Likely placebo and caffeine. Beta Alanine (especially) and creatine take long term supplementation to make any kind of difference.
The only supps worth taking pre workout or event are caffeine and BeetIt Sport IMO. Measurable differences for me. Now if taking MegaManMax preworkout powder makes you feel like a stud and the placebo works, then have at it as long as it’s clean.
I’m a competitive endurance rider, who also does a few crits with my local club. My N=1 experiment for the past month has been a smoothie containing a beetroot, a green apple, knob of ginger and celery leaves and stalks. First 5 days I added 20g creatine (never used before) and then dropped to 5g daily. I usually drink 2/3 before a ride and 1/3 late afternoon (alternative to snacking) or an hour before racing on the two occasions I’ve raced.
Observations
I was guided by this research and will do a two week cycle of no creatine after about 12 weeks
Why will you cycle off creatine after 12 weeks? I’ve heard it’s safe to take 5 grams daily continuously.
In addition to the pros/cons discussed does anyone know more about its production process? How can one be sure to ingest a “safer” product in lack of better words? I’m apprehensive when it comes to certain supplements and powders, including protein powders.
Pete once recommended Puori to me. They claim to make very clean products. They’re not cheap, but they are cheaper if you do a subscription and they have an annual Black Friday sale so I stock up. (Note: I don’t use creatine, but do buy other supplements from them and they do have creatine products)
Same thing for me. I’ve been on it for a while and when I cycled off for Leadville I didn’t see any weight change. Also, no change when I got back on after.
I’ve actually purchased ZMA from them in the past and whey protein if I remember correctly. They were supported by The Best & Worst Protein Powder Products - Clean Label Project but that site seems to be standing still since a few years and I get a feeling of bias/sponsoring. It’s probably true they are careful about their production selection and hopefully do regular batch testing but I’m not convinced unless there’s more transparency.
If you are in the US, I’ve had great luck with both Bulk Supplements and True Nutrition Products.
I’m not arguing with you, I get your point, but how much more transparency can there be? Do you have an example of a company that has more? I’d be interested in learning more.
I had the exact same experience. Took it in advance of competing in the BCBR this year while on a TR medium volume XC Marathon training plan, and felt consistently good all week long, had assumed that the 6/7th days I’d be suffering but felt fine, recovery was surprisingly good.
Depending on the timing of your cycling and training periodization, you may add a couple of lbs from tapering and storing glycogen up as you decrease your workload into an event. It’s possible that’s what absorbed it when you came into Leadville - the creatine water weight loss was negated by stored glycogen weight gain.
I only read your comment as constructive mate 
I’d love to see a short feature about their production facilities and some. Great they claim non GMO origins of some products but I’m quite critical myself unless i know more. To give an example of what I mean, take EVOO. There are so many claims on the market however few genuine products when actually tested.
I did manage to find this which is great though. The last batch seems to be the most recent and I appreciate they are proactive and keep batch testing. PW1 Whey Protein - Clean Label Project
Okay, so I started creatine supplementation.
Why?
After this thread I did some more reading, and my son already takes it for lifting, so there’s a pot in the house already and it’s easy for me to try it.
“Most people gain between two and four pounds of water retention in the first week.”
“If you’ve started taking creatine, you should know if it works for you in about a week. If your training volume increases, it’s working for you. If not, you’re probably a non-responder, and taking the powder isn’t going to help you.”
So I figure a week or two trial is as good a way as finding out if I’m deficient in it or a non responder for any reason.
I’ll blog the days in case anyone is interested.
That absolutely screams placebo effect to me. Take new thing, think it’s going to help improve volume, increase volume, convince yourself it was the creatine.
I took 5mg creatine daily monohydrate for 550 days, religiously; I did not miss a single daily dose. No loading phase, just 5mg from kick-off, and no cycling on/off. I stopped taking it this past April 9th.
My takeaway: the weight gain is real, but the cycling gains are negligible. As for cognitive benefits, maybe there’s something there worth exploring?
From April 9th to May 4th, while maintaining consistent diet, training load, volume, and structure MoM, I lost 7kg; I honestly couldn’t believe it. As for power, I hit all-time PR’s across the entire power spectrum from 5 seconds to 3 hours within a month of stopping, inclusive of a hitting all-time PR TTE. Not only were my power numbers peaking, but my w/kg was also much more favourable (80kg to 73kg).
I continued taking creatine because A. i wanted to run the length of my ‘test’ (I aimed for 2.5 years somewhat arbitrarily), and B. i believed at the time that it was producing results, despite those ‘results’ failing to show in the data…
so was it all placebo? all the published evidence suggesting the benefits of creatine may have had me buying into the hype, enough to convince myself i was gaining some magical free power.
We’re 4 months post, and my CTL is 20 points lower than it was April 9th. I recently beat my all-time PR’s up Coll de Rates and Fustera here in Calpe, both in terms of total time and power for the duration. Weight obviously a factor, but power numbers also don’t lie.
Anyways that’s my experience. I may dabble in it again sometime, but it’s not a priority right now.
Edit: just to note, other KPI’s worth mentioning here that weren’t impacted by the deprecation of creatine: HRRC, pwr/hr @Z2, HRV, resting HR, efficiency. These all remained relatively constant post. Hard to quantify recovery but subjectively, i can’t say there’s any material difference…
I took it for a year and didn’t notice a thing other than a few extra pounds of water.
Here is my bro science understanding: creative gives you to do 2-3 more reps per set. If you lift 3x per week and do 20 sets per session that is 40-60 more lifts x 150 sessions per year = 6000-9000 more reps. It allows you to do more work to failure.
What will it do for one’s cycling??? We don’t typically cycle to muscular failure even in intervals. Even a 5 minute VO2max interval is a 450 rep exercise (90rpms).
Tell me if this is not interesting.
Age 49
Last month, July:
Day 1 (Friday)
5mg in water before breakfast. Two commute workouts, anaerobic and vo2 moderately hard, 126TSS, 1013kJ.
Protein: Sausage, egg, bacon, large cod fillet and two burgers.
Day 2 (Saturday)
After morning long run/walk, 1.5hrs. 94 TSS, 1400kJ then napped.
Took the kids out in the afternoon, a little stiff but perhaps less tired than I might typically be but most likely because it was run/walk.
Evening lifting, maintenance weight. 5x5 Squat 40kg, Overhead 27.5kg, 1x5 deadlift 50kg.
Protein: 3 bacon, 500ml milk, 2 burgers, sausage.
Regarding Men’s Health, I read copy a couple of months ago - far more mature than it used to be ten or twenty years ago, imo. Lots of what TR would consider reasonable advice if not cutting edge, plus a focus on mental health, and general health. Not a meathead rag.
I tend to think that folk shouldn’t put too much store in anything from Mens Health. Just as a general rule. Give it at least a month.
Picking up on, @AJS914’s point, my n=1 is also that the benefits seem to come from adding an extra rep or two to existing sets/loads. I guess this is why it seems to be more effective for upper body/isolation movements where you’re more likely to be doing more reps nearer failure.
Day 3
Weigh in: 87kg,
5mg during breakfast.
Hard outdoor bike 2hrs 6x10min threshold intervals. 6-7hrs driving, hot day, missed lunch.
Protein: Peanut butter, pepperoni 
