I went out for a reasonably hard ride today - a little over 2 hours solo and I pushed the pace pretty strong but didn't really 'max out'. No long climbs but constant short up's and down's.

It was a low humidity day (by east coast standards) with temps in the low to mid 80's. For cycling purposes it was pretty comfortable. I weighed myself and my water bottles before/after the ride (didn't eat anything and no electrolytes, BTW). When I weighed myself and my water bottles immediately after the ride, 7.8 pounds (of water, I assume) was gone.

So let's say I tend to lose 4 pounds of water per hour. If you are planning on something like a hot weather century, that is a lot of water to deal with. I'm curious as to how others deal with the problem on long training rides, century rides (where at least there might be some support), etc. I would assume that if it were hotter than today my 4 pounds/hour could/would go up - maybe a good bit.

FWIW, I tend to be pretty tolerant of dehydration. I only consumed one pound of water (2/3 of a 22 oz water bottle) on this ride with no apparent ill effects. I felt fine after the ride (but I surely drank a ton of various non-alcoholic liquids). And my average power output the last 30 minutes was 6 watts higher than the average for the ride. So I wasn't suffering (yet). But I know from my running days that I have my limits here.

I'm just wondering what other folk's "sweat rates" are and how folks go about replacing 4+ pounds of water per hour on longer rides.

Thanks.

dave