Ketones, Anti-Cramp Shots, Super-Carb Solutions: The Pro Cycling Performance Boosters You Can Buy Now

Published October 14, 2023 04:13AM

Remco Evenepoel’s red recovery bottle. Tadej Pogačar’s Il Lombardia-saving shot. And the carefully labelled bidons dispensed from every team car in the pro peloton.

Ketones, anti-cramp shots, and super-high carb-mixes, that’s what they are. And they’re all available “over the counter”, in some format or the other.

Here’s an explainer of some of the not-so-secret drinks of pro cycling, and where you can get them for yourself:

Evenepoel’s ketone recovery drink

Eagle-eyed fans will have seen Evenepoel slurping on a bottle of red juice in the immediate aftermath of a bike race.

Oftentimes, Evenepoel’s on “The Red Stuff” before media start to scrum around and Soudal Quick-Step teammates arrive to congratulate or commiserate with their young leader.

Remco’s must-have recovery drink isn’t just his favorite thirst-quenching breakfast juice.

It’s a ketone mix created by Quick-Step’s U.S.-based nutrition partner KetoneAid.

“Ketones are crucial for fuelling but can play a big part for recovery too. They play a huge part in accelerating the recovery process,” Quick-Step’s outgoing head of performance Vasilis Anastopoulos told Velo.

“Our doctors are working to optimize the daily protocol for ketones, and part of the new method we have is taking them immediately after the race. That’s what you see Remco drink.”

The use of ketones has become a frequent flashpoint of debate in the past decade.

The UCI recommends against their use due to a relative lack of knowledge around the nutritional supplement, and teams signed to the MPCC commit to not using them. They are not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and KetoneAid makes sure to state that fact across the front of its leading “Ke4” product.

Simply put, ketones are a substance that are naturally produced by the liver that can also be ingested in a synthetic form, typically via a liquid. Ketones help preserve the body’s glycogen fuel stores – a big benefit for riders looking to save the sugars for when they really count.

Many teams are reluctant to ‘fess up to using ketone supplements due to their now-controversial status, and several squads asked by Velo preferred not to confirm either way. Jumbo-Visma and Quick-Step are among the few that are open about their use.

The jury’s out about the effectiveness of ketones, even after years of use in the WorldTour and through the athletic community.

Some say they don’t help or are only extremely marginal to performance, others question how safe they are to consume.

“I think a lot of people think ketones are a wonder drug, and they make you go faster by 20 percent. And I think that’s total bullshit,” Jumbo-Visma director Grischa Niermann told Velo in an earlier interview.

“I’m 100 percent convinced that it’s not the wonder supplement that makes you go faster by a big, big margin.”

In the meantime, brands like KetoneAid and DeltaG will continue to manufacture and make hay with these extremely costly, ever-controversial, supplements.

“I can understand people who are skeptical about them. We don’t have as much information about ketone esters as about some other supplements or nutrition,” Anastopoulos said in a recent call. “On the other hand, there are a lot of tests going on all the time, and from what our doctors say, they’re absolutely safe. Our guys think they’re effective.”

The super-high carbohydrate mixes of … the whole peloton

Carbohydrate drinks are nothing new, niche, or “marginal”. Brands like Gatorade have been packing sugars into drinks since the turn of the century, and the pro peloton has been guzzling the carb-rich rocket-fuel ever since.

But the quantity of carbohydrates crammed into every bidon has magnified multifold.

“There’s been a massive change in energy intakes in the last five or six years,” Ineos Grenadiers nutritionist Aitor Viribay Morales told Velo. “New products mean more and more riders are hitting 120-140 grams of carbohydrate an hour now.

“Before, you might have had to take five or six gels to reach that much, and there was a lot more risk of G.I. distress. A few years ago, the limit was seen as 60 or 90 grams.”

Just five years ago, one race-bottle might have contained 20-30 grams of carbohydrates. New formulations mean they now carry anywhere up to three times that.

WorldTour-backing brands like Science in Sport [Ineos Grenadiers], Maurten [Jumbo-Visma], and Never Second [EF Education-EasyPost] have developed drink and gel mixes that allow riders to ingest more sugars than previously thought possible – all without the risk of sickness, bloating, or an untimely bout of “The Dumoulins”.

“The ability to tolerate carbs is becoming one of the biggest factors in winning or losing,” Quick-Step-turned Astana staffer Anastopoulos said.

“It’s impossible for a rider to be able to maintain the same power all through a long race, but a rider that’s not optimally fuelled will see much faster declines in their power profile. Carbohydrate is essential to mitigating that drop, and that’s why we always need them fuelling so much now.”

But not all riders can handle 90 grams of sugar – more than twice that found in a can of “original” Coca-Cola – in one 18oz bottle. Each rider has their own tolerable limit, and has to be careful not to go beyond it or risk the sometimes unfortunate consequences.

Team staff meticulously mix and label dozens of bidons before race roll-outs to ensure each rider gets their relevant fix.

“There’s a lot of focus on rider preparing the guts during training to be able to efficiently absorb this amount of carbs,” Anastopoulos said. “Many will go for a session with a training protocol and a specific fuelling protocol. They’re becoming equal in importance.”

The world of elite endurance has become an ever-escalating carb-consumption arms race. The nutrition world is accelerating to hold on to the wheel.

Pogačar’s anti-cramp shot

The only thing that seemed likely to stop Tadej Pogacar from claiming his hat-trick at Il Lombardia last weekend?

The Slovenian monument-slayer could be seen grabbing at his thighs as they spasmed in rebellion last weekend inside the final 12km of “The Race of the Falling Leaves”.

After some 240km of relentless hilly racing, those quads had suffered enough and looked set to derail Pogačar’s third win straight in the Italian monument.

A hand up of a small bottle from a team car saved the day. Pogačar downed the contents of the unseen vessel and roared home for win number three.

“It was an anti-cramp drink. It helped a bit but I still had to go a bit slower, otherwise it would have been hard to get over the climb,” Pogačar said after the race. “If it was flat to the finish I wouldn’t have worried but I still needed to do the Bergamo climb.”

Rapid advancements in knowledge around nutrition, hydration, and intra-race fuelling still haven’t put a stopper on the risk of cramps. The electric pains caused by muscle fatigue or electrolyte imbalances can derail almost any over-weary racer.

Brands like Hot Shot and Cramp Fix promise a rapid delivery from spams by blocking or “short-circuiting” the hyperactive nerves causing the condition.

“It was a concoction of very concentrated electrolytes and salts. It has a pretty nasty taste and not something that’s used frequently but is on-hand sometimes for ’emergencies’,” a spokesperson from UAE Emirates told Velo of Pogačar’s magic elixir. “It’s only really effective for cramps and not to be used as a gel per se.”

Velo contacted a handful of teams in the WorldTour, and it seems the use of anti-cramp fixes isn’t all that common.

Cramps are increasingly rare now that riders can monitor sugar, salt, and effort levels better than ever before. But like “Pogi” found out – when you get cramps, you gotta get rid of them, fast.