Egan Bernal on drinking bicarbonates to improve time trial performance: "You have to be very careful not to sin by wanting to gain a couple of seconds"
CyclingTuesday, 21 May 2024 at 13:09
Ineos Grenadiers rider Egan Bernal made his debut as a commentator in Colombia on Sunday and left his impressions about the day's stage and what to expect from his former teammate and a good friend Daniel Martínez, currently place third overall in the Giro d'Italia general classification, just 15 seconds shy of runner-up Geraint Thomas.
Regarding what to expect from Martínez, Bernal pointed out that the final week will be critical for the standings in Rome: "Be patient, many times we would like the rider to attack in all stages. But often it is with a cool head, waiting, waiting and waiting. Tomorrow is a rest day but there are two very hard stages ahead in which differences can be made," he indicated in Caracol Sports.
According to Bernal we shouldn't be looking either at the time trial or the queen stage isolated, but rather at the combination of the two stages. "You have to look at how people recovered from yesterday, from the effort of the time trial, which is very important."
He goes on to explain why it's important to view the two stages as a whole: "Now in time trials you drink a lot of bicarbonate, which is basically salt and that helps. It's like a lactic acid buffer so your legs don't hurt. It's like drinking brine, it's horrible, but you take that so your legs don't hurt," Bernal noted on topic of the art of time trialing these days.
"But the next day many people retain fluids and can wake up with two or three extra kilos, which is a lot for them in a high mountain stage," he continues. "That's why a day like today is very special and you have to be very careful not to sin by wanting to gain a couple of seconds," said Bernal.
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I used to do that for races- if you are not careful you can get a wicked stomach ache and other ill effects.
Maybe you should have done it more regularly to get your body used to it for race days? The golden rule for race days is always, you don’t do anything you’ve not done and tested before, not even putting on a new pair of socks :-)
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Ok Egan, thanks for that but if you’re going to explain something that starts being interesting why do you stop at the crucial moment, this isn’t going to turn into a binge series so let’s get the whole discussion over in one go.
Intake, understood
Reason, understood
Effect, understood
Consequences, unclear.
So what if you retain a couple of litres into a mountain stage, they should be sweated out by the time the race heats up and then you’ll be back to optimal weight and hydration, no?
Will you get back to us on that one?
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