I find the logistics of nutrition on the day to be one of the trickiest elements to get right.

Succeed and you won’t notice it, fail and it will be spectacularly visible.

Break the ride up into a smaller series of, say, 6 x 3 hour rides and calibrate accordingly, knowing that as the attempt progresses, you will be heading exponentially into the red in terms of calories and energy levels.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you CANNOT do this on gels, electrolyte and caffeine drinks alone. You’re going to need real food.

As a benchmark, for my second Everesting I used just 7 gels in total.

Be very careful of caffeine. It’s too easy to reach for a coffee for a quick pick-me-up at each rest stop but would you drink 10+ espressos in a day?

Your body and heart are going to be under a whole new exertion regime without adding caffeine into the mix. I find caffeine an essential ingredient but it has its time and place and I use it as a carrot/focus/reward when fatigue really kicks in.

Do not make the mistake of starting with a full stomach based on the theory that this will fuel you for longer. It won’t and risks presenting its own problems which could jeopardise your attempt.

You should have been gently carb-loading for the 3 days leading up to the start so approach this as you would a regular longer ride. You want to be satiated and fuelled but not hungry when you begin and the key is to top up with small amounts and often.

I keep a couple of Emergency Gels tucked on my right quad under the hem of my bibs. They typically take around 15 to 20 mins to kick in – you should know from your training rides how long they take to kick in for you – but crucially the sugar boost can be instantaneous as soon as they hit your mouth and they’ve saved me on more than one occasion.