Aiming to get a good time in the CRC 70km race/timed event.

Should I take one every set amount of time like 40min/1hour. Or should I take one every set amount of calories burnt?

I know your body can only intake a set amount of calories per hour anyway buuut mentally taking more convinces yourself its helping even if its not actually making much difference i.e. as soon as you start eating you no longer feel hungry even though its not actually in your body yet (although am probably way off on that one).

What do the STW massive think?

What are you drinking? If you're drinking a carb drink, and a lot of it, you probably won't get anything out of gels, conversely, if you're drinking water then you may want to take quite a few gels.

Yeah just water for myself! I'm thinking 6 gels should do it..

steve – enjoy the next day –

phrase "shitting through eye of needle" comes to mind

unless of course your stomach is **** like mine and will take any calories it just gives of noxious gasses in revolt !

Yep, I'm the same as you Terry, can put away countless gels with no lasting damage save for the noses of those around me!

6 gels would probably be about right, although I suspect most would find a carb drink easier to stomach.

Thing is I did win some energy drink in a race a couple months ago just don't wanna use it!

Gels are good with stomach sometimes if I take more than needed though I'll be shaking for a hour or two after the race as their effect wears off… but that's about as bad as it gets, although think I was just ill when that happened (sounds worse than it actually was).

steve – you should find that swapping the water for a Isotonic drink containing about 6% carbs will help you achive a better performance than water and gels alone
Once you have been exercising for over 30 minutes (hard) it is not possible to stay fully hydrated on water alone. – it passes through your body too quick. Google isotonic, hypertonic & hypotonic for the science.
If you dont want to use powdered drinks a strong mix of squash can get you close to 6% carbs but wont have the added benifit of the electrolytes that will aid muscle performance.
As for the gels, look at how many calories they contain, work out how long it will take to burn this number of calories. Then during the race take one for every interval worked out before. – This is a very simplistic method due to processing rates etc but you should find it better than just taking them with no structure.