What Are The Best Cycling Water Bottles

If you're heading out on a summer bike ride or winter training run there's usually a list of things to take with you. A water bottle or two should be pretty high up that list due to the importance of staying hydrated whilst riding no matter what the weather conditions.

Staying hydrated before and during a ride is essential to aid performance and for your health as during intense exercise an athlete can lose 2 to 2.5 liters of sweat an hour. Dehydration of 1-2% of your body water content has also been shown to dramatically affect sporting performance.^[1]

Below are a selection of some of the best cycling water bottles to consider for your riding needs- From saving seconds on a time trial with an aerodynamic drinks bottle to the best cycling water bottles to show your team allegiances.

Not everyone carries just water when they're out riding. Sometimes you need to fuel your performance and one of the best ways of doing this is by using sports drinks like Lucozade, and Gatorade.

Many sports specific drinks come in powdered form for easy storage. This however poses a potential problem when it comes to measuring the right amount of powder- especially on those occasions where you're in a rush to get out on the bike.

The Science in Sport Easy-Mix bottle allows you to easily measure out the right amount of sports drink powder you require for your riding needs using scales on the side of their clear thermoplastic bottles so you never need to worry that your drink isn't mixed to perfection.

If you're looking for the vital aerodynamic edge in a time trial the little differences add up to a potentially big chunk of time. The pointed aerodynamic helmets and sleek deep section and disc wheels can buy you huge chunks of time.

Traditional cycling water bottles provide an obstacle for air to flow over and create what you may have heard described in Formula 1 racing as 'dirty air'. To counteract this a number of bike manufacturers have designed sleeker, elongated sports drink bottles designed to help smooth the airflow as shown on the bike of Colombia's Fabio Duarte below with Elite's time trial kit.

Traditionally a good water bottle has always been hard to come by. When cycling you place significant forces in various directions against the liquid within a sports bottle. Therefore any weaknesses in the plastic and seals will lead to fluid loss, either dripping and seepage.

Camelbak created their Podium to address the fact that the majority of bottles seem to leak-especially around the drinking valve.

A number of manufacturers sponsor professional cycling teams with drinks bottles. They also produce replicas of those bottles for cyclists to show their team preferences with pride.

Whether you follow Team Sky Procycling, BMC Racing or have a soft spot for the Movistar or FDJ team you can usually pick up a team drinks bottle to really show your colours.

Elite's Corsa design is a great 500 ml team issue design which is as much at home attached to a spinning bike at the gym as on a Tour de France yellow jersey holders' bike.

If you're going to be out riding in extremely cold temperatures it makes sense to have a water bottle which can cope with the demands of cold weather cycling. Many bottle manufacturers produce insulated cycling drinks bottles which will allow you to take a warm drink with you in cold weather or alternately keep your drink cool in hot conditions.

If you're looking for a drinks bottle to fill with ice to keep your drinks mixture cool on the hottest of summer days you may find yourself struggling with an ice pick to get your chunks small enough to fit down the spout of some sports bottles.

To make the task easy you need to look for a big with a big spout for easy filling. Specialized's Big Mouth is the original ice-cube friendly sports bottle and they're customisable too for the design of your cycling club or shop to help increase brand visibility.

1. Gonzales-Alonso. J., 1998., \separate and combined influences of dehydration and hyperthermia on cardiovascular responses to exercise. International Journal of Sports Medicine 19, Supplement. 2: S111-14