Originally Posted by
Heathpack
I also find the calorie reccs of [MENTION=4588]Machka[/MENTION] and [MENTION=55153]hamster[/MENTION] very interesting. I weigh 135 pounds and I eat nothing special for a ride of less than 2hrs, about 100 cal/hr for a normal intensity 2-4 hr ride and 160 cal/hr for a 4+ hour ride or a very intense ride. For example, I rode 85 mi this weekend, a very difficult for me climbing ride in 6.25 hours and ate 1000 cal on the ride. I recently asked an ultra endurance rider I know what she eats, and she eats similar to [MENTION=4588]Machka[/MENTION] reccs, on anything greater than 50 mi. So I think it might really depend on your physiology and conditioning.
I don't think it depends on physiology and conditioning, but simply on your objectives. Eating on the bike helps you go further _right_now_, on this specific day. Not eating helps you to be able to go further in general. I'm not an ultra endurance rider but I just pulled off a pretty tough long distance event (you may have seen it in SoCal subforum) and my longest ride in 2 months prior to this event was 60 miles. I was training strictly on water. Of course, on the day of the actual event, it was, just like Machka says, 200-250 kcal/hour religiously starting 30 minutes into the ride.