5g of fat, vegan and gluten-free. The crisp rice texture breaks cleanly, but the chocolate chips (18% of the bar) soften on a hot day.

4. SiS Energy Oat Bar (Blueberry): a baked oat bar.
255 calories, 40g of carbohydrate and 10g of protein in 70g, with 5.1g of fat and 4.3g of fibre. For steady training rides; the fibre makes it less suited to racing.

5. Clif Bar (Chocolate Chip): the familiar one.
258 calories, 38g of carbohydrate and 10g of protein in 68g. Chewy, not crumbly, and sold almost everywhere, handy when you are restocking at a village shop halfway round.

6. Soreen Malt Lunchbox Loaf: the pocket classic.
88 calories and 18g of carbohydrate in a 30g loaf, with 0.4g of fat. Malt loaf squashes instead of shattering and does not melt, but you need ten for three hours.

Energy gels vs bars vs blocks for long-distance cycling

Use gels for hard efforts, blocks when you want a gel's speed in smaller bites, and bars or real food for the steady hours in between. Gels go down without chewing on a climb or in a fast group; blocks and chews let you take a few grams at a time; bars and malt loaf give you substance on the flat and stop you feeling hungry by the café stop. Over a 300km audax many riders use all three, plus whatever the café sells. For more on what to reach for when gels stop appealing, see energy gel alternatives.

What energy bars won't melt in a jersey pocket?

Bars with no chocolate chips or coating hold up best against a warm back: of the six here, Phoenix Bars won't melt, and Torq Bar and Soreen's lunchbox loaves have nothing in them to melt. Clif Chocolate Chip and BAR50 Dark Chocolate Chip soften on a hot day, so in July pick a fruit flavour, keep bars in the pocket furthest from your back, or carry them in a frame bag.

How do café stops change what you carry?

On a typical UK ride the café stop provides most of the food, so bars only need to cover the stretch either side of it. For a 2 to 2.5-hour ride with a café halfway, Cycling UK's guide reckons "a coffee and slice of fruit cake will see you right". On a 160km day, plan bars for the gaps between cafés rather than for the whole ride, and buy the next stretch's food at the stop when you can.

Bikepacking, audax and gravel: when calories per gram matter

Once you carry everything for a day or more, calories per gram become the number to watch. Robert Welman wrote of a 180km ride through the hills of Dorset: "I nibbled on these throughout the day". Our high calorie bars pack 441 to 464 calories per 100g against 379 for Clif and 340 for Torq, and they can be stirred into water as porridge at camp; see how to use Phoenix Bars. For trip planning, our guides to bikepacking nutrition and gravel cycling nutrition go further, and our list of UK gravel races covers events where long gaps between feed stops make density matter. Our guide to long-distance cycling nutrition builds a full plan for rides from 100km to 1,200km.

What are the best protein bars for cycling?

For riding, choose a bar with 10g or more of protein for long training days and multi-day trips. Phoenix Bars give the most here, up to 19g alongside up to 66g of carbohydrate; the SiS Oat Bar and Clif Bar each give 10g with about 40g of carbohydrate, and Torq (1.6g) and BAR50 (2.5g) are almost pure carbohydrate.

Frequently asked questions

How many bars do I need for a 100-mile ride?
At 60g of carbohydrate an hour, a six-hour 100-miler needs about 360g. That is about six Phoenix Bars, or roughly nine 40g-carbohydrate bars, if bars did everything; a carbohydrate drink in each bottle and a café stop can cover a good share of it, so carry bars for the rest and restock at the café.

How should I fuel a 50-mile bike ride?
A 50-mile ride takes most riders three to four hours, so plan on 30 to 60g of carbohydrate an hour: half a Phoenix Bar or one standard bar an hour, a bottle of carbohydrate drink, and a café stop if the route has one. Eat before you feel hungry.

What is the best food to eat during a bike ride?
Simple, dry carbohydrate that survives a pocket: malt loaf, flapjack, rice cakes, a jam sandwich or an energy bar. British Cycling's Nigel Mitchell suggests peanut butter sandwiches for longer rides and warns that bananas can go mushy in a pocket. Keep chocolate for cool days.

Can you eat too much on a long ride?
Yes. Nigel Mitchell of British Cycling calls over-eating on the bike "an easy mistake", and 60g of carbohydrate an hour is his figure for what the body can deal with. Eating far more than your gut is used to tends to leave riders bloated, so eat little and often rather than a whole bar at once, and practise your ride food in training.

Sources: British Cycling, event day nutrition; Cycling UK, a beginners' guide to what to eat on a long bike ride; product pages for Torq, Styrkr BAR50 and Clif; Sigma Sports for SiS; Tesco for Soreen and Clif. All checked October 2026.