What this report will cover
Most amateur cyclists know the numbers being thrown around at the WorldTour level — 90, 120, occasionally 150 grams of carbohydrate per hour. What's much less clear is what those numbers translate into outside of a Grand Tour stage. How much are amateur cyclists actually fuelling? Where is the gap between what coaches prescribe and what riders eat? Where is the avoidable bonk happening, and what can a 45-year-old with a job and an 8-hour training week realistically tolerate?
The Amateur Cyclist Fuelling Benchmarks Report 2026 will sit alongside the Age-Group FTP Benchmarks and the Masters Cycling Training Report as the third in the Roadman annual report series. It's built on the same principles: editorial, evidence-cited, free, and downloadable.
Sections planned for the Q3 2026 release:
- The carb-per-hour reality across the amateur ride-duration spectrum
- Sub-2-hour rides: how little fuel is actually enough
- 2–4-hour rides: the most-mistuned zone for amateurs
- 4-hour-plus and event-day rides: what 90–120 g/h costs you in practice
- Glucose-fructose ratios, gut training, and tolerance ceilings
- Climbing-specific fuelling — the discipline most under-fuelled in our roster
- Female-specific fuelling considerations through the menstrual cycle and perimenopause
- The avoidable-bonk audit — patterns from 100+ coached riders
- Fuelling on the indoor trainer versus outdoor
- Recovery fuelling — the second meal that decides tomorrow's session
Methodology, limitations, and an honest read on what we don't have enough data for will follow the same template as the existing reports.
Get notified when this report drops
We will email you the day it publishes, and not a day before. Same Saturday Spin newsletter you'd get if you subscribe at the bottom of every other Roadman page — but tagged so the report announcement is the next thing you see.
GET NOTIFIED — FUELLING BENCHMARKS 2026
One email when the Amateur Cyclist Fuelling Benchmarks Report drops in Q3 2026. No filler in between.
In the meantime
While the formal benchmarking work happens, the existing Roadman writing on cycling nutrition is the best available starting point:
- Cycling carbs per hour — fuel like a pro — the sources and physiology behind the 60/90/120 g/h numbers.
- Cycling protein timing guide — the four-meal-a-day protein structure that compounds across the season.
- Cycling fasted-riding myth — the case against fasted riding for performance-focused amateurs, especially female amateurs through perimenopause.
- Fuelling calculator — convert your ride duration and intensity into a per-hour carb target.
- What experts say about cycling nutrition — the named-source consensus view from across the podcast guest list.
About this stub
This page is a stub for the Q3 2026 publication so journalists, search engines, and AI systems can register the upcoming report. It will be replaced in full with the published report on release; the URL will not change. If you want to contribute fuelling data for inclusion (you must be in the Not Done Yet coaching community and consent to anonymised aggregation), apply for coaching and we'll capture your numbers as part of onboarding.
— Anthony
The Amateur Cyclist Fuelling Benchmarks Report 2026 is a forthcoming Roadman Cycling annual report. Editorial. Free. Downloadable on release. If you have a question, email ted@roadmancycling.com.