During the event:

It’s during the event where TORQ products are meant to be used. You could use low fat forms of carbohydrate like jelly babies and jam sandwiches as fuel, because these are essentially delivering carbohydrate to your blood stream, but this isn’t an optimal approach and quite frankly, we wouldn’t have a business if our products couldn’t do a significantly better job and get you home quicker and more comfortably.

Before the turn of the millennium, research had proven that glucose-based products delivered energy quicker than any other whilst exercising and specifically a special polymer of glucose called ‘Maltodextrin’. Using maltodextrin-based products, it was deemed possible to deliver approximately 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour, which basically meant that 60 grams of stored carbohydrate was ‘spared’ per hour of exercise. As carbohydrate is stored in limited supply within the working muscles, fuelling at this rate was (and still is) considered to be hugely beneficial to endurance performance.

In 2005, new research found that by mixing maltodextrin with fructose (fruit sugar) at a 2:1 ratio, carbohydrate delivery was increased by 40% and this had huge implications for the prescription of fuelling for endurance events. This and other studies suggest that a 2:1 maltodextrin:fructose formulation allows the user to consume and use up to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour. The implications of being able to deliver and use 30 grams more carbohydrate than previously considered possible has significant implications to endurance performance. In short, it gives you 40% better carbohydrate-sparing than using maltodextrin alone, which is quite a staggering finding. This extremely fast delivery of carbohydrate also means that the product isn’t in the gut for long, so stomach problems from these formulations are extremely rare. Suffice to say, all of TORQ’s energy products are formulated using 2:1 maltodextrin:fructose and to further ease gastric emptying, the philosophy of the company is very much about keeping the products natural. We also have Soil Association Organic Certification on two of our products and Fairtrade Certification on four of them.

So, whether you decide to use TORQ, another brand or just jelly babies for your ride, you should be taking on board a minimum of 40 grams of carbohydrate per hour, up to a maximum of 90 grams per hour depending on your fuel choice. As we’re the nutritional sponsor of this event, let’s assume for the sake of argument that you are in fact going to use TORQ and it’ll make the following example much easier to explain. TORQ products have been designed in 30 gram doses to make life easier for everyone:

500ml TORQ energy (6% standard recommended mix) 
= 30 grams carbohydrate (1 TORQ unit)

1 X TORQ gel                                                                                                 
= 30 grams carbohydrate (1 TORQ unit)

1 X TORQ bar (new 45g size)                                                              
= 30 grams carbohydrate (1 TORQ unit)

Let’s assume that you want to er on the side of caution for your first event and want to run with 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour instead of 90. This means that you need to consume 2 TORQ units per hour, but which units do you take? The diagram below shows the effect of dehydration on physical performance, so drinking enough is also clearly a consideration.

In a nutshell, if perspiration rates are high, more of your TORQ units should come from energy drinks as opposed to bars or gels, because these will simultaneously fuel and hydrate you. TORQ’s energy drinks also contain 5 electrolytes at high levels, so the more of these you drink, the higher the level of essential salt replacement too. These will prevent cramping and aid the hydration process.

In cooler conditions when perspiration rates are lower, you’ll want at least some of your TORQ units to come from either bars or gels, because although the drinks will supply adequate fuel if you drink enough of them to satisfy your fuelling needs, they’ll also fill your bladder and if you have to stop too often, you’re not going to get a very good event time! Whether you take a bar of a gel is up to you. A bar will feel more like ‘food’ if your stomach is asking for something to work on, but gels are much easier to get down in a hurry and are functional when you’re not necessarily hungry.

Our suggestion is that you start with 2 TORQ units per hour and then practice with 3. If you’re over 70kg, you really shouldn’t have a problem with 3 TORQ units per hour.

This probably doesn’t need repeating, but I think it’s important to reiterate the ‘low fat’ discussion point from the previous section, because any fat consumed during the ride will affect:

1. Carbohydrate delivery
2. Gastrointestinal comfort
3. Performance (the sum of the above 2 factors)

So, if an energy bar has a chocolate or yoghurt coating, it will be quite high in fat and therefore we don’t consider it an energy bar. There are also plenty of apparently healthy flapjack-type products on the market masquerading as ‘energy bars’, so CHECK THE FAT CONTENT. Ideally it’ll be close to 2 grams of fat per 100g of product and they should be very high in carbohydrate.

The final point to get across is that you should NEVER wait until you’re hungry or thirsty. You need to assume the mantle of ‘eating/drinking machine’ right from the gun, because the carbohydrate calories you take on board at the start of the ride will save you towards the end. If you run out of carbohydrate, it’s a phenomenon in cycling known as ‘bonking’ and it’s not very pleasant at all. If you’ve carbo loaded and fuelled properly throughout however, bonking is almost impossible, so do the right thing.

For more comprehensive information on this subject and others, please download the free TORQ Performance Resource.

Free TORQ Performance Resource.
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