Best energy bars for cycling 2024: quality carbs to replenish your energy stores

The best energy bars for cycling will help you to fuel your rides properly. Anyone who’s bonked mid-ride can attest to the importance of consuming enough calories to keep your muscles going, and to avoid bonking. 

Conventional wisdom says that we need to try and consume 1 gram of carbohydrates per kilo of bodyweight per hour on rides in excess of 90 minutes. This should come with a caveat however. Different individuals will have different requirements. Fuelling like a pro may see this number increase although ingesting 120 grams of carbs per hour for us mere mortals may seem a feat of endurance in itself as it takes training. 

Likewise the intensity of rides will also impact how we fuel them. For example our nutritional needs during the winter months may see us reduce our hourly carb intake as we embark on base miles at a slower pace.

Regardless of the season, or whether you’re training hard or just enjoying a long weekend ride, the best energy bars for cycling are a good way to ensure you’re getting the carbs you need. While we’d always encourage you to get your nutritional requirements from varied sources - we’re big fans of eating ‘real’ food on the bike - an energy bar is certainly a handy option for a mid-ride snack or carb top-up.

Later in this guide we’ll discuss some of the finer points of energy bars and how to best use them to get the most from your rides. We’ll also compare them to other convenient energy sources such as the best energy gels and best energy drinks. But before that let’s take a look at some of the best energy bars for cycling currently on the market.

Our pick of the best energy bars for cycling

Of course energy bar preferences will vary, but here at the Cycling Weekly HQ, there are some clear favorites. All of these bars will re-stock your carb levels – taste preference is subjective. We've outlined our top picks below.

Perhaps the first thing you notice about the Torq bar is its size. At just 45 grams it's smaller than most of its rivals. This means that it fits nicely into your jersey pocket or handlebar bag. But it also means that it packs less of a carb punch than a larger energy bar. By the numbers the Torq bar reads: 45g in weight, which promises around 150 calories, 34g of carbs and 17g of sugars.

Torq's bars use a blend of glucose-derivatives and fructose to get close to the 2:1 glucose/fructose ratio which studies have shown offers a higher delivery of carbohydrate per hour – delivering 40 per cent greater absorption according to the brand.

We found that the Torq bars, which are now all-natural and vegetarian, have a very moist and natural taste that reminds us of the dried fruit squares we ate as kids. Around 13 per cent of the bars come from real fruit and flavors such as Apple, Sun Dried Banana and Mango provide a wholesome mouthful. 

If you're looking for cold weather nutrition, the bars can get very solid and hard to chew as the temperature dips to zero. 

Torq's energy bars are now both certified organic (by the Soil Association) and vegan friendly. It's also extended its range to include an 'Explore Flapjack', again in a wide range of flavors. At 65g per serving with over 40g of carbs, it could be the answer for cyclists who like the Torq brand but require more carbs per bar than the traditional offering supplies. 

Torq's products form part of the brand's overall sports fuelling system. This allows you to mix bars, gels and energy drinks to consume two or three items per hour, which Torq says should ensure optimum fuelling. 

Science in Sport offers something different if you're bored with the usual bar format. Its energy bake is much more like a cake, with a soft texture that's easy to chew and a fruit flavored filling. The formula includes 30g of carbohydrate with 11g of sugars which include 10g of fructose for a 2:1 ratio with glucose oligomers to use your gut's alternative sugar absorption pathway to increase sugar uptake.

The energy content is higher than many bars at 190kcal, so you can keep your fuelling up while carrying less. Each energy bake also includes 3.5g of protein. The cake-like consistency does mean that there's 5g of fat per bar though, something that many energy bars keep at much lower levels.

Although the SiS Go Energy Bakes are easier to bite into than most bars, they're a lot harder to swallow. The cake-like texture means that they need a good swig of water and the dough tends to stick to the back of your teeth. That's fine if you're stopped or going easy, but when riding harder the Energy Bakes are difficult to consume.

SiS also has the more conventional Energy Bar Mini in its range, which packs 140kcal with less fat and more protein than the Energy Bakes.

At 55 grams the High5 energy bar is one of the larger on the market. It packs quite the calorific punch, in part due to its size. However it's important to read the ingredients for each flavor as the contrast in nutritional values can be quite marked. 

For example, the banana option provides 180 calories, 36g of carbohydrate and 2.4g of protein with 2.4 g of fat while the peanut flavor offering gives you 255 calories, 25g of carbohydrate and 7.2g of protein with 13g of fat. 

The former would be better used both pre and during exercise while the latter, with its increased protein, is probably best used as a post-ride recovery snack. High5 states that its energy bars are designed for 'before' and 'during' a ride - it offers a specific recovery bar as well as an energy bar with protein.

The bars are designed to be easy to chew. This is often a knock on energy bars; certain brands' bars just aren't that easy to get down during a ride. However, it's somewhat subjective, and much like finding the best cycling saddle , there's no substitute for trying them out to see what works for you. 

