I haven’t talked about it much until now (it was a little bit of a late addition to the sponsor list), but it’s high time I made this post. All of my sponsors are great, and they’re all very important pieces of the race season puzzle, but today’s post is dedicated to Gu Energy.

Details aside, they’ve made both a product and race entry contribution that’s so significant, it’s allowing me (budget-wise) to go to an extra stage race (TSE) this season along with the Breck Epic. If you know anything about mountain bike stage races, you know that they’re expensive as all getout- not just the entry fees, but also the cost of travel, lodging, etc. I’m incredibly privileged to have such a generous sponsorship, and I hope that all of you who are reading this take it into account when you make your next nutrition purchase at the bike shop.

I mean, it should go without saying, but, like most of my other sponsors, I used Gu products way before they had any idea that I like to ride a bike at high rates of speed. Just a quick rundown:

Roctane (gel and drink mix) is one of my most favorite nutrition formulations of all time, and, even if I wasn’t sponsored by them, I’d still mainline it during my hard training & racing efforts. In the words of my friend Forrest Owens, “it hits you like a freight train through a wet paper sack.”

Gu Chomps are like athlete candy. I use them a lot as a pre-ride snack, but you can eat them any time just like you would a regular gel (there are two servings per pack). Confession- sometimes I want to ride just so I’ll have an excuse to eat them. They’re crazy tasty.

Recovery Brew is also something you’ll start craving once you’ve had it. I’ve taken to making various recovery brew recipes. My current favorite (since it’s cold & gross outside) is heating up 1/2 water 1/2 goats milk in the microwave (just enough to make it warm) then pouring it over the chocolate smoothie recovery powder in the shaker bottle. It’s like having post-ride hot chocolate.

P.S. There are two other people that use the pictured shelves & drawers for storage, so other stuff is bound to show up in photos.

P.P.S. Honorable mention to the new style purist bottle- holds 22oz, softer plastic than your usual bottle, and a water hose for a spout. That shaker bottle is pretty sweet, too, and you don’t actually have to use it in the same manner that Poolboy Matt does for it to be effective.

I haven’t pictured the electrolyte brew and tablets. I like the Roctane so much that I generally just drink it in my bottles, however, the electrolyte brew does have a lot more salt in it that I’ll be craving in the summer time, so it’ll likely show up on the shelves in the next couple of months.