Category: Featured

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Featured Features

28 Days Across Europe

Simon Atkinson4000miles, nine countries, 28 days; three sets of numbers looming large in the mind of Simon Atkinson, a 38-year-old from West Sussex. In July he will attempt to break the Guinness world record for ‘the fastest cycle across Europe’ – which currently stands at 39 days 11 hours and 24 minutes – pedalling his way from Spain to Norway via France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and the length of Finland with an average of 140miles a day. Ahead of his epic quest Cyclo spoke to Simon to talk about the challenge to come…

 

Cyclo: Have you always been a cyclist?

 

Simon Atkinson: Yes and no, I rode a lot as a kid and as a teenager. I did a bit of mountain biking and one circuit race but bikes got put to one side when I learnt to drive. I only really got back into cycling in early 2011; I was due to get married in the September and I was over 16stone and didn’t want to look back at my wedding photos forever looking at a fat bloke. I bought a ‘fixie’ (fixed-wheel bike) and started riding to work again. I lost over three stone before our wedding and the obsession with cycling started from there.

 

Cyclo: Have you ever attempted any long distance challenges before?
SA: Not on this scale. I rode Land’s End to Margate in 2010 with a friend for charity; I was still pretty overweight back then and it was hard to ride 450miles in 5 days. Then last year I rode Calais to Switzerland and back, 963miles in 11 days. My riding partner dropped out two days into the ride and I carried on by myself, which was good really as it made me realise I could do these things alone.

 

Cyclo: So why this record-breaking challenge now?


SA: Switzerland was a revelation in what I could achieve, so I started looking for something else to do. It took a while and my ambitions often out-stripped time and money constraints but finally I stumbled across this record and thought, ‘I could beat that!’ lets hope I can…

 

Cyclo: It’s not all about the record of course, you’re doing this for charity too…


SA: Yes, I’m raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. In my line of work as an undertaker, one thing I know is that cancer doesn’t care who you are. My wife lost her dad to cancer just before we got married, and my dad lost his best mate a few years ago; cancer affects so many peoples lives, you just can’t ignore it.

 

Cyclo: Tell us about the route you will be riding? How did you decide on it?

 

SA: I’m going south to north as, in theory, the prevailing winds will be with me and if I can get ahead of my schedule I might be able to catch the last of the midnight sun in Norway, which I would like to see. Someone did say it would be all uphill the way I’m going (not sure about that…)
Beyond that the route was pretty easy to decide and to some extent dictated by Guinness; their rules state I have to stay on mainland Europe and ride the whole distance which ruled out going through Denmark as I would have had to take a ferry or train as you can’t ride legally on the bridges across the water…

 

I nearly chose a slightly more scenic/hilly route but decided it was going to be hard enough as it was and in the end I just Google-mapped the shortest distance between the two points that I could take without hitting motorways.

 

Cyclo: Where will you be sleeping?


SA: Due to financial restrictions and to keep my daily mileage options open I don’t have specific places to stay, so I’ll be wild camping for the most part. I have a light one-man tent, which is luxurious compared to the bivvy bag I tried in training.

 

Cyclo: What are the biggest logistical challenges?


SA: Probably staying hydrated. Spain in July could be pretty hot so I’ll be stopping a lot to fill up my bottles. Eating enough could be a consideration too. I stand to burn quite a few thousand calories each day and the general consensus is that I’ll lose some weight, however I think the people that are saying that are underestimating my ability to eat, I can be a proper pig when I get going.

 

Cyclo: Will you be supported on the trip or are you flying solo?


SA: I’ll be totally alone for the whole trip. No doubt I could do it quicker with support, but again the logistics and financial considerations ruled it out. I quite like the adventure side of it, being self-reliant and dealing with the daily challenges, motivating myself too when things get tough and there is only me to deal with it. I guess I want to see what I’m made of.
Simon Atkinson GiantCyclo: What bike are you using?


