According to experts, the international supᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚplementation market is a 485 billion dollar industry.

It spans a wide spectrum from certified snake oil to genuin🐎ely health- or performance-enhancing products that can be worth their weight in gold.

and these , the latter of which literally promises 'no active ingredients', live at the other.

And while there's a lot of good stuff going on in the performance nutrition space, as I'll♒ explain below, there's no denying that premium brands demand high prices for their products.

This🎃 is where I come in with a solution that will set you back a fraction of the cost.

"I don't use supplements..."

As a cyclist, you might think that supplements don't really apply to you. You're not trying to get swole in the gym with your preworkout pump or your creatine monohydrate,𝐆 and you're too🌸 scared of gaining weight to take a protein shake (which is wrong, but I'll save that lecture for another piece).

You may have heard that the pros are experimenting witജh bicarb and beta alanine, you're quite happy to avoid unscheduled toilet stops an🎃d pins and needles on your face.

But I'd argue you're wrong. I'd argue that energy drinks, gels, and bars all fall into the category of supplementation. An🥃d I'm willing to bet that the majority of people reading this have, at some time through their life on a bike, trialled with all three.

Energy spenergy

Theܫ problem with any of these products i🧸s that they're rarely cheap.

And although it was once palatable (metaphorically), given most recommended drinking around 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour, nowadays brands are suggesting 90 grams for optimum performance, the literature is suggesting as much as 120g per hour, and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:pro athletes are going 👍as high as 200g per h🎀our.

Not only has inflation bumped prices up, but you now need to get through twice as much of it as before, maybe e🍸ven m🔜ore.

Carbs = fuel

The literature I mention above is led by incredibly intelligent performance nutritionists such as Asker Jeukendrup, Tim Podlogar, Sam Impey and James Morton, who have all worked (or s🐭till work) with WorldTour pro teams.

Their findings have helped transform cycling away from its traditioﷺnal views that feared the soft bit in the middle of a loaf of bread, tཧoward a more modern approach that provides your body with the fuel it needs.

They've also found that the once-accepted limit of 60g per hour could be bumped up to 90g, 108g, and now higher again, using different ratios𓂃 of different types of sugar, and a period of 'gut training'.

The glucose:fructose ratio

Almost all energy drinks are made using glucose, usually in the form of fast-burning dextrose or the slightly-slowe♋r-but-still-fast-burning maltodextrin.

The problem is that, according to the literature, your body's ability to transport that sugar to the muscles is capped at around 60g per hour, ♑because there's only so much glucose the 'Glut1' transporter can move.

However, a different transporter called glut5 works independently to transport fructo👍se, so by adding this different sugar into the mix, you could process more per hour, and thus burn more energy without blowing up (hitting the wall, bonking, etc).

The original understanding was that this allows you to add a🎃 further 30g to the mix, creating a 2:1 ratio (60g glucose, 30g fructose). Later tests revealed the ratio might actually be closer to 1:0.8 (60g glucose, 48g of fr🐭uctose).

More recently, riders have experimented with more, pushing both glucose and fructose higher and 🌞higher, with 2025 Unbound Gravel winner Cameron Jones reportedly eating 190g per hour (for 9 hours), and former Ineos Grenadiers man and Ironman superstar Cameron Wurf knocking back 200g per hour, or 28 gels across a four-hour ride.

I can't afford this

If you were 𒐪to fuel a nine-hour ride at 190g per hour, using (which has 80g carbs per sachet in that 1:0.8 ratio), you'd need 22 sachets.

At its recommended retail price of £39.99 / $45.00 for 15 packs, that works out at £2.66 / $3.00 per pack, and a tota💝l of £58.65 / $66.00. For one ride.

Admittedly, th♐at's a very extreme case, but even if you rode for four hours at 100g per hour, something a lot of amateurs will be doing most weekends, that's £13.33 / $15.00 per ride, or £3.33 / $3.75 per hour.

This isn't to say brands are ripping you off. Brands like SIS and Maurten invest in research that furthers the science of fuelling athletic performance, and although you mightn't like that you're indirectly paying for research that has no bearing on your four-hour Sunday club ride, it's an expense that at least furthers the sp❀ort we all love.

Secondly, these brands also have laws to abide by and FDA rules to adhere to. Even outside of legislative overheads, they'll have business ones too. All of that comes at a cost, and sadly, that cost must be passed on t🅘o you.

The solution

Table sugar, also known a☂s sucrose, is a 1:1 ratio of glucose and fructose.

That aforementioned pack of SIS Beta Fuel works out at £33.32 / $37.50 per kilo꧃. Meanwhile a 1kg bag of table sugar from the supermarket is around £1.00 / $2.00.

A 500g bag (or similar 16🌺oz for USA readers) of dextrose 🔜or maltodextrin is around £4.00 / $5.00 on Amazon.

With that, you've got 1.5kg of 2:1 energy drink for around £5.00 / $7.00. That's £3.33 / $4.66 per kilogram, 💛or 33 pence or 46 cents per hour, fuell♐ing at 100g per hour.

And if you adjust the ratio to 1:0.8, you end up even better off, although when doing🅠 this myself, I often don't even bother adding the extra dextrose and enjoy a 100g-per-hour ride using pure table sugar at just 10 pence / 20 cents⛎ per hour.

I'll occasionally throw in some electrolyte tabs from Precision Hydration on longer or hotter days, and I'll flavour it with some lime juice, but all in, you're looking at an energy drink that costs you around a 10th of the overall price, with flavo🍌urs you can mix and match as you wish.