I used to suffer terribly from cramp, and tried all sorts to fix it… but in the end, there’s only one way, and it ain’t pretty…

Cramp ruins more big days than punctures, crashes and clenbuterol-stuffed steaks combined. You’ve trained for months, paid the entry fee, shaved the pins and then, at 4 hours in your quad locks into a rock and you’re barely able to push a square.

Everyone has a miracle cure. Pickle juice, mustard sachets, magnesium, a prayer to Beelzebub. Forget the tricks. Beating cramp is a stack of boring basics done properly, and one of them matters more than all the others put together.

1. TURN UP RESTED

Don’t roll into a big effort carrying last week’s hard days in your legs. Tired muscles cramp. Taper properly, sleep, and arrive fresh. If you smash yourself in the final week “to be sure,” you’ve already lost. Take protein after any ride in the week before, do the best to give yourself a chance.

2. HYDRATE FOR TWO TO THREE DAYS BEFORE

Chugging a litre of water at breakfast on race morning does nothing. Hydration is a multi-day project. Start two to three days out and keep it steady. Pee clear, not fear!

Yeah that makes no sense but whatever!

3. ELECTROLYTES BEFORE AND DURING

Water alone isn’t the answer, especially in heat. Take electrolytes before the start and keep taking them through the ride. Don’t like the taste of the powders? Get the capsules, way easier to digest.

4. CARB LOAD PROPERLY

Eat enough carbohydrate across the days leading in, so you start with full stores instead of chasing them all day. Do not try to diet off the last half a kilogram, this is not a good idea. Better a little over and having a back-up supply in the love handles than risking a bonk.

5. EAT 60 TO 90 GRAMS AN HOUR

This is where most riders fall short, and it’s a lot more food than you think. Take a five-hour ride. At 60 to 90 grams an hour you need 300 to 450 grams of carbohydrate. In real food, that looks like four bananas and ten gels. I ate this last week when taking on the Taiwan KOM Challenge route, 5hrs and change, 87km, 3500m, and yeah it hurt, but the legs were good and I had no issues with energy or cramp.

That’s a lot of food tho, and you need to train up to in – your gut won’t thank you if you’ve never practised it.

So build up. Start at the low end on your training rides and add a little at a time until your stomach handles it.

Race day is not the day to find out that ten gels is a bad idea.

6. THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST: DO THE EFFORT IN TRAINING

Everything above helps. This is the one that decides it.

Be sure you can do the effort of your event in training. Not something kinda like it. The actual thing: the duration, the climbing, the intensity, the pacing. If your longest ride is three hours and your event is six, your legs are going to tell you at hour four, loudly, that no banana will fix it.

If you cramp in every event, you haven’t got a nutrition problem, you’ve got a preparation problem. Train harder. Make your training look like the day itself, then go and do the day. Cramp mostly turns up when the muscles are asked for more than they’ve been taught to give.

THE SHORT VERSION

• Arrive rested.
• Hydrate for two to three days before.
• Electrolytes before and during.
• Carb load properly.
• Eat 60 to 90 grams an hour, and practise it.
• Above all, make sure your training has already covered the effort your event demands.

Do the work in training and cramp stops being a gamble. Skip it and you’re hoping.

Note: the carb numbers for the five-hour example are rough arithmetic on typical banana and gel sizes. Check the labels on your own gels and adjust.