SA: I’ll be using a Giant TCX1, supplied by my local Giant store in Shoreham. It’s a cyclo cross bike so you have the best of all worlds in being hard wearing with a good riding position. The wheels have been hand-built by a local company to be strong and bullet proof but otherwise she is basically standard, the only other changes being an 11-32 cassette and long cage rear derailleur to help on hills when loaded up, plus a set of aero bars to lean on for the long miles.

 

Cyclo: What about other kit?


SA: I’m only taking the basics and essentials to keep my set up as light as possible. The bike will have no panniers fitted and I will be using a saddle bag, frame bag, top tube bag and hanging stuff off the aero bars. It will be a similar set up to Mike Hall’s round the world record bike. It might not sound it, but I wanted to keep the bike as aero as possible and with limited space to put stuff I won’t be tempted to overload it. My only concession to ‘luxury’ is a lightweight cooking kit; I think it will be great to be able to have a cup of coffee when I wake up in the middle of nowhere.

 

Cyclo: And technology?


SA: The technology I’m taking is very important. I have a Garmin Edge 800 with European maps so I can see how far I’ve gone and to record for Guinness, but mainly to help navigating through towns. I need to document all aspects of my journey for Guinness verification. I will also have a Spot GPS tracker to show where I have been and to alleviate any worries my family have.

 

I’ll also have a Go Pro Hero 3 camera strapped to my aero bars and I can update my blog and post pictures via my iPhone, but probably the most important piece of technology is going to be my PowerMonkey Extreme solar charger, without that nothing will work for very long.

 

Cyclo: How can people get involved in supporting you?

 

SA: I’ve had a lot of help already and I’d like to thank the Giant Store Shoreham, Strada Wheels, Dignity Funerals, Granville Upholstery, Gamma Communications, Carradice and the Gatorade Sports Science Institute for their help, support and belief in me to do this.

 

Of course if anyone would like to donate to my charity they can do it via the JustGiving link on my website. There is also a link to my tracker page if anyone wants to see how I’m getting on in real time and I will (hopefully) be updating my blog and twitter daily. In the meantime I have a contact page and I would love to hear from anyone that wants to support me or if anyone has any advice to offer or to just say hello and good luck, I will need it!

 

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Extras Featured Reviews

Salice 005

Salice 005

Salice 005When it comes to choosing sunglasses there are many criteria to consider when investing – and given some of the prices around ‘investing’ is the correct term… Not least of these considerations is manufacturer credentials and heritage (not always failsafe as even the mighty Oakley have, in our opinion, occasionally missed a trick). Consider Salice, then; with almost a hundred year’s of experience in producing quality eye-wear this Italian giant has reputation aplenty – how though do the new Salice 005 measure up?

 

If the name 005 feels less than inspired (something like Eye-Armour X2 always sounds so much harder working), Salice can perhaps be forgiven; it appears most of their effort has, quite rightly, gone into designing the actual glasses.

 

Beyond the aforementioned manufacturer’s credentials there are a number of crucial points to consider when picking new glasses. Firstly: pure aesthetics. Horses for course and no one design is going to be to everyone’s taste, but in our opinion the 005s look damn look; available in a positively phantasmagoric array of colour combinations and lens types. Cyclo was testing Salice’s trademark ITA design that hints at the country’s tricolore with green, white and red flashes across the upper front frame; a full wrap, with elegantly tapering arm, they manage to look good without seeming to try too hard, with the added benefit of not appearing overly engineered or unnecessarily fussy. ‘Simple and elegant’ is perhaps the reductive way to put it.

 

Moving on to comfort. The Salice 005 aren’t exactly featherlight, but weighing in at less than 30g and with a flexible, adjustable nose piece they sit perfectly comfortably with generously large rubberised grips on the arm ends keeping them securely in place. The frame and lens curve is such that even those with the lashes of a cow shouldn’t experience any close-call discomfort and although they lack the multi-flexibility that gives some maker’s glasses an almost bespoke feel the overall level of comfort is more than adequate.

