On a little bit of a drunken whim, I signed up for the Lutsen 99er., a 102.8 mile mountain bike race here in MN at the end of June. It's got 6,200 ft of elevation gain over the miles but is mostly gravel roads and snow mobile trails, not much single track.

I've got a bike and have done some riding but have no idea what to bring with me and am struggling to figure out a nutrition strategy. I rode 75 miles this weekend and took 6 Gus, ate a pop tart and a sausage and cheese snack thing from a gas station. I definitely would have needed a lot more food had I been going any further.

I'm guessing this takes me a little less than 8 hours to complete.

Aid Stations are at 22, 56, 76 and 94 and a bag drop is at 56.

When I run, I usually fuel with Gu or Maurten but it seems like I need more sustenance on the bike.

I have a backback that I wear running that has a 1.5 Liter reservoir. I was thinking water in that and then two bottles full of tailwind for calories. Then maybe keeping some peanut butter crackers, PB&J sandwiches or other normal food in the back pockets of my jersey to eat.

What should I carry for bike repair? I've heard quick chain links, quick link tool, tire levers, CO2 thing and then a spare tube. I'm riding on tubeless tires with sealant so hoping I don't have to mess with tires.

Any thoughts on how to approach the fueling or the emergency mechanics?! Thanks!

If you're looking for pb&j check these out. My wife picked them up recently and they're fantastic. 230 calories per. Way better than Uncrustables in my opinion.

My Ironman strategy was always to simply 2x my half Ironman nutrition. So my recommendation would be to plan for 4-5 hours then have a repeat of that ready at the half way. Depending on your effort I'm guessing you'll need to be getting 200-300 calories / hour so yeah a gu won't cut it. Clif bars were always my goto. If you're looking for quick pure liquid calories PUTU turned me onto EFS Liquid Shots. They're like 400 calories per bottle and go down pretty easily.

You probably know this but separate nutrition from hydration. Make sure you're getting plenty of fluids while also getting enough calories. When I would race 70.3 I had a concentrated bottle of electrolytes (I prefer EFS to Tailwind but go with what you know works) that would last me 3 hours; I would take a sip of that every 15 minutes then chase it with plenty of water. Each aid station grab a fresh water. Again this is probably old news but set you watch to alert you every 15-20 minutes and take nutrition every time it goes off. You get behind on something this long and it's hard to dig your way out.

Lastly, if it's hot, grab ice as often as you can. I raced a 90 degree day in Whistler and failed to do this and my nutrition got so hot I couldn't get it down. Wound up walking my bike up the last few hills.

Keep us posted - I'd love to hear how it goes.

GU has 20-25g of carbs. Frosted strawberry poptarts are apparently 36g of carbs. So about 180g of carbs all in over 6 hours (estimating since you said 100mi would be 8hr). 30g of carbs per hour is way underdoing it.

My preferred method is the 1:0.8 maltodextrin to fructose. If I'm going to 60g carbs per hour, I'll do 27g fructose, 33g maltodextrin, 1g salt, .6g citric acid in a bottle and drink that bottle over an hour. Works out to 225 calories per bottle/hour. And on top of that I'll add in some real food like homemade rice bars made from recipes provided by skratch.

No mountain bike experience. But for my ironman I preferred solids on the bike vs. gels on the run. I opted for stinger waffles and skratch energy/protein bars. When I tried with things like PB&J I just usually found them gross (squished, etc.) when I went to eat them. Protein bars were just the most convenient for me. Easy to carry, eat half or a portion, keep it in the wrapper, and put it back in my top tube/frame bag.

I'd also rotate drinking water and my electrolyte/calorie drink. When do you turn in your bag drop bag? Ours was morning of the race so I took my extra liquids directly from the freezer to the bag drop. This was also Texas so they were already mostly thawed by the time I got to them.

Eat the bananas at the rest stops

You want to do about minimum of 60 grams of carbs per hour.

You don't have to get fancy w/ expensive specialty performance mixes. Sugar is Sugar. Sugar water w/ a splash of salt or koolade with a splash of salt work just as good as anything else and is a tenth the cost.

Also, any training over an hour or so, try to get that amount of carbs in when your training. Helps you get used to it and greatly improves your riding and recovery.

hbc07 said:

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GU has 20-25g of carbs. Frosted strawberry poptarts are apparently 36g of carbs. So about 180g of carbs all in over 6 hours (estimating since you said 100mi would be 8hr). 30g of carbs per hour is way underdoing it.

My preferred method is the 1:0.8 maltodextrin to fructose. If I'm going to 60g carbs per hour, I'll do 27g fructose, 33g maltodextrin, 1g salt, .6g citric acid in a bottle and drink that bottle over an hour. Works out to 225 calories per bottle/hour. And on top of that I'll add in some real food like homemade rice bars made from recipes provided by skratch.

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Twinsies. My stomach can't handle the straight table sugar approach. With malto you can also push the g/hr (I run 100g / hr on race days). It absorbs faster than glucose or fructose.

I have Gravel Grinder this weekend in Sisters, OR. 2 bottles + USWE 2L (https://uswe.com/en-us/race-2-0). Bottles will have carbs. I'm on a one-stop (2 more bottles) for a 110 mile race.

OP, for tools, I carry a lightweight multi-tool (https://daysaver.fun/products/essential8-coworking5-bundle), Dynaplug carbon race (4 plugs total), 1 cartridge w/ Dynaplug air/plug attachment and small pump. I'm also running inserts this year for Gravel and MTB races!

I use Infinit. I carry gels and salt just in case I hit a low spot on my energy. I typically eat a PB&J before and at the halfway point of my 100+ mile rides. Supplement with food on course if needed.