title: Fluid and food intake during professional men's and women's road-cycling tours.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To quantify the fluid and food consumed during a men's and women's professional road-cycling tour.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight men (age 25 +/- 5 y, body mass 71.4 +/- 7.4 kg, and height 177.4 +/- 4.5 cm) and 6 women (age 26 +/- 4 y, body mass 62.5 +/- 5.6 kg, and height 170.4 +/- 5.2 cm) of the Australian Institute of Sport Road Cycling squads participated in the study. The men competed in the 6-d Tour Down Under (Adelaide, Australia), and the women, in the 10-d Tour De L'Aude (Aude, France). Body mass was recorded before and immediately after the race. Cyclists recalled the number of water bottles and amount of food they had consumed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Men and women recorded body-mass losses of approximately 2 kg (2.8% body mass) and 1.5 kg (2.6% body mass), respectively, per stage during the long road races. Men had an average fluid intake of 1.0 L/h, whereas women only consumed on average 0.4 L/h. In addition, men consumed CHO at the rate suggested by dietitians (average CHO intake of 48 g/h), but again the women failed to reach recommendations, with an average intake of approximately 21 g/h during a road stage.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Men appeared to drink and eat during racing in accordance with current nutritional recommendations, but women failed to reach these guidelines. Both men and women finished their races with a body-mass loss of approximately 2.6% to 2.8%. Further research is required to determine the impact of this loss on road-cycling performance and thermoregulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Tammie R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Ebert
authors.forename: David T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.forename: Warren
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Withers
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001642:Bicycling / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003681:Dehydration; D004326:Drinking / Q000502:physiology; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status