 

Polarized and photochromic lens options are available, whilst Cyclo was testing the more workmanlike mirror options. With to-be-expected 100% protection against UVA, B and C rays, these antiglare lenses performed admirably even riding into setting sunlight, with contrast strong and negligible image distortion even on the very periphery of vision. Unlike the 006 iteration, the Salice 005 features two individual lenses which, with triple-vents to the top and semi-open aspect to the sides, failed to fog even on our hottest test ride. The lenses are interchangeable (they ship with clear, low-light appropriate options for when you just need a ‘windscreen for the eyes’) and snap in and out effectively with little fuss or recourse to checking complex instructions. That alone is refreshing and makes them worthy of recommendation.

 

The ITA design with mirror lens ships at £69.95, whilst the transitional photochromic option costs £74.95 and the polarized £84.95. The price-point, whilst hardly in the budget category, hits the mark dead on for the quality of both build and lens, making the Salice 005 a solid option that adds a dash of Italian dolce vita. Still a shame about the name 005…

 

For further details see: salice.co.uk

 

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Featured Nutrition Reviews

Chimpanzee Energy Bars

Chimpanzee Bars

Chimpanzee BarsAt Cyclo we’re big on natural energy bars; we often find them easiest to stomach, especially during longer events and training rides, and avoiding ‘artificial’ nutrition is always high on our list of priorities. Having recently been introduced to new Czech brand Chimpanzee Energy Bars – with their distinctive and fun branding and which the manufacturers claim ‘gradually releases energy to get the best out of your sport or workout’ – we were eager to take a look (and taste…)

 

Available in three flavours – Raisin & Walnut, Date & Chocolate and Apricot, with a new Beetroot & Carrot flavor coming soon, the makers say that their Chimpanzee Energy Bars are made of the ‘highest quality organic ingredients’ and are completely natural, with no preservatives, artificial colours or flavourings. Taking the Apricot as a fairly representative example, each 55g bar delivers 215kcal, with 26g carbohydrates (of which half is derived from sugars), 8.2g protein and 5.2 of natural fibre, approximately 21% of your RDA. The carb/protein balance is clearly close to what is often considered the optimum 3:1 ratio, making them ideal for either pre-ride fueling or on-bike nutrition where two bars-per-hour should support a moderately tough workout.

 

Cyclo found the bars fitted neatly into the back pocket of our cycling jersey (in fact we managed to get three in one pocket) and were effortless to open; always a plus when we consider the wrestling matches we’ve undertaken with some bars. All three flavours were easy to chew and digest, were extremely tasty and certainly felt like they were delivering on the energy front too. We’ve found in the past that some energy bars can be hard to chew and swallow, and need to be washed down with a drink, not so with the Chimps – another definite plus-point.

 

Of the three bars our personal favourite was the Raisin & Walnut, the mix of organic walnuts, organic raisins and cinnamon proving a very pleasant combination. To give an insight as to what ingredients go into a Chimpanzee bar, this, by way of example, makes up the Raisin & Walnut variety: organic rice syrup 15%, roasted soybeans 13%, soy flour 12%, organic soy fat 10%, organic raisins 10%, organic walnuts 10%, organic whole oats 9%, barley malt 8%, rice crisps 5% (rice flour, glucose syrup, barley malt extract), organic evaporated cane juice 5% (FairTrade), organic cinnamon (FairTrade) and salt.

 

For the purposes of a second opinion Cyclo spoke to Luke Tyburski, an endurance athlete, adventurer, and journalist sponsored by Chimpanzee. ‘Being an Endurance Athlete, with nutrition playing a huge part in my training and racing,’ says Tyburski, ‘Chimpanzee works extremely well due to their bars containing majorly organic ingredients, and no preservatives, or articial flavours or colourings. An all natural, great tasting, easily digestible energy bar that causes no stomach upset, and a constant stream of energy, there is nothing else I want from my nutrition during training and racing… I recently returned from a month-long training camp in Nepal in preparation for the Everest 65km Ultra Marathon, I used Chimpanzee bars throughout all my training, at altitude, throughout the mountainous trails and racing. I found them not only tasty, but easy on my stomach…’

 

Chimpanzee’s compare well to the similarly styled, long-established Clif Bar (see the Cyclo review here); serving up more-or-less identical levels of carbs and protein, although with Chimpanzee Energy Bars retailing at £1.99 per 55g bar and boxes of 12 x 55g bars at £19.10, Clif (often available for as little as £1) certainly come out best on cost alone. A place, then, for Chimpanzee Energy Bars on our future rides? Absolutely. It’s always good to mix things up and keep variety levels high and with their natural credentials and excellent taste a space for Chimpanzee Energy Bars in our jersey pocket is guaranteed.

