An all-CARBS (Fuel) diet
Let me tell you a story. And this, mind you, is a true story.
Last year in training I changed my nutrition. For years I had tinkered with different things and early in 2024 I finally reached a truly insane illogical end of the proverbial road of nutrition; all that was left for me to do was to free base maple syrup.
Time after time I would get ready for a ride and prepare a witches brew – a concoction – of four tablespoons of syrup, the juice of one lemon, and a quarter teaspoon of salt in a bottle. In my mind, nothing could meet the balance of natural flavor and budget concerns of that simple combination.
In retrospect, I wonder how I did it. Seriously, if you wanted to tank your stomach in three simple steps it would probably look pretty similar. Sucrose is the toughest of the sugars on the old GI tract and loading up on that concoction at the beginning of a winter ride in Colorado ended up being one part functional nutrition and one part guerilla gut training.
I went through a lot of syrup in those months, not to mention lemons, and emerged on the other side stronger for it. Yet, a system of syrup and lemons was never going to last.
Conveniently, this was also the time of year of the Rock Cobbler gravel race in southern California. Stephen Fitzgerald, the CEO of Rodeo Labs where I host a podcast and previously my only sponsor, just so happened to go to this race and brought a new nutrition product with him: Carbs Fuel.
I had heard of Carbs Fuel before and I had seen a packet or two out in the wild, but Stephen put me onto them in a bigger way. Stephen, mind you, is not one who could handle the same syrup and lemon “hack” the way I did. He has a notoriously questionable stomach that has reared its head at more than a few key junctures. Nevertheless, down in the green hills and trails of Bakersfield, his stomach held strong. I subsequently tried the CARBS and found the same success. I enjoyed the gel so much that I have been using them since.
After I owned my moonshot this fall, I got to thinking about what things I might want to cover on the journey to my big races this spring. I want to test tires, I want to test wheels, saddles, sunglasses, and skin suits. I want to test training methods, meditation, and techniques. What I didn’t want to test, however, was race nutrition. On that front, I’m good, no need to tinker beyond the carb counts. With this perspective, I gave Carbs Fuel a call to inquire if I could add them as the second sponsor to my very, very small lineup.
Fortunately for me, they agreed, and we have decided to make it official for 2025! I couldn’t be happier about pulling on a Carbs Fuel helmet this spring.
What is CARBS Fuel?
Carbs Fuel is a small, upstart nutrition company based in Golden, Colorado. The premise is simple: make the best sports fuel, and make it affordable. The flagship product and their first fuel to market was a gel that was exactly 50g of carbohydrates for $2.00. No extra flavors, no extra ingredients, just straight carbohydrates and some sodium.
For me and my inclination towards simplicity, that bare-bones premise was attractive. The math of nutrition, which can be difficult when you consider carbohydrate counts are often uneven numbers like 22g or 27g or 38g or 47g, 50g was a fantastic change to always get the counts correct in the fog of wars amidst heavy training days or races. What’s more, the ingredients list for the gel is nearly as simple as the carb count with six ingredients and no preservatives.
That simplicity was enough to get me interested, but the cost was what got me to stay. The math of $2.00 for 50g of carbohydrates is simply unbeatable in the sports nutrition world. In fact, the cost is so low, that it is more comparable in price to honey buns and maple syrup than the other products that you could buy at websites like The Feed.
Some of you might be like me and love some maple syrup while you ride. There is nothing wrong with the liquid gold, in fact, I still use it as an additive off the bike. However, it has limits at scale since its predominant sugar compounds are sucrose and fructose, compounds that are slightly less digestible and slightly more irritating than glucose. Carbs Fuel instead has a balance of the more digestible glucose construction from maltodextrin, with sucrose and fructose as additives. What results is a 2:1 glucose-to-fructose ratio that I find to be the best balance for endurance sports gels, as well as a simple neutral flavor that is more like maple syrup and lemon than anything else on the market.
Carbs Fuel also has a drink mix with the same simple carb count (scoops come in 25g increments and I find 2-3 scoops to be the best ratio) and the same low price, with the only difference being an increase in electrolytes, a slightly larger amount of fructose, and cluster dextrin as a fourth carb source to allow for easier mixing and digestion in liquid form.
If you want to learn more about Carbs Fuel and their story you can check out the podcast I recorded well before any sponsorship with Stephen, CEO Gabe Multer, and CFO Laini Ritsch. I think it’s well worth a listen!
For your eyes and ears
Lanterne Rouge has been running a fantastic series of masterclasses on different aspects of performance on the WorldTour level with experts from around the peloton. Patrick does have the access that few have to that level of professionalism since he is on the performance staff at Visma-Lease a Bike, but he has still done a great job at making it available to all via his podcast. I really enjoyed his episode with Aike Visbeek on planning around a season.
Tom Pidcock and, perhaps more significantly for results on the road, Maxim Van Gils left their respective teams and contracts to join new teams after many squads had already finalized their rosters. This time, last-ditch exits from winning riders will boost Q36.9 and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe but in both cases, it feels like there were better landing spots had the sweepstakes been available early. Once again this has me thinking is it time for American-style trades to come to cycling? Instead of Van Gils leaving for nothing, why not trade for him for Jordi Meeus and cash? Just a thought!
The UCI has urged WADA to ban carbon monoxide rebreathing and I, for one, am unimpressed. A quick trigger to ban things that sound vaguely bad for health when the application seems like it could improve cyclist well-being seems premature at best and performative at worst. The UCI has much bigger safety concerns it should be rushing to address first.
A side of something else
Do you know what is wild? The fact that the CEO of the least popular major company operating in the country’s least popular economic market got assassinated in New York City was a wild experience for the “capital-I” Internet to comprehend. Now the prime suspect (who I thought would surely be in a country with no extradition to the United States buoyed by his new cult status as a Gen-Z Robin Hood) turns out to be named Luigi? And is Good Looking? This story cannot get more compelling and surely will continue to raise interesting reactions from the “capital-I” for years, or decades, to come.