can’t believe I’ve never done this before - a third of the cost of my normal brand
I make a mix of powdered sugar, salt, cornstarch, which can then have different flavors.
- Espresso, molasses
- Various concentrated juices
- Espresso Maple syrup
All melted in the microwave.
Its approximately 1 million times cheaper than gels… with a very similar consistency
There also seems to be some research online about the benefits of cornstarch
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easiest homemade gel recipe;
Buy a bulk container of raisins.
put raisins in blender.
add water to desired consistency.
+salt, honey, lemon juice, whatever else you want.
you can buy reusable gel flasks cheap. Get a small funnel to help load them up. I keep 2-3 ready to go in the fridge.
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I like to cook myself and I don’t buy into premade snacks due to extremely high sugar contents often and bad carbs in my opinion (white flour).
Also, for liquids, I don’t believe you need to add salt necessarily. I never do it. And I ride 8 hours easily.
I do, however, believe in nutrition requirements, which for me is about 35-40 grams of carbs every 30 mins after the first 1h15-1h30 of hard riding or after 4 hours of zone 2 riding.
So what I do is, I make rice cakes and I just drink lemonade instead of water. That’s it. That will help me get through anything.
Bonjour
May i ask what your weight us? ( Grans) body weight kg) merci
Last months since about July, 73kg (187cm long). Aiming for a little bit less… 72/72kg. Why?
I have no idea what my carb intake should be , I’ve been fueling on raisins/dates/ home made energy balls …I wanted to duplicate your carb intake/weight . It happens that I weigh 75 kg hence it should be identical
Merci again for the info
Reig Raphael
A short update for my home-made gels…
Lately I quit the cocoa, I just got palate fatigue over the time (combination of raw energy bars base on dates and cocoa maybe a factor too?), so my actual version is:
- bananas
- coffee (a must for me!
) - MAPLE SYRUP!!
- Sodium mix
Actualy bananas and maple syrup shares the inherent glucose - fructose mix in them, so I find both a great source of energy + those are all natural ingredients + the combination tastes just great 
P.S. I got an apparently real (hopefuly) Canadian Maple syrup - dark version, as I like the heavier taste. It is much cheaper when you buy a few litres and I have a bit more confidence in the composition. Otherwise I have a big trust issue buying maple syrup in a standard grocery store in Europe…
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I’ve found that the cheapo granola bars from Walmart/Target work well - each one has ~100 calories or so, and at something like 15 cents each they are priced way under any packaged sports nutrition product out there.