 

For more information on Chimpanzee Energy Bars, and details of both online and offline retailers see chimpanzeebar.co.uk

 

 

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Books Featured Reviews

Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition

tdf2013_book_largeOf course there are no end of books on various aspects of the Tour de France and numerous biographies of those you have ridden it to fill in the more personal (often painful) minutiae. But now, thanks to publishers Quercus, comes a book as rich and beguiling as the race itself. Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition, authored by Françoise Laget, Gilles Montgermont, Serge Laget and Philippe Cazaban is an enormous volume that pulls off the seemingly impossible trick of being both concise and suitably detailed in turn.

 

Covering the birth of the TdF before dedicating a page per race through the subsequent one hundred editions, it includes overviews that capture the agony and ecstasy along with brief stats, such as final standings, total distances, average winner speed and map, all of which helps contextualise things. But this, perhaps, is not the book’s strongest selling point (excellent though the prose are) as Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition is also a stunningly illustrated visual history with more than 250 photographs and illustrations – many previously unpublished – which elevates this beyond a ‘mere’ history.

 

Those that think they know the TdF are likely to find bountiful nuggets of archaic and obscure information here and the photographs will continue to captivate long after this year’s winner reaches the Champs-Élysées. As a written history, with substantial sidebars, this book is near perfect; as a collectable coffee table picture book it is unsurpassed.

 

Tour de France 100th Race Anniversary Edition is published by Quercus (ISBN-10: 1782064141) and worth every penny of the £30 cover price. Available from, amongst others, Amazon.co.uk

 

 

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Featured Features

Giro d’Italia 2013

Giro d'Italia 2013Running from May 4 to 26 and celebrating its 96th edition, the Giro, like its French cousin the Tour de France, has its roots in newspaper circulation wars. In August 1908 the Italian sports paper Gazetta dello Sport announced the inaugural staging of the Giro which it planned to organise along similar lines to the car rally supported by their rivals Corriere della Sera; nine months later, May 13, 1909, and the Gazetta’s founder Eugenio Camillo Costamagna, along with director Armando Cougnet and its editor Tullio Morgagni unleashed the first edition with 127 riders set to race from Loreto Place in Milan. Eight stages and 2448 kilometres later Italy’s Luigi Ganna claimed the 5,300 Lira prize and his place in history as the first ever Giro d’Italia winner.

 

Always an epic opener to the big races of the year, the 2013 Giro will see particular attention paid to Bradley Wiggins, who has made it clear that the Italian race is a major goal for him (although, much the annoyance of Chris Froome, he’s also targeting a TdF double). Speaking ahead of this year’s Giro Wiggins comments, ‘Alongside the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix the Giro d’Italia is one of the biggest bike races in the world and one I’d love to win. I’ve watched the Giro since I was a kid and have seen my idols win it, which makes it even more special.  It has always been a race that I’ve wanted to ride well in and I just can’t wait to get started. I believe the (Sky) Giro team this year is just as strong as the Tour de France team last year and the results prove that everyone is ready to go.’

 

Fighting talk and however things unfold he’ll certainly face stiff competition from the likes of Garmin-Sharp’s Ryder Hesjedal (defending champion), BMC’s Cadel Evans and Vincenzo Nibali of Astana – former teammate Mark Cavendish (now with Omega Pharma – QuickStep) probably shouldn’t be ruled out of contention either.

 

As always the Giro jerseys up for grabs are: Maglia Rosa (pink jersey) for overall classification leader, Maglia Azzurra (blue jersey) for king of the mountains, Maglia Ciclamino (mauve jersey) awarded to points classification leader, and the Maglia Bianca (white jersey) for best young rider.

