I’ve been talking to and hearing of a few customers who’ve struggled on various rides, be it a leisure ride, sportive or race. By struggled I mean they have noticed that their ‘usual’ speed over distance is not as good as it could be or they feel pretty awful and lack any drive. Quite frequently when I ask how much they’ve eaten they answer invariably ‘one bar / gel in the hour or nothing at all!’ Maybe the excitement of the event makes them forget to fuel properly, or perhaps they forgot to prepare well beforehand. Anyway it seems to me that a lot of people are seriously under eating (or fuelling) on rides.
I came across Secret Training’s ‘Stealth’ range of nutrition products at the Madison trade show year before last. The founder Tim Lawson founded Science in Sport years before, had a short break and then wanted to produce nutrition products with a bit more of an edge. He was at the show in person and convinced me of many benefits of his new Stealth nutrition range.
I’ve been using them for over 18 months and have found using them really great. The gels taste really natural and not overly sweet, probably because they use rice starch and natural flavours which are a little less sweet than artificial ones, the rice starch is slightly slower to release energy as well so the energy effect can last longer. One favourite of mine is the Berry Caffeine energy gel, it has natural elderberry in it that apparently increases bloodflow to muscles, the caffeine also really dulls any pain. I’ve set some personal best records on hills near the end of long rides by downing one of these a couple of minutes before the climb!
The hydration powder is in a sachet (and makes it easy to take spares on a ride) and as Tim explained this means they don’t have any nasty fizzing or binding agents. The taste of all the powders is quite slight, not overly strong, which is much better as it makes you sip rather than gulp. Also the powder contains a small quantity of carbohydrate which is said to help the absorption of liquid into your body.
Here’s the offer
So as a ‘sweetner’ to encourage all riders to fuel properly:
boxes of 14 energy gels for 15.00 (RRP 17.50) Isotonic varieties (1.07 each)
19.99 (RRP 24.50) for the Caffine and ‘Real Fruit’ varieties (1.43 each)
14.00 (RRP 16.00) for a box of 20 sachets of the super hydration powder. (0.70p each)
That’s a good saving on the RRP, no excuse not to fuel or hydrate properly!
Road.cc had good things to say about the gels too!
