You will happily spend $8,000 on a carbon frame to save 400 grams. You will agonise over tyre pressure, chain lube, and aero socks. You will pay $150 for a bike fit. But you will not drink a $3 beetroot shot that the research says is worth 1-3 per cent in a time trial.
This makes absolutely no sense.
Beetroot juice — specifically the dietary nitrate it contains — is one of the most thoroughly studied legal performance aids in endurance sport. The evidence base is enormous. The mechanism is well understood. The dosing protocol is simple. And yet the vast majority of amateur cyclists have never tried it, or tried it once, got the dose wrong, noticed nothing, and wrote it off.
Here's the thing: 1-3 per cent sounds tiny until you translate it into watts and minutes. Then it sounds like the best value-for-money upgrade in cycling nutrition. Let me walk you through exactly how it works, how to use it, and the mistakes that stop it working.
The science: from beetroot to blood flow
Beetroot is rich in inorganic nitrate. When you eat or drink it, the nitrate enters your bloodstream and concentrates in your saliva. Bacteria on the back of your tongue — specific anaerobic species that live there — convert that nitrate into nitrite. You swallow the nitrite, it hits the acidic environment of your stomach, and a portion converts into nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide does several things that matter for cycling. It dilates blood vessels, increasing blood flow to working muscles. It improves mitochondrial efficiency — the tiny power plants inside your muscle cells use less oxygen to produce the same amount of energy. And it enhances the contractile function of the muscles themselves.
The net result: you use less oxygen at any given power output. Or, put another way, you can produce more power at the same oxygen cost.
Professor Andrew Jones at Exeter University has spent over two decades studying this pathway. His research group has published more than 100 papers on dietary nitrate and exercise performance. The early studies, around 2009-2010, showed that beetroot juice reduced the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise by 3-5 per cent. That was a striking finding — nothing else in sports nutrition had demonstrated that kind of efficiency gain.
The mechanism is not about hydration. It is not about energy. It is about making your aerobic engine more efficient at converting fuel into movement. That is a fundamentally different category of performance benefit, and it is why the research attracted so much attention.
How much improvement are we actually talking about?
The headline number from the pooled research is a 1-3 per cent improvement in time trial performance. Let me make that concrete.
If you ride a 40 km time trial at an average of 300 watts and finish in 58 minutes, a 1 per cent improvement puts you at roughly 303 watts — or, holding the same power, you finish 30-35 seconds faster. A 3 per cent improvement is 9 watts, or close to 1 minute 45 seconds off your time. For context, that is the kind of gain you might chase through an entire winter training block.
For a sportive rider doing 100 miles at 200 watts, a 2 per cent efficiency gain translates to arriving at the finish 3-5 minutes earlier. That is not marginal. That is the difference between making the group on the final climb and watching them ride away.
Now think about what you spend chasing gains elsewhere. A set of aero wheels might save you 30-40 seconds over 40 km and cost $2,000. A beetroot shot costs $3 and the evidence says it is worth at least as much, possibly more. The arithmetic is absurd.
Here's the thing, though — these are averages. Some riders respond more than others, and the magnitude depends on your training status, which I will come back to. But even the conservative end of the range represents a meaningful, measurable improvement for a supplement that is cheap, legal, safe, and widely available.
The dosing protocol: getting it right
This is where most people go wrong. They drink a small glass of beetroot juice, feel nothing, and conclude it does not work. The problem is the dose.
The effective dose in the research is 6-8 mmol of inorganic nitrate. That is not a vague recommendation — below 6 mmol, most studies show no measurable effect. This is a threshold dose. You either hit it or you do not.
What does 6-8 mmol look like in practice?
| Source | Amount needed for ~6 mmol | |---|---| | Regular beetroot juice | ~500 ml | | Concentrated beetroot shot (e.g. Beet It) | 1 x 70 ml shot | | Whole raw beetroot | ~200-300 g (2-3 medium beetroots) | | Spinach | ~300-400 g | | Rocket (arugula) | ~200-250 g |
The timing matters too. Consume the dose 2-3 hours before the effort. Nitrate levels in the blood peak at about 2-3 hours post-ingestion, which is when the conversion to nitric oxide is at its highest. Taking it 30 minutes before the start — like you might with caffeine — is too late. The pathway needs time.
Let me be really clear on this: if you take a concentrated shot at the sign-on desk and roll to the start line 20 minutes later, you have wasted your money. The nitrate has not had time to convert. Plan your morning around it.