 

This year’s Giro runs to 3,454,8km (that’s an average stage length of 164.5km); it comprises one team time trial (Stage 2, May 5), two individual time trials, four medium mountain stages (one with summit finish) and six mountain stages (all with summit finish). The 21 stages look like this:

 

Stage 1 May 4 Napoli – Napoli 130km

Stage 2 May 5 Ischia – Forio 17.4km (TTT)

Stage 3 May 6 Sorrento – Marina di Ascea 222km

Stage 4 May 7 Policastro Bussentino – Serra San Bruno 246km

Stage 5 May 8 Cosenza – Matera 203km

Stage 6 May 9 Mola di Bari – Margherita di Savoia 169km

Stage 7 May10 San Salvo – Pescara 177km

Stage 8 May11 Gabicce Mare – Saltara 54.8km (ITT)

Stage 9 May 12 San Sepolcro – Firenze 170km

Stage 10 May 14 Cordenons – Altopiano del Montasio 167km

Stage 11 May 15 Tarvisio (Cave del Predil) – Vajont (Erto e Casso) 182km

Stage 12 May 16 Longarone – Treviso 134km

Stage 13 May 17 Busseto – Cherasco 254km

Stage 14 May 18 Cervere – Bardonecchia 168km

Stage 15 May 19 Cesana Torinese – Col du Galibier 149km

Stage 16 May 21 Valloire – Ivrea 238km

Stage 17 May 22 Caravaggio – Vicenza 214km

Stage 18 May 23 Mori – Polsa 20.6km (ITT)

Stage 19 May 24 Ponte di Legno – Val Martello 139km

Stage 20 May 25 Silandro – Tre Cime di Lavaredo 203km

Stage 21 May 26 Riese Pio X – Brescia 197km

 

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Featured Features

Tour of Britain 2013

Tour of Britain 2013The 10th anniversary of the re-launched Tour of Britain – which runs September 15-22 – will feature, according to organisers, the ‘hardest ever route’, and with tough double climbs of Caerphilly Mountain and the Tour’s first ever summit finish amongst the highlights it’s easy to see why. The Scottish Borders will host the start with the 201km leg from Peebles to Drumlanrig Castle, with riders finishing almost 1,200km later in London; the longest stage (225km) comes on day two, Carlisle to Kendal, whilst the 16km Individual Time Trial is set for day three at Knowsley Safari Park and the much anticipated summit finish comes on day six atop Haytor in Dartmoor.

 

The Tour of Britain is the UK’s biggest professional cycle race and the country’s largest free-to-watch sporting event; after a five-year absence from the calendar it returned in 2004 organised and promoted by sports marketing and events company SweetSpot. Commenting on the 2013 event Hugh Roberts, chief executive of SweetSpot said, ‘This year’s Tour will be an exciting and dynamic route, building on the success of last year’s race and celebrating what has been an incredible ten years of growth for The Tour of Britain and cycling in the UK.’ With ToB race director, Mick Bennett, adding, ‘This will definitely be the most challenging Tour of Britain yet,’ the full schedule is:

 

Stage 1 (September 15) Peebles – Drumlanrig Castle, 201km

Stage 2 (September 16) Carlisle – Kendal, 225km

Stage 3 (September 17) Knowsley, Individual Time Trial, 16km

Stage 4 (September 18) Stoke-on-Trent – Llanberis, 190.9km

Stage 5 (September 19) Machynlleth – Caerphilly, 177.1km

Stage 6 (September 20) Sidmouth – Haytor, Dartmoor, 137km

Stage 7 (September 21) Epsom – Guildford, 150.4km

Stage 8 (September 22) London, 88km

 

Another first for this year is the planned one-day women’s race set for London ahead of the final which will take place over the same 8.8km circuit of the capital on which the men will compete. Whilst the final day of the ToB will see a ten-lap circuit the distance for the one-day women’s event is yet to be agreed or made public.

