In case you’re a bicycle trip longer than two hours, you need to bring with you some energy supplies. You will need to have some snack to restore glycogen stores and the minerals lost with sweat.
Since every person is different from the other, there is no unified rule on how much, when and how to eat. The only way is to try different combinations until you find the one that is right for you. The important thing is not to wait for the hunger or thirsty stimulus to make a restoration stop because at that point it’s already too late.
Obviously the more the temperature rises more often you will need to reintroduce fluid and energy in your body. At cool and mild temperatures it is enough to consume solid foods every 30-45 minutes and drink in small sips every 10-15 minutes. Water can never be missing, it must be the first and most important resource of mineral salts.
Snacks to be eaten while cycling must be easy to handle, chew and swallow. An excellent example are sandwiches with jam, but are also good: toasts, fruit puree and unsugared dehydrated fruit.
Of course, natural products are preferable to the many artificial supplements commonly found on the market. Though the latter are more comfortable to use while pedaling, because specially designed for this, their contribution is not comparable to a balanced diet.
The best advice, however, is to try both solutions and decide on the answers that our body gives us, the performance and the results obtained.