Michael Woods’s meal to go, consumed within the earlier phases of the World Championship street race on the weekend, might have set Biking Social Media (TM) on fireplace, however all the identical did not seem like a lot. Unwieldy and never notably appetising both.
Granted, using within the Worlds street race at 25mph and extra whereas consuming with a bowl and spoon is pretty spectacular. Nevertheless it was what was in that bowl that was key.
“It was just a few Maurten bicarb, it is actually efficient,” Woods advised US outlet Flobikes.
As many readers will already know, ‘bicarb’ – sodium bicarbonate to offer it its full title – can enhance athletic efficiency. Its advantages, which appear to come back mainly within the type of buffering in opposition to lactic acid, are nicely documented.
It can be prescribed to fight heartburn, whereas research have proven it will possibly dampen irritation in rats and gradual the progress of kidney illness.
Additionally it is fully above board within the eyes of WADA and the UCI – as Woods’s very public show would counsel.
It is no silver bullet although. It has downsides: a restricted window of usefulness, for instance and, crucially, the truth that it typically causes gastric points.
Nevertheless, not like the extra widespread bicarb capsules, the Maurten bicarb Woods used is available in a gel that guarantees to remove a lot of the same old gastric misery, in addition to maintaining bicarb ranges within the physique larger for longer – claims that had been backed up by a current research in Sports activities Medication, which in contrast Maurten’s hydrogel complement to an ordinary vegetarian capsule.
The Maurten bicarb system mixes bicarbonate of soda with hydrogel to supply what Maurten calls smoothest, handiest bicarb expertise ever. All the identical it does level out that top doses can result in abdomen points: “You must practice the center,” it says.
The research was printed earlier this yr by Gough & Sparks of Birmingham Metropolis and Edge Hill universities. It concluded that the Maurten system “presents a significant potential profit for athletes contemplating SB as an ergogenic complement as GI discomfort is nearly eradicated.”
Topics utilizing the bicarb system suffered considerably much less extreme signs, which vary from abdomen cramping to diarrhea.
It additionally confirmed that bicarbonate ranges within the blood remained larger for longer with the Maurten hydrogel than with the capsules, concluding, “this may counsel there may be an “ergogenic window”, and ingestion timing may subsequently be versatile previous to train.”
It did nonetheless add that “future analysis ought to decide if M-SB is efficiency enhancing.”