 

If the action across the eight days of competition looks likely to be thrilling, there are already plenty of machinations behind the scenes with news that the owner/organisers of the Tour de France, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), have officially confirmed an interest in running future editions of the event. ASO organise not only the Tour de France but also a number of other high-profile cycling events including Paris-Roubaix, Critérium du Dauphiné and Vuelta a España; speaking to the BBC the company’s president Jean-Etienne Amaur has finally come close to expressing explicit interest, saying: ‘It’s something we’re looking into right now but I can’t say too much about it… but if we can make it into something even more compelling for TV and spectators then we’d go for it.’

 

Despite the fact that the ToB has been organised by SweetSpot since its re-launch in 2004, British Cycling announced last year that it would be putting the contract for the Tour out to open tender in order to explore wider options in raising the profile. Speaking at the time British Cycling’s president, Brian Cookson, said he wanted to take a ‘…fresh look’ at how the ToB could better ‘…reflect the current status of our sport in this country.’

 

If neither SweetSpot nor Amaury did move forward with plans for the ToB another (somewhat outside) option could be ASO’s Italian rivals RCS Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia; in any event a decision on who will run the ToB from 2014 onwards is expected to be made before September, ahead of this year’s race.

 

For further information and all the latest news see thetour.co.uk

 

 

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Featured Reviews

Cycloc

Cycloc bike storage systemThere are two things we always seem to be short of at Cyclo: time and space. Not much we can do about the former, apart from an even early daily alarm call, but the latter has just received a significant boost thanks to Cycloc, an ingenious bike storage solution that shows as much attention to design detail as it does to the practicalities of stashing your beloved ride.

 

If we were being disingenuous we might describe the Cycloc as ‘bucket-like’, but the overall impression is really more aesthetically pleasing than that. However, for ease of description, the bucket-like Cycloc is simple enough to install using the template to align the three drill-holes needed to fix it to the wall, drilling, tightening the screws and hiding the fixings away behind a plastic plug cap (which sports a nice bike logo). An end-to-end a job that took us barely five minutes.

 

The system can accommodate a wide range of bikes, housing a tube

diameter of up to 65mm, taking wider handlebars via an additional (supplied) spacer and even gently cradling carbon frames thanks to integrated rubber contact points. The Cycloc can be mounted to the wall at any angle to support the bike either via the top tube, seat post or diagonal for step-through/women-specific bikes; even folding bikes can be stored; and, if you really wanted to, the bike can even be racked vertically – useful if horizontal space is at a premium.

 

Additional niceties include plenty of space within the cavity of the Cycloc for stashing gloves, spare inners, small repair kits and the like and an integrated channel lets you use your regular lock to secure the bike to the Cycloc and, in turn, to the wall.

 

We don’t think we ever expected to be waxing lyrical about a simple bike storage solution, but the Cycloc has brought both extra space to our lives and a smile to our face with its winning combination of practicality and aesthetic design. Available in four colours – red, white, green and black or ‘popsicle’, ‘icicle’, ‘verticle’ and ‘recycle’ as the manufacturers prefer – and carrying an RRP of £59.95 including UK P&P. There may be cheaper alternatives out there, but none that we have found with the same degree of versatility and attention to detail. If you have a bike that you’re proud of, why not store it with pride? Using the Cycloc is akin to hanging a fine portrait.

 

Further information and online orders at cycloc.com – or take a look at the promo video below.

 

Categories
Featured Features

Joel Enoch Sports Nutrition

Joel Enoch Sports Nutrition Interview

Joel Enoch Sports Nutrition InterviewJoel Enoch is one of the UK’s leading sport scientists and motivational speakers, renowned for a straightforward approach that aims to demystify nutrition. His MSc in Nutrition from Bristol University and BSc Sport Science in coaching from Brunel University lead to his passion for ‘deconstructing sports nutrition’, goal-setting and endurance training. Cyclo caught up with Joel at this year’s Triathlon Show and, in the first of a two-part interview, we talk mix-messages, scientific studies and, of course carbohydrates (with just the right dash of protein…)

 

Cyclo: As far as nutrition goes, do things really have to be complicated?

 

Joel Enoch: No, I think it’s fairly simple; most of the complexities about nutrition come from implementing it in day-to-day life and getting the timing right, and, of course, getting the right amounts of protein and carbohydrates and fats.

