Gravel racing nutrition: how to fuel long gravel races and self-supported events

Quick answer: On a gravel race longer than about 2.5 hours, aim for up to 90 grams of carbohydrate an hour, the ceiling in the American College of Sports Medicine's 2016 position statement, taken a little at a time every 20 to 30 minutes. Leave each aid point with enough food for the gap to the next one plus a margin, which at Unbound Gravel 200 meant three to four hours of fuel.

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated November 2026.

Mix drink and gels with real, easy-to-digest food so you can keep eating for hours without flavour fatigue or a wrecked stomach. On gravel, the rider who keeps eating is the rider who finishes well.

Gravel is its own fuelling problem, and most cycling nutrition advice is written for the road, where you can sit up, ride no-handed, and grab a feed at a smooth moment. Gravel does not give you those moments. The ground is rough, the routes are remote, the days are long, and the biggest events expect you to be largely self-supported. This guide is for anyone tackling a long gravel race or ultra-distance event, from a first Dirty Reiver or Gralloch to Unbound 200 or a self-supported monster like GBDURO.

Why is fuelling a gravel race harder than fuelling a road ride?

Three things make gravel harder. The terrain is too rough to take both hands off the bars or look down to fish a wrapper out of a pocket, so eating itself becomes a skill. The routes are remote, with aid often hours apart, so you cannot rely on grabbing food when you need it. And the days are long, frequently six to twenty hours, which turns the ride into a nutrition problem as much as a fitness one.

At Unbound Gravel 200 in Kansas, for example, the 2026 race had support checkpoints at about miles 42, 100 and 160, with two water-only stops in between, so riders had to leave each checkpoint carrying enough food for three to four hours. The hardest self-supported events have no neutral support at all, which means everything you eat, you carry. That is a very different challenge from a sportive with a feed zone every 30 miles.

How many carbs and calories do you need on the bike?

The American College of Sports Medicine's 2016 position statement recommends 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour for efforts of one to 2.5 hours and up to 90 grams per hour beyond that, and the UCI's cycling nutrition guidance uses the same bands. Some trained racers now take 120 grams an hour; a 2026 review in The Journal of Nutrition by James Morton and colleagues says trained guts may handle that much, but that the extra benefit above 90 grams is not yet proven. The reason to eat at all is simple: your glycogen covers roughly 90 minutes to two hours of hard riding, and once that runs low without external fuel, performance drops off sharply. That collapse is the bonk, and on gravel it usually arrives miles from anywhere.

Carbohydrate per hour is the headline number, but on a long gravel day total calories matter just as much. A ten-hour effort can burn 5,000 to 7,000 calories (our cycling calorie calculator will estimate yours), and you cannot replace all of that with gels and drink mix without your gut rebelling. That is why calorie-dense real food is worth carrying for the back half of a long race. Our guide to ultra-high-carb solid foods goes deeper into getting carbs from food you can actually face after six hours.

The four problems that wreck gravel fuelling, and how to beat each one

Gut distress. Eating large amounts in one go on rough ground is a recipe for stomach trouble. The fix is to eat small and often, roughly something every 20 to 30 minutes to stay topped up while keeping each portion small enough not to upset your gut, and to favour food that is easy to digest. Whatever you choose, practise it in training, because race day is the worst time to discover a food does not agree with you.

Flavour fatigue. After six hours, another sweet gel can be physically hard to swallow. This is one of the most underrated reasons riders stop eating and then bonk. Varying texture and flavour, and breaking up the sweetness with real food, keeps you eating through the last few hours.

Heat and mush. Many foods melt, sweat, or turn to paste in a jersey pocket on a hot day. Food that holds its shape and texture is far more likely to actually get eaten.

Eating one-handed. On technical gravel you need food you can open and eat without stopping, looking down, or taking both hands off the bars. The easier a food is to manage on the move, the more of it you will get in.

Liquid, gels and real food: getting the mix right

A sensible long-gravel strategy spreads your carbohydrate across drink, gels, and real food rather than leaning on any one of them. On rough terrain, getting a good share of your carbs from drink mix makes sense, because around half your hourly fuelling coming from liquid suits gravel, where you need to keep your hands and focus on bike handling. Gels are compact and fast, but they pile up flavour fatigue and gut load over a long day.

Real food does the opposite job. Many gravel racers build solid food into their fuelling because it gives both the gut and the mind a break from sweet liquids and gels. If you are trying to move away from a gels-only approach, our energy gel alternatives guide covers the real-food options that work without slowing you down.

How much carbohydrate is in common gravel race food?

The table shows typical UK pack values per serving. Figures are approximate and vary by brand.

As a worked example, three hours to the next checkpoint at 60 to 90 grams an hour means 180 to 270 grams of carbohydrate. Two bottles of drink mix, three gels, a 50g bag of jelly sweets and two slices of malt loaf come to about 220 grams and 940 calories, with the peanuts as a salty extra for the slower sections.

What real food actually works on gravel

Good gravel food meets five tests. It is calorie-dense, so a small piece carries real fuel. It is easy to eat one-handed on rough ground. It is easy to digest. It holds up in heat without melting. And it tastes good enough to face deep into a long day. Our comparison of the best energy bars for long distance cycling puts the main brands side by side.

