When most people think about dehydration and cycling, they picture long, hot summer rides. Winter rarely comes to mind. But cold snaps, frost, and long endurance sessions in low temperatures can impact your hydration just as much, and quietly derail your training and performance.

Dehydration happens when your body loses more fluid than it takes in, dropping you from a well-hydrated state to a dehydrated one. It often occurs because your thirst doesn’t quite keep up with how much fluid you’re actually losing, especially during intense exercise. In some cases, you're sweating so much that it's hard to replace what you've lost, or you simply don’t have access to enough water when you need it.

Why Should You Pay Attention to Your Hydration During the Winter?

Hydration often takes a backseat once the temperature drops, but winter brings its own set of challenges that make staying hydrated just as important, if not more so.

For starters, cold air tends to be drier, which increases fluid loss through respiration (you lose more moisture just by breathing). Add that to layered kit, long indoor sessions, and the fact that you might not feel as thirsty, and it’s easy to end up dehydrated without realising it.

Dehydration doesn’t just affect how you feel during a ride. It can slow your recovery, impact immune function, and make your body less efficient at regulating heat, which matters when you're out riding in low temperatures. That sluggish, heavy-legged feeling you sometimes get in winter? It might not just be the weather.

This is where the right cycling supplements can help. Electrolyte-based products give your body what it needs to absorb and retain fluid properly, even when you’re not sweating buckets. They’re a simple, effective way to stay on top of hydration, and your training.

3 Reasons Winter Might Increase Dehydration Risks When Cycling

Hydration might not feel like a top priority when you're layered up and trying to stay warm, but winter brings a surprising number of ways to dehydrate. Here’s why staying on top of it, and considering the right cycling supplements, matters just as much as it does in summer.

1. You’re Working Harder Than You Think
Thick kit, icy roads, and tricky terrain can all raise your effort levels, often without you realising. Riding through mud, slush, or snow takes more energy, and more energy means more sweating. But since most of your skin is covered, and it’s cold out, you probably won’t see or feel that sweat in the same way you would on a hot day. The result? You may be losing just as much fluid, if not more, without the usual thirst signals to prompt you to drink.

2. Cold Air Dries You Out
Dry, cold air pulls moisture from your body every time you exhale, and indoor heating or turbo sessions can be just as drying. Add in a phenomenon called cold-induced diuresis (basically, your body increasing urine output in the cold), and you’re losing fluid from both ends, breath and bladder. All this makes it surprisingly easy to slip into a dehydrated state, especially on longer rides. This is where hydration-focused cycling supplements can help replace what you’ve lost more efficiently than water alone.

3. Winter Bugs Drain You
Colds, flus, and seasonal viruses can hit your hydration hard. Even if you’re not training, your immune system needs plenty of fluid to function properly. Fevers, congestion, or even just being too tired to eat and drink normally can all contribute to dehydration, and make recovery slower. 

Why Cycling Supplements Are Your Saviour When Re-hydrating

Rehydration isn’t just about topping up on water, it’s about giving your body the right tools to absorb and use that water properly. After a winter ride, especially one that’s long, intense, or done in layers of kit, your body has likely lost a significant amount of fluid and electrolytes, even if you don’t feel drenched in sweat.

This is where cycling supplements like SALT! really prove their worth. They don’t just quench thirst, they support the physiological processes that keep your body performing, recovering, and regulating itself properly.

Here’s what’s in SALT! and why it matters:

Sodium – 750mg per sachet

Sodium is the key to effective hydration, and the most important electrolyte to replace after sweating. It helps your kidneys retain fluid and pull water into your bloodstream, rather than flushing it out. Without enough sodium, you can drink litres of water and still remain dehydrated. In cold weather, the risk of cold-induced diuresis (increased urination) makes sodium replacement even more critical. 

Potassium – 300mg per sachet

Potassium supports muscle contraction, pH balance in the kidneys, and helps shuttle nutrients around your body. In the context of cycling, it plays a role in reducing cramp risk and supporting blood flow. Potassium also helps your body manage lactic acid more effectively, ideal for winter rides where terrain or conditions might push you harder than expected.

Magnesium – 60mg per sachet

Magnesium supports over 300 bodily processes, including muscle function, energy production, and electrolyte balance. It can also help reduce the build-up of lactic acid, meaning your legs feel less heavy and you recover faster. While magnesium can sometimes cause digestive issues in high doses, SALT! includes just enough to be effective without upsetting your stomach, making it suitable for pre-, during, or post-ride use.

Calcium – 50mg per sachet

Calcium’s often overlooked, but it plays a vital role in nerve signalling and muscular coordination. It helps with muscle contractions and ensures your nervous system continues to fire smoothly, something that can feel a bit ‘off’ if you’ve had a tough session and haven’t replenished properly. 

How to Further Avoid Dehydration During the Winter

Staying hydrated in winter takes a bit more planning, especially when the usual signs of dehydration (like feeling hot or sweaty) are much harder to spot. By the time you actually feel thirsty, you could already be 2–3% dehydrated, which is enough to affect performance. So, prevention is key.

Here are a few easy but effective ways to stay on top of your hydration when training in the cold:

1. Stop Your Bottle from Freezing
In really cold conditions, your water bottle can start to ice up, especially the nozzle. Keep it from freezing by tucking it into a back jersey pocket or an insulated bottle holder, with the nozzle closed tightly and facing down. This keeps it out of the wind and closer to your body heat, so it stays drinkable throughout your ride.

2. Avoid Alcohol on Training Days
Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which means it increases how often you urinate, not ideal when you’re trying to stay hydrated. Even moderate drinking the night before a ride can leave you starting out slightly dehydrated. If performance and recovery matter, it’s best to give alcohol a miss, especially during high-volume training blocks.

3. Make Your Fluids More Appealing
Use a cycling supplement like SALT! that not only adds a clean, refreshing taste but also helps your body absorb and retain the water you’re drinking.

4. Understand Your Own Sweat Rate
Not everyone loses fluid at the same rate. A simple way to check your losses is to weigh yourself before and after a ride, any weight difference is mostly down to sweat loss. Use that info to guide how much you drink during and after. A rough rule of thumb: aim to drink 7–10oz every 10–20 minutes while riding, and rehydrate afterwards based on how much you’ve lost.

Winter might not look like the season for dehydration, but the risks are real, and often overlooked. From dry air and cold-induced fluid loss to harder efforts and slower thirst signals, there are plenty of ways your hydration can fall behind without you even realising. And once it does, performance, recovery, and even motivation can take a hit.

That’s why relying on water alone isn’t always enough. A proper hydration strategy, backed by the right cycling supplements, can make a real difference to how you feel both during and after your rides.

SALT! is designed to help you rehydrate properly, perform at your best, and recover faster, whatever the weather. With a precise mix of sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium, it gives your body exactly what it needs to absorb and retain fluids, without the unnecessary sugar or filler.