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Sport scientists and expert chefs have cooked up a groundbreaking energy gel that will transform the future of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
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At least, that\u2019s according to Aitor Virbay, the brains behind \u201cExoLactate,\u201d an energy gel made with lactate.<\/p>\n
Yes, lactate<\/em>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the same \u201clactate\u201d that was once thought of as the villain of exercise physiology.<\/p>\n The molecule we thought made your muscles sting so bad you\u2019d stop, and which left you disabled with DOMS for days.<\/p>\n \u201cThis [product] will be a competitive advantage that no one has today,\u201d Viribay said this week from an ExoLactate launch event.<\/p>\n \u201cLactate is unquestionably the best substrate for the body, the purest, because it is born from our own effort,\u201d Viribay said according to reporting by El Pa\u00eds<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have finally been able to overcome a barrier that others have been trying to break down for 50 years and cook exogenous lactate gels with glucose and fructose, the basic fuels of endurance sports.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be one of the most promising tools of modern cycling,\u201d Viribay added. \u201cIt will redefine metabolism in the most demanding race in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Hold it right there. Haven\u2019t we heard this all before?<\/p>\n Nutrition trends fire up and fizzle out with every Tour de France cycle.<\/p>\n However, this one might<\/em> be different.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n Viribay is a sport scientist who was on staff with Ineos Grenadiers and is now a performance director at the Salomon ultra-running team.<\/p>\n The Basque expert helped push the high-carbohydrate fueling revolution \u2013 Velo<\/em> spoke with him during our breaking reporting on the topic.<\/p>\n Viribay\u00a0now claims to have solved a puzzle that perplexed nutrition scientists throughout the century \u2013 how to supplement the working body with lactate.<\/p>\n Because lactate is not the bad guy it was once thought to be.<\/p>\n Far from it.<\/p>\n \u201cLactate is not a waste product,\u201d Viribay said. \u201cIt is a crucial metabolic messenger that the body uses to sustain performance in the most demanding moments.\u201d<\/p>\n Supplementing with lactate serves a purpose across all energy intensities.<\/p>\n At low effort, exogenous lactate promotes fat burning, helping the body preserve carbohydrate stores for when they\u2019re needed most. At higher workout intensities, it inhibits fat oxidation and pushes carbs higher in the fueling mix. This gives the body a rich source of fast energy to attack, sprint, and win races.<\/p>\n Lactate also has a crucial role in nervous regulation \u2013 and that makes it crucial to athletes who need to dig deep in the fifth hour of Paris-Roubaix or the fourth mountain of an Alpine \u201cqueen stage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLactate is the main substrate for the nervous system and the brain. That in turn, makes it the maximum limiter of performance,\u201d Viribay said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t stop running because you run out of energy. It\u2019s because the brain says, \u2018my nervous system is exhausted,\u2019 and the order to contract doesn\u2019t reach the muscle.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the reasons why lactate improves performance after a lot of fatigue,\u201d he continued. \u201cWith more fuel for the brain, there\u2019s less stress, less waste of energy. More performance.\u201d<\/p>\n So lactate is far from being exercise enemy number 1.<\/p>\n It\u2019s in fact one of the most important \u2013 and benevolent \u2013 substrates in sport.<\/p>\n It makes athletes metabolically efficient, better focused, and more able to sustain higher power outputs for longer periods.<\/p>\n Scientists have long puzzled over how to supplement with lactate.<\/p>\n A \u201cPolylactate\u201d product launched in 2002 was found to be inedible and near-useless.<\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t stop UAE Emirates-XRG \u2013 the team of Tadej Poga\u010dar \u2013 from trying it out.<\/p>\n El Pa\u00eds<\/em> reported that \u201cTeam Pog\u201d tried mixing Polylactate with a high dose of carbohydrate but soon gave up. It tasted foul and contained so little lactate that there was little point.<\/p>\n But now it seems that Viribay \u2013 a metabolism and physiology PhD \u2013\u00a0has solved the mystery.<\/p>\n Viribay collaborated with a culinary scientist and gastronomy expert in a project called \u201cLab to Field\u201d to create ExoLactate, a gel that provides high doses of paletable lactate.<\/p>\n \u201cI had been obsessed for seven years with finding a way to break the barrier of how to administer lactate,\u201d Viribay said this week from a product launch event in Barcelona.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the help of the fusion of physical chemistry and avant-garde cuisine, we found a solution to ingest it that will make a difference in the next Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n ExoLactate has already gotten the green light from food regulation authorities, and according to Viribay, will pass the scrutiny of doping panels.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a purely natural product, after all.<\/p>\nLactate is not the bad guy<\/h2>\n
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Solving a decades-old puzzle<\/h2>\n
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