Road Bike Racing - What's the minimum threshold for you to use a feedzone?

I'm not too prone to bonking, but I sweat like a drunk, over-hydrated pig in Orlando on an August afternoon.


My question to the BF intelligentsia: what's the minimum race length/conditions where you'd like to take on water/food? Sixty miles and hot? Fifty miles and mountains? Ten kilometers, flat, with a tailwind?

Sixty miles and hot on Sunday I should have used the feed but didn't and paid for it :(

about 60 miles

47+ mi., >83 deg. F

It ain't mileage so much as time: in cooler temps, 15-20 ounces per hour; in hotter temps, as much as 25 ounces per hour.

If a race is on the threshold, I would rather that one or both of the bottles I take from the starting line be oversized than take a handup, as the handup slightly raises the odds of getting dropped by a group or crashed out in a messy feed zone. Can always discard extra water before the finish, if necessary.

It ain't mileage so much as time: in cooler temps, 15-20 ounces per hour; in hotter temps, as much as 25 ounces per hour.

If a race is on the threshold, I would rather that one or both of the bottles I take from the starting line be oversized than take a handup, as the handup slightly raises the odds of getting dropped by a group or crashed out in a messy feed zone. Can always discard extra water before the finish, if necessary.

I hope you're not advocating tossing water bottles outside of a designated feed zone.

I'm in the midst of promoting a road race. #1 complaint is riders clogging up the roads. #2, a very close #2, is jackass racers littering with water bottles being the 1st thing everyone brings up. Never, ever, under any circumstance, ever throw a water bottle outside a feed zone. I've asked the chief official for our race to immediately DQ any rider + all their team mates for anyone who tosses a bottle outside a feed zone, I hope they approve the request.

Sorry for jumping up on the soap box.

I hope you're not advocating tossing water bottles outside of a designated feed zone.

I'm in the midst of promoting a road race. #1 complaint is riders clogging up the roads. #2, a very close #2, is jackass racers littering with water bottles being the 1st thing everyone brings up. Never, ever, under any circumstance, ever throw a water bottle outside a feed zone. I've asked the chief official for our race to immediately DQ any rider + all their team mates for anyone who tosses a bottle outside a feed zone, I hope they approve the request.

Sorry for jumping up on the soap box.

No, not at all. I wouldn't litter and I am too cheap to throw away a bottle. I am advocating squirting out extra fluid if the race is coming down to a sprint finish. Not that the extra few ounces will make much difference, but it is a psychological end-game around the worry over carrying too much fluid.

I don't have a threshold. If a feed's available (and a feeder, which hasn't been an issue since joining the new team), I'll stick one in just to be safe.

Longer than I can go on two bottles. How long that is depends on the time the race takes and the temperature.

If it's a little over what I would consider a two bottle ride I can extend it some by drinking well during the warmup and suffering a bit without water at the end. I used to do long runs with no water, getting a little bit dehydrated isn't that bad.

Most of the normal cat 4/5 M45 road races around here are no more than 50-60 miles. I haven't needed a feed for any of them.

I'm in the midst of promoting a road race. #1 complaint is riders clogging up the roads. #2, a very close #2, is jackass racers littering with water bottles being the 1st thing everyone brings up. Never, ever, under any circumstance, ever throw a water bottle outside a feed zone. I've asked the chief official for our race to immediately DQ any rider + all their team mates for anyone who tosses a bottle outside a feed zone, I hope they approve the request.




Put up large signs for the begin and end of the "BOTTLE DROP ZONE" up the road a bit from the feed zone. Before and after if you can. I've seen that in a few races around here and it struck me as a good idea. It's a bit much to ask riders to both get their food/bottle in the feed zone and drop their old bottles there. Sometimes that's just too hard especially if there's any sort of pack to navigate around or the feed zone isn't on a steep hill to make the speeds low.

DQing a rider's whole team is a little draconian. But I would not mind seeing riders DQ'd for littering the road with bottles or empty gel packets.


Thanks for promoting a race and giving back to the sport!

No, not at all. I wouldn't litter and I am too cheap to throw away a bottle. I am advocating squirting out extra fluid if the race is coming down to a sprint finish. Not that the extra few ounces will make much difference, but it is a psychological end-game around the worry over carrying too much fluid.

good to hear, in hot weather I always squirt the water bottle on my quads pre-sprint. sucks when it's your sport drink bottle though.


Put up large signs for the begin and end of the "BOTTLE DROP ZONE" up the road a bit from the feed zone. Before and after if you can. I've seen that in a few races around here and it struck me as a good idea. It's a bit much to ask riders to both get their food/bottle in the feed zone and drop their old bottles there. Sometimes that's just too hard especially if there's any sort of pack to navigate around or the feed zone isn't on a steep hill to make the speeds low.

DQing a rider's whole team is a little draconian. But I would not mind seeing riders DQ'd for littering the road with bottles or empty gel packets.


Thanks for promoting a race and giving back to the sport!

good thoughts, more signs to make!

draconian yes, but hopefully more effective than the typical pre-race talk, which always results in me and my team mates doing a post race recovery ride and picking up a bunch of bottles.

Also, I should clarify - my team is promoting a race, not me individually, but I'm very involved with the community relations aspect of it and they've somehow gotten my email address and tele # to contact with concerns. It's a good thing to be involved in to see just what goes into a "simple road race", lots to it.

draconian yes, but hopefully more effective than the typical pre-race talk, which always results in me and my team mates doing a post race recovery ride and picking up a bunch of bottles.

Assuming you're permitting under USCF or FIAC, you're pretty much stuck following their rules. 3B9 allows disqualification of the rider, but not team mates.

If it's baking hot I might take a feed if it's over 2hrs.

If it's cold it's not a big worry, I could pretty comfortably race 4hrs on 3 bottles in 40ish degree weather.

Bottles dropped outside of discard zones caused us problems last year at the Dead Dog Classic. So we are adding a big discard zone before the climb starts and and 14 miles from the finish. In the five years I have been working on the race, litter has been the biggest complaint. ACA first offense on litter in a stage race is time penalty. It cost someone the race win last year if I remember correctly. Racer dropped the bottle right in front of the motor ref.

Dead Dog Classic - home of the 2008 FIAC Stage Race National Championships!!!!!

http://www.deaddogclassic.com