Issue 28: Fluids

Cyclists are excited about new performance drinks, we’ve seen them all before

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about riding is the more real food I eat, the better I feel. Mentioned that to Skratch a couple years ago when their powder arrived for a test and review.

RT @bikehugger: @skratchlabs and that’s the science, right? Eat real food….best tip ever for endurance athletes.

— Skratch Labs (@SkratchLabs) July 6, 2012

Skratch is easy on the stomach, but I’ve found it lacks staying power for longer rides. There’s only 80 calories in a scoop and Osmo has 35. With a sensitive stomach, before a ride or race I eat a good meal, then want water, calories, and electrolytes to get me to the end. My on-the-road-instead-of-a-lab, with no peer-reviewed journals to back it up study indicates the brown-rice syrup solids in Clif Shot powders work the best. Better even than dried fruit and sucrose in Skratch or Osmo’s proprietary sucrose blend.

What Skratch has done is made the powder with the most “drinkability” on a hot day. Do any of these powders do more for you than a diluted, fizzed-out cola did for generations of cyclists before? Arguably no, but they’ll tell you it does while wearing lab coats and the Slowtwitch guys obsess about the science. I don’t fantasize about Allen Lim handing me a dixie cup of Skratch at the top…