smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Basically, yes. You don't need "nutrition" during a ride, you need "fuel".
My experience of gels is that most of them taste revolting but the Torq ones are reasonably palatable. I usually carry one or two for emergency rations on long rides - I find them a useful quick energy hit if I hit the wall, like you did. But as mentioned by others, jelly babies do much the same job and taste much nicer.
I wouldn't recommend Coke in your bidon (too sticky) but you do occasionally see the pros drinking cans of Coke during races, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Personally, I can't take fizzy drinks during rides - they make me feel ill.
I tend to prefer plain water in my bidon but if you really don't want to carry extra stuff around in your pockets, you can get energy powders to add to water, as others have mentioned. But you can achieve much the same effect with orange squash or Ribena. A 50:50 mix of pure orange juice and water is another good option.
This is spot on. Energy gels are just maltodextrin (a form of glucose) plus flavourings, though some also have extra stuff in them like caffeine or electrolytes. So there's no nutritional advantage to an energy gel over jelly babies or a can of Coke. They're just sugar in a convenient form for consumption while on the move. As already mentioned, I find the Torq ones OK, but other people prefer other brands... there is no right answer.
Banana and flapjack in my pockets works for me.
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