Many of you will use your local club run as training for big sportives in the summer. Therefore, you can make the club ride a dry run of the event you are targeting.

One thing to consider is using a club run to test out nutrition products you want to use later in the year. A big mistake a lot of riders make is to use energy products in an event that they have never tried before and this can cause stomach problems, which is never pleasant!

It can also mean that come the day of the event you are using a product that you don’t like the taste of, so you may end up not eating and bonking at the bottom of the final climb.

Most nutrition companies nowadays offer a starter pack with a variety of flavours, so I’d recommend buying one of these and trying out all the different flavours and products. Decide on a few you like and stick to those.

The club run is also the ideal time to try out your feeding strategy for an event. Most people know that they should be regularly sipping an energy drink and eating something every thirty minutes during a big ride, but it can be easy to forget.

Practice this on your weekly club run and by the time your big summer event comes around it will be second nature. Don’t be the guy that gets carried away and forgets to eat.