Well, pros drink Coke DURING a race. Caffiene may be a diuretic, but coffee is almost 100% water. I think you are OK.

But water doesn't make me have to poop. What about that?

Never drink coffee with asparagus.

This is what I did with some friends who insisted that coffee dehydrates you because they notice they have to pee soon afterwards. Instead of their 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning, I had them drink the same amount of water. Guess what? Within 1-2 hrs, they had to go pee just the same!

Ultimately, the real test is to weigh yourself to see how much water was lost. Not much different from drinking coffee versus equal volume of water. However, I can drop 5-lbs of water easily in a single day if I workout hard. Exercise dehydrates even more than coffee. Exercise is BAD, avoid it at all cost!

I pee because I both drink coffee and have a 54-year-old-prostate.

I find that coffee doesn't dehydrate me, but it sure does jumpstart the urgent pee episodes. On days I don't do coffee, I pee less. But I have never measured volume in versus volume out.

So I guess this is a pretty worthless post.

Wait, I gotta go pee (tonite is a beer nite).

I have a friend who says, all I have to do is drink coffee and poop before the start. That kinda shoots the whole thousands of dollars of lightweight components right down, doesn't it? Titanium seatpost bolts don't even get a toehold on that kind of weight loss.

Really puts all the gram-shaving on non-rotating parts into perspective. It's literally not worth a good poop.

Nothing is worth more than a good poop. It's one of nature's free pleasures.

Regularity. It's how you know life is good.

Caffeine is like all other things. It can be good for you, in moderation, and bad for you if you over-imbibe. Even water can kill you, if you drink too much of it, by messing up your electrolytes and pH balance...

Didn't read the whole thread to see if this was already posted or not -- https://www.jacn.org/content/19/5/591.full

Rather than being such a lazy Pollyanna and posting a question to a forum full of ignorant bombastic self-important morons (like me, for example) and hoping to get accurate and concise information, I suggest you google (or bing?) the question and look for information on presumably "legitimate" sites, like these for instance:

https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caf...drinks/AN01661
https://answers.webmd.com/answers/116...ine-a-diuretic
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19774754
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/he...on/04real.html
https://www.livestrong.com/article/29...s-of-caffeine/

("legitimate" Decide for yourself the relative legitimacy of the above sites...)

Funny how people have glossed over the one little kernel of truth in the posted material -- that there was some evidence of caffeine being a diuretic when ingested by people who don't normally have daily intakes of the substance. And that there is a natural resistance to it being a diuretic in people who have regular daily intakes of caffeine.

Whatever...

Caffeine has other effects. It is known to be an emergency treatment for asthmatics who have an attack and have no other medications available. The mix has to be very strong and be almost unpalatable, however.

A mate of mine back in Australia told me a story about his bike racing exploits which may or may not need to be taken with a grain of sugar.

He was involved in horse racing (this is about 40 years ago), and caffeine was supplied by vets in very large tablets for some specific reason that I forget now. But my friend was familiar with its uses and effects on race horses.

My mate also was a bike racer, and he was preparing for a 200km road event from Launceston to Hobart. He was pretty good at the sport, too, but wanted an edge. So he put two and two together, called up his veterinarian mate, got a hold of some of those big caffeine pills, and put them away the morning of the race.

They were effective, so effective that he streeted the field by half an hour. Remember, these were the elite road racers in the State.

Well, his performance was way above his previous averages. He was called to account, had to give a urine sample that gave away his ploy. He lost the title and was banned for life (or 10 year, which at the time might just as well be life).

He said he felt fantastic right through the event... but it took three or more weeks for his heart rate to return to normal.

I drink the instant powdered coffee, the dregs at the supermarket. So the effects on me are low-level, if any. The danger for me is the high-powered stuff served at the yuppie cafes we sometimes stop at. On one metric century ride in Melbourne last year, I ended up with severe indigestion, the shakes and a hugely elevated heart rate (that unfortunately did nothing for my riding performance). The effects subsided after about three hours, by which time we were on the return past the cafe. When someone asked if I wanted to stop, I said "no!".

High intakes of caffeine were banned in the Olympics for many years because of the performance edge it was perceived to give. An Australian fencing champ was banned after he returned an over-the-limit reading at the LA Games (I think). Caffeine has since been removed from the banned list, which must pee off the fencing guy...

Sure, I could do research and come up with an answer but then why would I need this forum? Why would this forum even need to exist. Seldom do I see a topic come up that can't be answered through research. Sometimes I want to hear opinions from people and do not want to read a research report. When I see a thread asking which pedals or which saddle to buy, I might not respond because it has been answered a few million times. This forum is as much a social network as it is a research resource.

I suspect it's like saddles: what works for you doesn't necessarily apply to anyone else.

Excellent point...and IMO more the former than the latter. This is a good a place as any to garner personal opinions, quibble about inconsequential minutia and exchange folklore and old wives tales.

I used to drink coffee indifferently before/during rides, but during one heavily caffeinated ride (coffee before, coffee during the ride) my heart rate hit 170 BPM on an easy climb, and I decided it might be better if I avoided coffee before/during big rides. Once in a while, if I am riding SART (basically flat terrain), I will grab a cup mid-ride.

I know one other rider who had a similar experience.

I wonder if pros back in the day had to take special measures to cope with dehydration from their amphetamine use.

Pitching or catching?

Time for coffee snobbery to erupt. I brew with a Keurig dispenser and drink Starbucks because I like it. Is that bourgeois or what?

Maxwell House Original in a Mr. Coffee. It works for just pennies a day.

So what is the cure for dehydration? Drink water!!! Given the plentiful valid research contradicting old-wives tales about the horrible dehydration from caffeine, one just has to drink an extra teaspoon of water to balance it out.

Here's some other articles:

https://health.usnews.com/health-news...ve-longer.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0622142551.htm
https://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/i...ancer_ris.html

Having raced bike for a 10-year period, I'm primarily interested in the performance enchancing effects. The benefits far outweigh the hassle of having to drink an extra teaspoon of water each day.

CP Tips - Caffeine
JAP - Effect of different protocols of caffeine intake on metabolism and endurance performance
JAP - Effect of a divided caffeine dose on endurance cycling performance,
JAP - Performance and metabolic responses to a high caffeine dose during prolonged exercise (cycling endurance increased +51%)
AJCN - Caffeine and coffee: their influence on metabolic rate and substrate utilization in normal weight and obese individuals

dopers

CU, your friend has issues. Best not be seen in public with him any longer.

Coffee is one of the basic food groups... essential for life.

Does this riding partner also talk about Freds, "dropping the hammer," putting out watts, and refer to his handlebar area as the "cockpit?"

I suspect he probably does. Time for a new friend.

What?