We are going through a historical period of scorching heat that is making it very difficult to try your hand at any type of sport.
Cycling is an endurance sport that involves many kilometers and several hours in the saddle which can become very difficult during the hottest days if not well planned.
The human body needs to take at least 2.5 liters of water daily, which can vary according to age, weight, sex, height and sustained physical activity. To give a concrete example, we can take the data concerning a professional cyclist during a stage of a great tour. A situation that could probably be the same as ours because as we know the stages of the great tours are run in the summer and in the hottest hours of the day.
In a stage of the Tour De France the calories burned of an athlete approach 3500/4000 up to 7000 kcal with a loss of liquids equal to 7 liters based on the difficulty of the stage and the effort.
Here are some of our tips to avoid being dehydrated during the hottest days.
Choose your times well.
The first piece of advice that might seem trivial is not to go out during the hottest hours. If you don’t have time to train early in the morning, avoid going out in the afternoon or very late morning. With good light on your bike (front and rear) and thanks to the sun still high in the sky we will be able to go out even at cooler times. We will certainly benefit from a lower temperature.
More water bottles.
Bring a couple of water bottles, preferably the larger ones. An additional weight, even if it can be a hindrance, will make you pedal hydrated and calm until the next refreshment or the next fountain.
Avoid coffee.
Coffee, even if in the company of friends, if drunk several times can lead to dehydration.
In fact, coffee is a good diuretic that leads to subjects less accustomed to caffeine to suffer more from its effect. A danger absolutely to be avoided especially in critical heat conditions.
Mineral salts
Mineral salts are always very useful. Our body with sweat not only expels water but also and above all mineral salts that must be quickly replenished. What mineral salts to take? As far as an athlete is concerned, it is good to reintegrate all the substances lost in significant quantities, including mainly sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, magnesium and zinc. Excessive loss of mineral salts will lead our body to excessive fatigue of our muscles and, in severe cases, even to nausea and muscle tremor.
Load of water
If you are people who routinely drink very little try to get a load of water the day before. Proper hydration to be taken in small sips, so let’s avoid drinking a bottle of water in one go. A correct load of water can help our body prepare for the next day. So let’s avoid leaving for the bike ride already in hydration deficiency from the day before.
Plan a tour with numerous fountains
Another piece of advice we can give you is to install the fountains app on your phone which identifies all the fountains present thanks to the GPS of your smartphone. If you do not want to install applications, each cemetery is equipped with a fountain which, in an emergency, you can always use to fill your water bottle.
The more you train, the less you will suffer from the heat.
The body gets used to the most critical situations very quickly by adapting to external agents.
In this case, we do not recommend going out with high temperatures to those who do not have a good basic training.
