| 07/11/2005 | The way many people describe sports gels - they are like "pudding," "frosting" or even "gasoline-flavored honey," as one critic put it - hardly sound like endorsements.
But these days, few serious athletes tackle major sports competition that last longer than an hour without packing along a handful of the palm-size packets filled with carbohydrate-rich goo to give them an extra performance-enhancing energy boost.
"There is probably not a race that goes by that I don't use them," says Todd Hageman, a competitive cyclist and director of the Park City Cycling Academy. "They are vital to any type of long-distance or hard-effort race or training day."
Hageman says odds are good that the handheld bottles that Tour de France competitors can be seen chugging as they ride are filled with a concoction similar to one he uses in long races: several shots of gel mixed with a little water.
PowerBar, for example, is providing Lance Armstrong and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team with energy bars and gels during the 2005 race, according to the company. Each team member will go through an average of five bars and five gel packets per competition day - getting about 1,500 of the 6,500 to 7,000 calories the cyclists consume daily during the race.
Gel "is almost essential http://www.sltrib.com/healthscience/ci_2853097
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