After the 2022 Tour of Flanders, a photo circulated on social media showing a detailed nutrition plan carefully taped to race winner Mathieu van der Poel’s handlebars. Some rough math indicated that the Dutchman had scarfed down well over 100 grams of carbohydrate per hour while winning the 169-mile race in just over six hours—a remarkable digestive feat, given that conventional sports nutrition guidelines say that our ability to absorb carbs tops out at around 90 grams per hour.
To outsiders, van der Poel’s mega-carb intake seemed like an isolated novelty. But in the year and a half since then, very high doses of carbohydrate have become an emerging trend among elite endurance athletes. New science suggests that it really is possible to consume as much as 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and some pros are reportedly even higher than that. The unanswered question, for now, is whether it makes you faster.
The latest study to address the issue was just published in the Journal of Applied Physiology by a research group led by Robert Jacobs of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Jacobs and his colleagues…
