Carbo Rocket Relief!

Last week along with my parts from Ritchey I received my Carbo Rocket (in Mango and Kiwi-Lime).  I have to admit I was a little concerned.  Here I am supported by and representing a team for an untested/untasted product.  What if it doesn’t deliver?  What if it’s nasty?  What if I like something else better?  Does Lance Armstrong really drink Ultra? 

It is interesting being a member on a supported team as I get a little window into the lives of people who actually try to make a living racing bikes.  The quest for sponsorship means money and support.  For bicycle brands among the pro peloton, I would venture a guess (based on no experience or research of my own) that many of the high-end products are quite equivalent in what they deliver to a pro rider.  The bicycle has existed in its current iteration vastly unchanged over the past 100 years.  We have more speeds, lighter and more compliant materials, suspension design, and other bits that make riding faster and better, but a bicycle from 1898 looks prettydarn similar to one we buy today.  The difference is in its operator.  Thus I cannot go buy a Trek Madone and “be like Lance”.  Does he really love Trek or secretly, in the dark, does he think it is just a tool where any would do?  So perhaps brand really doesn’t matter.  As a conusmer I secretly feel that if I, too obtained a $12,000 Pinarello Prince with its asymmetric chainstays and  Kris-bladed fork,

Now I can race Le Tours de France!

it would give me the edge to compete at the pro level.  That is, as suggested by Fatty, if a pair of magical gravity-modrating bib shorts came with it, rendering me a 145-pound powerhouse.  And perhaps gave me larger lungs.  And longer legs. 

Forgive the long, previous digression.  In a nutshell I have been very pleased with my Carbo Rocket experience over the past week.  For my first triathlon a few years ago, I made the brilliant mistake of purchasing a “Gel Bot”–a water-bottle-type of contraption that allows you to dispense energy gel from an internal chamber and water from the same bottle.  In thehands of the semi-intelligent, this is probably a fine product.  For those of you having a tough time picturing this, here you go:

Fill. The. Bottle. With. Water. Only.

I learned the hard way that a sports drink like Carbo Rocket and energy gels, are basically the same animal in different forms.  Thinking that more would certainly be better and prevent me from the horrors of “bonk” in my sprint-distance triathlon, I ingested both the equivalent of 1.5 Gu packets and a bottle of Gatorade (are we allowed to think that word?  If you never hear from me again, I enjoyed being a part of the team) the hated Gatorade during the first five miles of the bike leg.  Within three minutes every molecule of water left my blood in order to hydrate the flouresent lump of salty sugar in my belly.  I proceeded to drink about six gallons of water to quench my thirst at the two aid stations offered in the run, and my weight surely jumped by fourteen pounds as I sloshed my way to the finish.  The hated and feared Gatorade (and other sports drinks I have experimented with) are waaay to heavy for me.  Unable to shake that sticky-sugary dry mouth, I have since ingested energy gel and washed it down with water.  Carbo Rocket, however appears to fuel me without feeling like I just drank a liter of Kool-Aid.  Mo betta.  I’m relieved that I like Carbo Rocket and am happy to endorse it.  I also have a theory that Carbo Rocket makes you more good-looking and removes love handles.  I’ll be testing that in the next few weeks.