Concentrated shots vs whole beetroot vs other sources
The most practical option for most cyclists is a concentrated beetroot shot. Brands like Beet It Sport produce 70 ml shots that contain a standardised 6.4 mmol of nitrate. You drink it, you know you have hit the dose, and you are done.
Drinking 500 ml of regular beetroot juice works, but it is a lot of liquid to consume 2-3 hours before a race. Some riders find it sits uncomfortably, and the volume alone can cause gastrointestinal issues, particularly if you are nervous. The concentrated shot solves this — it is small, fast, and precise.
Juicing your own beetroot is the cheapest option per dose, but the nitrate content varies enormously depending on the soil the beetroot was grown in, the variety, and the season. You could juice four beetroots and get 8 mmol one week and 3 mmol the next. For training rides, this variability is fine. For race day, when you want certainty, it is not.
Other nitrate-rich vegetables — spinach, rocket, celery, lettuce — are all viable sources. But the practical challenge is volume. You would need to eat a very large salad 2-3 hours before a race to hit 6 mmol, and the fibre content introduces its own GI risks. Professor Jones himself has noted that concentrated beetroot juice became the research standard precisely because it delivers a reliable, measurable dose in a manageable volume.
Cost comparison:
| Source | Cost per 6 mmol dose | Notes | |---|---|---| | Concentrated shot (Beet It) | $2-3 | Standardised dose, convenient | | Home-juiced beetroot | $1-2 | Variable nitrate content | | Whole raw beetroot | $1-1.50 | Requires eating 200-300 g | | Regular beetroot juice (store) | $3-5 for 500 ml | Large volume, variable content |
For most riders, the concentrated shots represent the best balance of cost, reliability, and convenience. Buy them in bulk and the per-unit cost drops further.
The loading strategy: acute vs multi-day
There are two approaches, and both work.
Acute dosing means taking a single dose 2-3 hours before the effort. This produces a measurable performance benefit in most studies. If you have forgotten to plan ahead, a single dose on race morning is still worth doing.
Multi-day loading means taking one dose per day for 3-7 days leading up to the event. The research suggests this produces a slightly larger and more reliable effect than a single acute dose. The logic is straightforward — sustained nitrate intake keeps nitric oxide availability consistently elevated, rather than relying on a single spike.
For a target race, the protocol I would recommend is one concentrated shot per day for 5 days before the event, with the final dose taken 2-3 hours before the start. This is what most of the studies showing the largest effects have used.
For training, there is no need to load. If you want the benefit for a key interval session or an FTP test, a single dose 2-3 hours before is sufficient. Save the multi-day loading for races and events that matter.
One thing to note: more is not better beyond the effective dose. Taking two or three shots in a single sitting does not double the benefit. You hit the ceiling at 6-8 mmol and additional nitrate is simply excreted. Do not waste your money.
Who benefits most — and who does not
This is one of the most important and most misunderstood aspects of nitrate supplementation.
Recreational and moderately trained cyclists see the largest benefit. If your VO2max is below 60 ml/kg/min and your FTP is below 4.5 w/kg, you are squarely in the population that responds best. The research is consistent on this.
Highly trained and elite athletes see smaller or no significant effects. The likely explanation is that elite athletes already have highly efficient nitric oxide production through other pathways — years of endurance training upregulate endogenous nitric oxide synthesis. Dietary nitrate adds less on top of what is already there.
This is actually good news for the audience most likely to be reading this. If you are a club rider, a sportive rider, a masters cyclist, or anyone training 6-12 hours a week with an FTP in the 200-350 watt range, the evidence says you are the person who stands to gain the most. The riders who do not need it are the ones already racing at the front of the pro peloton.
There is also some evidence that the benefit is larger in hypoxic conditions — at altitude or during very intense efforts where oxygen delivery is the limiting factor. If you are racing at altitude or doing hillclimb events, nitrate supplementation becomes even more relevant.
The mouthwash mistake
This one is remarkable. Antibacterial mouthwash — the kind most people use daily — kills the oral bacteria responsible for the first step of nitrate conversion.
Remember the pathway: nitrate in your blood concentrates in your saliva, bacteria on your tongue convert it to nitrite, you swallow it, and it becomes nitric oxide. If you kill those bacteria with mouthwash, the entire chain breaks. The nitrate stays as nitrate. No conversion happens. No performance benefit.
Studies have confirmed this directly. Participants who used antibacterial mouthwash after consuming beetroot juice showed no increase in plasma nitrite levels and no performance improvement. The mouthwash completely negated the supplement.
