JohnW wrote: [snipped] Plenty of water, and they do the work of a performance enhancing drug. [snipped]
Haha. I did a ride earlier in the year with a great local CTC rider who lives in my village (The legend that is Paul), which ended up being alot longer than we thought it was going to be - but a great ride and really enjoyable.
The weather was shocking (it was February so drizzling) and I'd set off empty but we stopped in Easingwold for a full cooked breakfast with toast. Yum. My water bottles weren't filled with my usual powerbar mixture, but just with berry squash. Around halfway into the ride I thought I was going to bonk. I think we were at Ampleforth Abbey and probably no more than 40-50 miles but I just hit the wall going up hills. We stopped for some lunch at Ampleforth School (I was physically shaking at this point) and I consumed 1 Powerbar Vanilla Gel, 4 cans of Fanta Z, 1 bowl of very nice soup and a slice of cake.
The second half of the ride we rode the direct route back, which probably was a mistake as it was also the way with the most altitude change - it took us over terrington bank going towards Sherriff Hutton. I remember thinking coming down the hill 'I'd hate to ride this the other way' (which we did as part of the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride). But I felt like I had taken something illegal. I was powering up hills and the near bonk at Ampleforth was forgotten.
In fact, I seem to remember it broke Paul and he was off work for a couple of days. (Of course, that may not have been directly related!)
But to answer the question, I use Bananas, some Gels in case you reallly desperately need them, Granola Bars and I have powerbar berry drink in my two 750ml bottles. Plus stopping en route for a nice cup of tea and cream cake usually helps too