We can thank a couple of frisky goats for the beverage that many of us cannot live without. Legend has it that an Ethiopian shepherd discovered the coffee plant when his animals stayed up all night after eating its berries. Soon humans were chewing coffee beans wrapped in animal fat to fight fatigue during battle.
Today, coffee is the second-largest export in the world (oil being first). Approximately 1.4 billion cups are consumed worldwide every day.
While it is impossible to say how many of those cups are consumed by cyclists, coffee is as much a part of our sport as group rides, carbon fiber or the hallowed century. We bike to coffee shops and drink coffee in bike shops.
There is evidence that a java jolt may help our cycling. Several studies report that cyclists who ingested caffeine before a ride pedaled longer than their non-caffeinated counterparts. This could be because caffeine encourages the body to burn fat instead of glycogen.
Scientists at the
According to the National Institute of Health, moderate daily caffeine intake (250 mg, the amount found in 24 ounces of coffee, or two “small” cups at most coffee shops) is not associated with any health risk, though pregnant women and people with high blood pressure, heart disease or ulcers may be advised to consume less. Studies on coffee or caffeine with more negative results are based on dosages that exceed these recommendations.
Once a ritual reserved for early mornings and office breaks, the caffeine fix is now an all-day affair: We slurp it in energy drinks, shoot it in carbo gels, and even mix it into martinis. While always being juiced on java is not good for us, a well-timed, well-measured jolt can be a performance-enhancing drug to cyclists, and a legal one at that.
Studies dating back to the ‘70s show that the amount of caffeine in about two cups of coffee can boost endurance sports performance. Australian researchers have found that even a single cup of joe consumed an hour before saddling up could increase riders’ time to exhaustion by almost a third.
“Caffeine is one of the most well-researched ergogenic aids in the world,” says sports nutritionist Jacqueline Berning, Ph.D., R.D., associate professor at the
At the muscular level, caffeine helps spare precious glycogen stores by stimulating the release and metabolism of free fatty acids as an energy source. In one study, athletes who drank the equivalent of two cups of coffee before exercise enjoyed a 50-percent increase in circulating free fatty acids, a huge advantage for cyclists, who are already efficient fat burners.
Equally important, caffeine reduces our perception of exercise by altering the signals sent by our muscles to our central nervous system.
In other words, it jacks us up so much we can’t feel our legs screaming. In a study found in the Journal of Pain, cyclists who popped a high dose (about 680mg for a 150-pound male) of caffeine before riding 30 minutes on stationary bikes had significantly less muscle pain during their effort than those who rode caffeine-free.
The optimal performance-boosting dose: Two to three 8-ounce cups of coffee, consumed one to two hours before your effort. How much is too much? While the World Anti-Doping Agency has removed caffeine from its list of banned and restricted substances, the U.S. Olympic Committee busts athletes who have consumed more than the equivalent of 600 mg. of caffeine, or 12 espressos within a two- to three-hour period.
So, here’s to your health—and the health benefits of coffee.
Let’s have another cup.