The berry flavor bar has a nice fruity taste though, with 60 per cent fruit including a mix of sultanas, cranberries, pineapple, apricots and apples, which High5 reckons gives you one of your five a day, the balance being around a quarter oats.

At 65g, the OTE Duo bar is larger than most, but that's because is each packet is designed to be eaten as two servings. OTE has recently reformulated its bars to remove palm oil. OTE hasn't skimped on flavor, with the chocolate variety really tasting of chocolate.

Consume the whole bar and you'll have digested 286 kcalories, 41g of carbohydrate, 7.5g of protein and 10g of fat (for the chocolate flavor). At over £40 for a box of 24, the added content is reflected in the cost, but you are getting more calories for your buck, which is as well, as the bars' size soon fills up a pocket. 

The bar is offered in just two flavors: Vanilla Crispy Rice and Chocolate Crispy Rice. As you'll no doubt have guessed, the primary ingredient here is rice crisps. The idea is that the bar resembles, in some way, the rice cakes that are used by pretty much every team in the professional peloton. These cakes are popular for a number of reasons, including the high carb content as well as being pretty palatable and easy to digest mid-race. 

We're also big fans of OTE's oat-based Anytime bars - these are designed for snacking but work well on the bike, being gluten and nut-free, suitable for vegetarians and very crumbly and easy to swallow. Each 62g bar provides 213 calories, 36.6g of carbs and 2.8g of protein. The latest lemon drizzle option brings the range of available flavors up to 11.

Cliff Bar is pretty ubiquitous at amateur road races and gran fondos in the US (as well as being the favorite of climbers, hikers and many more). The California based company's USP is a natural product that tastes, well, natural. The brand uses organic and whole ingredients such as rolled oats, oat fibre and dates to make its bars – so you know you're getting real food.

So it's no surprise that on review the Clif Bar looked as though it were home baked and tasted like it too. If you're a fan of 'real' food on the bike it's probably a good match for you. However this means that it does take some ingesting - we find you need a generous gulp or three of water if you're consuming while still pedalling, particularly if the weather is cold. 

We'd suggest that it's a bar that's great for long rides, touring, bikepacking and similar rather than something you might want to eat during a race or during high-intensity training.

The bars are quite large: a 68g White Chocolate Macadamia Nut bar contains 266 calories, 7.5g of fat, 37g of carb and 10g of protein, giving you more than just your basic carb-focused bar. Its higher protein count makes it a suitable choice as a post-ride recovery snack too. Like the OTE bars, it takes up a lot of jersey pocket space.

Although they're less well-known in the UK, Hammer Nutrition products are widely available stateside. There's a range of six flavors from the fruity to the nutty and chocolaty and they're all made in small batches from organic, kosher natural ingredients.

The bars weigh 50g each and are compact and easily pocketable, but despite this pack in plenty of carbs, so they're a good option if you don't want to carry too much on longer rides. They stay easily chewable when cold as well.

The all-natural ingredients give the bars a stronger taste, so you feel as if you're getting a good burst of flavor. Nut butters feature in even the fruit flavors, so you get a protein fix of up to 10g per bar, although this does also add to the fat content which heads up to 11g per bar for the Almond Raisin flavor.

Whereas it's not discernible in the fruit flavors, the chocolate chip flavor bar has quite an oily texture, although that's tempered by the included fruit pieces. Hammer recommends its bars for occasional use during longer workouts, to vary your energy input. The protein content also makes them a good post-exercise recovery snack.

Nut butter is a major ingredients in US-based Skratch's bars.  There's a range of five flavors including two peanut butter-based options and two which major on fruit. The 33g of carbohydrates only include 9g of simple sugars, so the energy content is more geared to longer term fuelling than a quick energy burst.

The nut and seed butters add 4 per cent protein but also 13 per cent fat in the chocolate chip and almond bar tested. It also packs in plenty of calories in what's a fairly compact bar.

The all-natural ingredients are organic, kosher and vegan and give the bar a satisfying, chewy texture, although that does make ingesting slightly harder. In cold conditions, the chocolate chip and almond Skratch bar gets very hard as well.

Like the Hammer bars, the protein content makes Skratch's bars a good post-ride option.

If you've watched any cycle racing, you can't have missed NamedSport's huge orange inflatables strategically placed at the side of the road. The brand has an impressive ability to promote its wares and also sponsors many Italian races.

NamedSport isn't just about promotion though, its bars manage to mix chewy with fruity, making them an enjoyable mid-ride fuel that's easy to swallow even when riding harder. There's a range of 13 flavors, including two organic options, making for plenty of variety.

In the nut-based bars, energy comes mainly from a mix of marzipan (which is substituted by fruit puree in the fruit flavor bars) and rice crispies and NamedSports also packs a medley of vitamins into its bars, making for quite a long ingredients list. Despite this, they're vegan. 

They're the smallest bar here though and that's reflected in their comparatively low calorie content of under 150kcal per bar, All that promotion makes for a high price per calorie as well.

Best energy bars for cycling: a buyer's guide