I make Phoenix Bars, so bear that in mind, but they meet those tests. Each bar is calorie-dense real food, with up to 557 calories in a compact, 120g bar made with gluten-free oats, so it gives you a big dose of fuel and a break from sweet gels, and it is easy to digest, which is the whole point on gravel. There are six flavours, Apple and Cinnamon, Cherry Bakewell, Chocolate, Vanilla, Salted Caramel and Ginger, which helps against flavour fatigue when you still have three hours to go. They are vegan and gluten-free, they do not need refrigeration, and on a multi-day effort a bar can be mixed with water into a quick porridge at camp. You can see how riders use them across long events on our how to use Phoenix Bars page, and read more than 390 customer reviews from endurance riders, racers and others.

As with any fuel, test them on your long training rides before you race.

Fuelling the big self-supported gravel events

The longer and more remote the event, the more this becomes a logistics problem. On self-supported races you carry everything, and even on supported ones you need to start with enough food in your pockets for at least three hours, often more, and carry extra in case a bottle ejects or you have a mechanical. Riders who do this well think in sections: they leave every aid station or drop bag with enough compact fuel to reach the next one, with a margin on top.

This is where calorie-dense food, such as high calorie bars, pays off. The more calories you can carry per gram and per pocket, the less you have to stop, and the bigger your safety margin if the ride goes long. For multi-day, fully self-supported gravel, the same thinking that drives our bikepacking nutrition guide applies, just compressed into a faster, harder effort.

A simple fuelling plan for a long gravel race

Two days before. Raise your carbohydrate intake, leaning on lower-fibre, high-carb foods like rice, pasta, porridge and bread, with extra sodium and good hydration. For events over 90 minutes, the American College of Sports Medicine's 2016 statement suggests 10 to 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight a day for the 36 to 48 hours beforehand, which is 750 to 900 grams a day for a 75kg rider.

Race morning. A familiar, easy-to-digest high-carb breakfast a few hours before the start. The same statement suggests 1 to 4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram in the one to four hours before. Nothing new.

The first hour. Start eating early, before you feel you need to. It is far easier to stay topped up than to claw back a deficit later.

The long middle. Settle into your target of 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, taking a little every 20 to 30 minutes, split across drink, gels and real food.

The back half. This is where gels lose their appeal and riders stop eating without noticing. Shift more of your fuelling to real food and variety to keep yourself eating all the way to the line.

After the finish. Get some carbohydrate and protein in within the first hour, then a proper meal within a couple of hours. The American College of Sports Medicine suggests about 0.3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, which is 20 to 25 grams for most riders.

Frequently asked questions

How many carbs per hour do you need for a gravel race?
The American College of Sports Medicine's 2016 guidance is 30 to 60 grams per hour for races of one to 2.5 hours and up to 90 grams per hour for longer ones. Some trained racers go to 120 grams, but the benefit above 90 is not yet proven. Build up gradually in training rather than trying a new intake for the first time on race day.

What should I eat during a long gravel ride?
A mix of drink mix, gels, and calorie-dense real food works best, eaten in small amounts every 20 to 30 minutes. Real food like a calorie-dense bar, malt loaf or a wrap becomes more important in the second half, when sweet gels get hard to face.

How do I stop bonking in a gravel race?
Eat early and keep eating. Because your glycogen only covers roughly 90 minutes to two hours of hard riding, the way to avoid the bonk is to take in carbohydrate steadily from the first hour rather than waiting until you feel low.

How do I avoid stomach problems on gravel?
Keep portions small and frequent, favour easy-to-digest food, get a good share of your carbs from drink, and practise your exact race-day fuelling on long training rides so there are no surprises.

How much should I drink in a gravel race?
The American College of Sports Medicine's fluid guidance is to keep losses below about 2% of body weight, which is 1.5kg for a 75kg rider, starting from roughly 400 to 800ml an hour and adding sodium on long or hot days. On remote gravel, plan water carrying around the gaps between refills, not just the food.

How much food should I carry for Unbound or a self-supported event?
Plan to leave every aid station or drop bag with three to four hours of fuel, and carry a margin on top for mechanicals or a slower-than-expected pace. On fully self-supported events you carry the lot, which is where compact, calorie-dense food saves the most weight.

What real food is best for gravel racing?
The best gravel food is calorie-dense, easy to eat one-handed, easy to digest, and stable in heat. Malt loaf, fig rolls, wraps, rice cakes and calorie-dense bars all fit, and salty options such as peanuts or crisps help on hot days.

Related guides

Ultra-Endurance and Expedition Nutrition Guide · Long-Distance Cycling Nutrition · Bikepacking Nutrition · Mountain Biking Nutrition · Energy Gel Alternatives · Ultra High Carb Solid Foods · Long-distance cycling routes UK

Ready to fuel your next gravel race? Explore Phoenix Bars on the homepage.

Sources: American College of Sports Medicine, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada, joint position statement on nutrition and athletic performance (2016); Morton and others, From Metabolism to Medals: revisiting carbohydrate guidelines for fuelling endurance athletes during exercise, The Journal of Nutrition (2026); UCI cycling nutrition guidance; Unbound Gravel, 2026 200 Mile Athlete Guide; food values from typical UK pack labels; Phoenix Bar values from our own pack labels.