{"id":692655,"date":"2026-07-15T08:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692655\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:37:12","slug":"exolactate-gels-are-the-buzz-of-the-tour-de-france-a-new-super-fuel-or-just-more-snake-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692655\/","title":{"rendered":"Exolactate gels are the buzz of the Tour de France: A new super fuel or just more snake oil?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Exolactate<\/p>\n

Performance<\/a><\/p>\n

We’ve known for years that lactate is actually fuel rather than a waste product. A top WorldTour team is testing whether ingesting it can actually improve performance.<\/p>\n

\"Ronan<\/p>\n

If you were an alien watching Earth from space and saw an ambulance at the scene of every human accident, you would probably assume the ambulances were to blame. As we know, the reality is very different; the ambulances are there to help. That\u2019s the analogy Aitor Viribay, exercise physiology\/metabolism PhD, former lead of human sciences at Ineos Grenadiers, and now performance director at running brand Salomon, uses to describe why lactate got a bad rap in endurance sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we’ve come to learn over the past few decades, we previously assumed that the presence of lactate during fatigue meant lactate was responsible. Lactate is actually a fuel and a signalling molecule, Viribay explains in an interview this week with Escape Collective, and he\u2019s spent the past seven years developing a way to harness its power as such.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The appeal is simple \u2013 if lactate is actually fuel, can we find a way to ingest it effectively? And if so, what would it actually do? That\u2019s what Viribay, and his company Exolactate<\/a>, set out to answer, and now, after seven years of research and development, its first commercial product is built around that idea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That first offering is a gel containing 40 grams of carbohydrate and 5 g of exogenous lactate. That word \u201cexogenous\u201d is the key here: while endogenous lactate comes with the cost to us as athletes producing it \u2013 high-intensity glycolytic work \u2013 exogenous lactate \u201ccomes for free\u201d (or the price of a gel) and, according to Viribay, can support the cell rather than harm it. That of course upends years of outmoded thinking about lactate, and Viribay agrees the pitch can seem too good to be true. The gel is like any other, with Viribay explaining it can be used very similarly, either taken before or during exercise to help support fueling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A team in the Tour de France \u2013\u00a0who Viribay can’t name due to a confidentiality agreement \u2013\u00a0is using Exolactate gels in the race. He says the gels will go on general sale after the Tour. That use, combined with Exolactate’s launch and promotional work ahead of the Tour de France, has many guessing who the team might be (Team UAE Emirates-XRG nutrition sponsor Enervit has posted to debunk suggestions<\/a> Poga\u010dar used the gels on stage 6) and discussing whether exogenous lactate could represent the next major advance in sports nutrition. <\/p>\n

We spoke to Viribay to find out what the claim is, how it\u2019s supposed to work, and if any of it is backed by science. In other words \u2013 is lactate fuelling really going to change endurance fuelling, or is it simply another passing fad?<\/p>\n

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Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n

\n \ud83d\udc4dYep
\n \ud83d\udc4eNope\n <\/p>\n

\n Performance<\/a>
\n nutrition<\/a>
\n Lactate<\/a>
\n Tour de France<\/a>\n <\/p>\n