Tadej Poga\u010dar is drinking a powerful new fueling solution at the 2026 Tour de France.<\/p>\n
Team UAE Emirates-XRG confirmed Thursday it\u2019s been trialing a lactate and carbohydrate drink made by team partner Enervit since 2024, the year Poga\u010dar won the third of his four yellow jerseys.<\/p>\n
The pioneering product has now been finalized and launched and is being drunk by Poga\u010dar as he piledrives toward a fifth Tour title.<\/p>\n
The news Thursday comes hot on the back of Velo<\/em>\u2018s recent reporting that \u201cExoLactate\u201d gels are being trialed by one team at this Tour de France.<\/p>\n Velo<\/em> can confirm that ExoLactate is a rival product to the Enervit lactate fuel used by Poga\u010dar and UAE Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n ExoLactate founder Aitor Viribay told Velo<\/em> on Thursday that his From Lab to Field lactate research group did not contribute to the development of Poga\u010dar\u2019s lactate drink.<\/p>\n However, Viribay was not able to comment on whether UAE Emirates-XRG bought exclusive rights to his ExoLactate gels due to confidentiality agreements.<\/p>\n Why does this all matter?<\/p>\n Because, contrary to popular thinking, lactate is not a burning waste product, but a powerful source of endurance fuel.<\/p>\n It boosts metabolic efficiency and opens a third energy pathway beyond glucose and fructose, the key carbohydrates.<\/p>\n Fueling with lactate expands the pool of energy available to athletes beyond even the highest-carbohydrate feeding strategy.<\/p>\n Crucially, lactate is also a \u201csignaling molecule\u201d that makes carbohydrate metabolism more efficient by controlling fat and sugar burn rates at different exercise intensities.<\/p>\n The science behind lactate as an energy source is founded on decades of research. However, it remains unclear how powerful an impact it can make in the midst of a Tour de France peloton.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s rise to GOAT status since 2024 correlates to the start of his team\u2019s trials of the Enervit lactate drinks, but certainly cannot be attributed to the new fuel.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG and Enervit revealed Thursday that the two companies tapped leading lactate professor George Brooks to lead the two-year lactate project.<\/p>\n The University of California researcher has been pushing forward the understanding of lactate for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n The result of Brooks\u2019 and Enervit\u2019s work is the newly launched \u201cC2:1PRO Lactate Gel Mix\u201d \u2013 a powder that mixes with water to provide a whopping 90 grams of carbs and 10 grams of lactate.<\/p>\n UAE team nutritionist Gorka Prieto \u2013 the man who works directly with Poga\u010dar \u2013 \u00a0said the finished product was the result of continual trial, error, and finessing.<\/p>\n Riders and team performance staff provided feedback on prototype batches throughout the two-year development process.<\/p>\n \u201cOur philosophy is to continually evaluate innovations that have a strong scientific foundation and genuine potential to improve rider performance,\u201d Prieto said Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis project with Enervit has been developed carefully over a number of years, combining laboratory research with extensive testing in training and racing,\u201d Prieto said.<\/p>\n \u201cNutrition is one of the key pillars of performance in grand tours, and we\u2019re pleased to have contributed to the development of a product that has been refined through real-world racing conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Lactate fueling is the\u00a0<\/em>hot topic of endurance nutrition right now.<\/p>\n At this early stage, it\u2019s hard to say how impactful it will be. It could be as important as \u201cthe carbohydrate revolution,\u201d or it might prove to be nothing.<\/p>\n But whoever has access to lactate products now \u2013 including Poga\u010dar \u2013 has a first-mover advantage.<\/p>\n Velo will follow up this breaking news with a deeper explainer on lactate fueling in due course. Stay tuned.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/pogacar-lactate-tour-de-france\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/001-ph-credits-Alan-Bucar-Vuksic-e1784222656226.png”] Jim Cotton Updated July 16, 2026 01:25PM Tadej Poga\u010dar is drinking a powerful new fueling solution at the 2026 Tour de France. Team UAE Emirates-XRG confirmed Thursday it\u2019s been trialing a lactate and carbohydrate drink made by team partner Enervit since 2024, the year Poga\u010dar won the third of his four yellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2048674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2048674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2048674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2048674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2048674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lactate: A third energy pathway<\/h2>\n
Lactate fueling breaks out at the 2026 Tour de France<\/h2>\n
![\"Tour](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/002_ph-credits-Fizza.png?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")