 

In theory it should all be quite straight forward – if you are doing most of your training at the weekend and Monday to Friday, nine to five, you have a nice structure, then it’s quite easy to implement all those things.

 

Cyclo: Then why do you think so many people seem to get it wrong?

 

Joel Enoch: Well, where it falls down is that there are just so many mixed messages about food and nutrition and hydration; people don’t get a clear message about what they need to consume and when they need to consume it. It’s all to do with education and helping people understand the basics of nutrition – that’s what they need to get right.

 

Cyclo: And the nutrition industry has a tendency to over complicate things too…

 

Joel Enoch: In industry there is lots of marketing of course, and they push different aspects of nutrition – so it’s very easy to get caught up in ‘Do I go high carbohydrate?’ ‘Do I go high protein?’ ‘Is high-fat good?’ ‘Is low-fat good?’ Someone, somewhere is pushing any one of those things…

 

One of the biggest companies that currently operate in the UK market has an entire campaign that’s based on the findings of one person in one study. But because that is an actual result they can use that in terms of marketing; obviously it’s not indicative of the improvement of, say, performance that everyone might get – actually it’s not even indicative of the improvement in performance of the all the people in that study got, its just the best result for one person…

 

Cyclo: The sheer volume of studies – large and small – probably doesn’t help?

 

Joel Enoch: Sure, there are so many studies – and scientific studies can be extremely useful – but the problem is they (manufacturers or brands) only ever look at one particular aspect. So when someone reads up on the science they will see one study that says this particular aspect of nutrition is important and then they will read another study that says exactly the opposite… It’s very difficult if you haven’t had the experience or the knowledge base to mesh all of those things together and see where the truth lies in it.

 

Cyclo: As an example, the addition of protein to carbohydrate seems to be a common area of confusion…

 

Joel Enoch: We come back to how you read science on this. There are studies out there that show if you add protein to a carbohydrate sports drink during exercise you will have an improvement in performance; the issue with that is that in every study that has shown an improvement in performance there has also been an increase in calories in that sports drink…

 

So, they took two normal sports drinks, added protein to one and not to the other and the one that had protein added to it – and therefore also had calories added to it – gave an improvement in performance. That’s indicative of the similar improvement in performance you get if you added different types of carbohydrates to one of those drinks – just adding more calories and therefore getting a little bit more of an effect.

 

Cyclo: Does that mean there’s no real benefit?

 

Joel Enoch: There is no current evidence in the (scientific) literature that shows the addition of protein to a sports drink will aid performance. However, if I was speaking to someone who was doing some sort of multiday stage race – so competing day on day on day – or lets say on a training camp where they are going to be training two or three times day every day with greater intensity, then I might say add a little protein to your drink that way your recovery strategy is staring during your session.

 

Also perhaps just that little bit of protein is going to inhibit protein muscle breakdown in the body and aid performance later down the road. That little difference could be enough to see them through the week or multi-day event and stave off injury. So there is an application for it but I think it’s really only once you get to intensive multiday training or racing. So certainly not really the improvement that is sometimes suggested…

 

Cyclo: But not detrimental?

 

Joel Enoch: There’s nothing I’ve read to suggest it could be detrimental – if it’s something that people find is useful then it is; anecdotal evidence is just as powerful as scientific evidence with enough people finding enough of a change. Quite possibly some psychological advantages too… The same goes for carbohydrates, taking it switches on little sensors in the brain and you feel a bit more positive, but that’s an effect you don’t get from artificial sweeteners…

 

Joel Enoch Sports Nutrition InterviewIn addition to Joel’s work as a sports scientist he is also an accomplished triathlete having raced in three European Age Group Championships (2008, 2009, 2010) two World Age Group Championships (2009, 2010), and domestic Elite races including London and Blenheim. His sponsors include Clif Bar (read our Clif Bar review here), 2Pure, Nine Point Nine, claireLOGIC Ltd, Kurt Kinetic, Orca UK, POC Sports and Zoggs. For more information on Joel’s work see joelenoch.com

 

Part Two of our interview with Joel online here.