The practical rule is simple: do not use antibacterial mouthwash within 2-3 hours of consuming beetroot juice. Ideally, avoid it on the morning of a race altogether. Brush your teeth with toothpaste — that is fine — but skip the Listerine. Rinse with water instead.
This might sound like a minor detail, but I have spoken to riders who used beetroot juice for months, noticed nothing, and then discovered they were using mouthwash every morning as part of their routine. They eliminated one product and the supplement started working. It is that direct.
Side effects and practical considerations
Beetroot juice is food, not a pharmaceutical, and the side effect profile reflects that.
Red urine and stool. The first time this happens, it can be alarming. The red pigment in beetroot — betanin — passes through your system and colours your urine and sometimes your stool pink or red. This is completely harmless. It has nothing to do with blood and nothing to do with the nitrate content. It is just pigment. Know it is coming and you will not panic.
GI discomfort. Some riders experience bloating, cramping, or nausea if they take beetroot juice on an empty stomach, particularly the concentrated shots. The fix is straightforward: take it with a small meal or snack. A piece of toast, some porridge, a banana — anything to buffer the stomach. During your loading week, take the daily dose with breakfast.
Staining. Beetroot stains everything. Your hands, your clothes, your kitchen counter. The concentrated shots are easier to manage than juicing raw beetroot, which can look like a crime scene. Drink the shot, rinse the bottle, move on.
There are no known serious adverse effects at the doses used in the research. Beetroot juice does not interact with common medications in any clinically significant way at supplemental doses, though if you are on blood pressure medication, mention it to your GP — nitrate does lower blood pressure, which is actually one of its cardiovascular health benefits but could theoretically compound with antihypertensive drugs.
Combining nitrates with caffeine
This is a question I get asked constantly, because most cyclists already have a caffeine protocol for race day and want to know if adding beetroot juice creates a conflict.
The short answer: no. Current research shows no negative interaction between nitrate supplementation and caffeine. Several studies have tested the combination directly and found either additive effects (both contribute independently) or neutral effects (neither blocks the other). There is no evidence that caffeine interferes with nitrate conversion or that nitrate reduces caffeine's ergogenic effect.
The two supplements work through completely different mechanisms. Caffeine reduces perceived effort by blocking adenosine receptors. Nitrate reduces the actual oxygen cost of exercise by improving mitochondrial efficiency. They are targeting different parts of the performance equation, which is exactly why combining them makes sense.
A reasonable race-day stack: one concentrated beetroot shot 2-3 hours before the start, and your usual caffeine dose (3-6 mg per kilogram of body weight) 45-60 minutes before the start. Both hit their peak effect windows near the start of the effort. Both are legal, well-studied, and safe. Together, you are looking at a combined benefit that could exceed 3-4 per cent for a moderately trained cyclist. That is not trivial.
Your race-day protocol
Let me put this all together into something you can actually use.
The week before the race:
- Days 7 to 2: one concentrated beetroot shot per day, taken with breakfast. This is your loading phase.
- Continue eating normally. No need to change your diet.
- Do not use antibacterial mouthwash during this week.
Race morning:
- 3 hours before the start: eat your normal pre-race breakfast.
- 2.5 hours before the start: drink one concentrated beetroot shot. Take it with food if your stomach is sensitive.
- 45-60 minutes before the start: take your caffeine dose.
- Brush teeth with toothpaste if needed. No antibacterial mouthwash.
- Warm up as normal.
For training — key sessions only:
- One concentrated beetroot shot 2-3 hours before your FTP test, threshold session, or race simulation.
- No need to load for training. Single acute doses are sufficient.
- Save the multi-day loading protocol for events that matter.
When not to bother:
- Easy endurance rides. The benefit is real but small at low intensities, and it is a waste of money.
- Recovery rides. You are not trying to perform.
- Off-season. The supplement supports acute performance, not long-term adaptation.
The total cost of a full race-day protocol — five days of loading plus the race-morning dose — is roughly $15-18 using concentrated shots. That is less than most riders spend on gels for a single event. For a supplement with this much evidence behind it, that is remarkably good value.
Use the fuelling calculator to dial in the rest of your race-day nutrition alongside the beetroot protocol. And if you want to see what a 1-3 per cent improvement would mean for your target event, run your numbers through the race predictor.
If you want to talk through your race-day nutrition strategy — beetroot, caffeine, carbs, the lot — that is exactly the kind of conversation happening inside the Roadman Cycling community. Real riders, real data, no nonsense.