Paris-Roubaix is one of the most testing races on the calendar; Mathieu van der Poel’s fueling strategy revealed just what it took to keep the three-time winner churning out the power for more than five hours in the saddle.
According to his stem-mounted nutrition strategy, Van der Poel consumed on average around 120 grams of carbs per hour. Seeing exactly what that equates to and the frequency of fuel consumption highlighted that to be a modern-day pro rider, you also need an iron stomach.
Van der Poel won Roubaix on a fueling plan that hit 120 grams per hour – a figure that, remarkably, is now seen as a baseline rather than a high mark. With modern fueling an evolving science, I wanted to find out how teams are approaching the topic in 2025.
120 grams is the new baseline
In modern pro cycling, the carb arms race is well underway. Back in 2023, Ronan Mc Laughlin spoke to Tim Podlogar whilst he was working with Bora-Hansgrohe on the topic, but it looks like things have moved on a step even ssince then.
For EF Education-EasyPost’s Neilson Powless, 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour isn’t ambitious – it’s just the baseline. “In the Classics, I would say most guys are on at least 120 grams per hour,” he told Escape Collective. That equates to roughly two gels and a bottle of energy drink every hour, and for Powless, it’s manageable.
But on big days, he pushes closer to 200 grams per hour – a staggering number when you consider that only a few seasons ago the peloton was routinely fueling on just 60 to 80 grams per hour. That threefold increase in intake is part of the reason why we see fewer blow-ups late in races and more consistency across brutal days. Riders simply have more energy available.
Yet high-carb fueling still comes with a big caveat: it’s unpredictable. Powless admits that he can’t always stomach the same intake. “Sometimes I can down over 200 grams an hour and feel totally fine,” he said. “Other days, I’m stuck at 120 and anything more gives me stomach cramps.”
If you are enjoying this article, there is so much more to it beyond this paywall. The reality is that stories like this are only made possible through the support of Escape Collective members. There are no ads or affiliate links here, just pure independent and member-funded media.
It’s this variability – why the gut tolerates more on some days than others—that remains a frustrating mystery, and a major reason why rigid fueling plans can fall short. “A lot of it is based on feel,” Powless said. “I can’t always predict when I’ll be comfortable on 200-plus grams an hour. But generally, in the second and third weeks of a Grand Tour, I can just eat endlessly without any issues.”
One-day races like the Classics, though, are a different story. With no back-to-back stages to think about, riders can afford to go all-in with fueling on the day and recover afterwards. That changes the approach. “For races around 200 km or less, our general team strategy is to carry all the food we need in our pockets from the start,” Powless said. That means no reliance on taking a feed to meet his needs. It also means that any additional nutrition he takes from the roadside is a bonus, allowing him to push the hourly intake closer to 150-180 grams when the race demands it.
Asked whether he thinks he’s close to his fueling ceiling, Powless shakes his head, pointing to the sheer day-to-day variability of his tolerance, which remains something of a mystery. “Nobody can really explain why I can take in over 200 grams some days and only 90 or 120 grams on others,” he said. That same variability shows up in his pre-race meals, too. While a team nutritionist might recommend 200 grams of carbs for breakfast, Powless often trusts his instinct, especially before the Monuments. “I can have over 300 grams for breakfast and still feel good in the race,” he said. “I’ve tried both ends – eating the absolute max I could handle, or just going light. Sometimes both work.”
And until science catches up with the gut’s quirks, much of elite fueling remains an art. “If we get to the bottom of that,” Powless said, “I think it could be a game-changer all over again.”
Why more carbs, and why now?
Racing a bike at WorldTour level is a calorie bonfire. As a ballpark estimate, riders burn around 330 calories per hour for every 100 watts of power they're putting out (this can vary from rider to rider and depending on a whole host of variables). So at 300 watts average power – a fairly typical prolonged effort in a big WorldTour one-day race – that’s roughly 900-1,000 calories an hour going up in metabolic smoke. And there’s no way to keep up. Riders simply can’t eat fast enough to cover that kind of burn.
Did we do a good job with this story?
