Sponser Sport Food Energy Sportdrink Competition

Sponser Sport Food is a Swiss brand of nutrition products, now available in the UK. Competition Sports Drink is a powder to mix with water, containing mainly carbohydrate to provide energy, plus electrolytes to fight cramp.

Sponser's publicity material claims that this drink differs to other sports drinks because it contains eight different sorts of carb, and has a higher carb content. In reality, there's a limit to the amount of carb the human body can absorb, so simply increasing the amount isn't necessarily the answer (in fact, it can be counter productive) but using different sorts of carb can be a way to ensure you get maximum benefit from your intake. And that's where Sponser's formula comes in. This drink mix contains glucose and fructose in various compounds which enter the body via slightly different mechanisms and give both an instant and sustained supply of energy. A 100g serving of drink mix contains 97g of carb and provides 1659 kJ (390 kcal).

In addition to the carb, this drink mix contains sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium - to replace essential minerals lost via sweat and help your muscles avoid the dreaded cramp.

Does it work? I'd say yes. I've used this drink on some high speed two-hour training sessions (with no other energy food intake), and combined it with the usual array of bars and gels on longer all-day outings. For both types of ride, Competition Sports Drink seems to provide a good sustained supply of energy. I've also drunk a 750ml bottle in the hour leading up to the two-hour training sessions, and this carb-loading definitely has benefits.

On that basis, I'd say Competition Sports Drink is well worth trying, and then adding to your armoury if you notice the benefits. As with all nutrition products, it's important to sample this drink on a training ride first rather than an important race or sportive, just in case it doesn't agree with you.

The drink comes in various flavours - Banana, Orange, Raspberry, Neutral and Citrus. I was testing the latter, and the taste was fairly mild and inoffensive. The texture was not sharp, like some citrus drinks, and slightly soapy but not unpleasant, meaning it was easy to drink. Even after a few bottles of this stuff, I felt no ill effects on the stomach at all.

A 1kg tub of Competition Sports Drink costs £17.50 from Sponser's own UK website. On a crude carbs-per-quid basis this is more expensive than similar competitor products. Of course quality should be compared, not just quantity, but on either basis this drink is not a bargain. But then if the special formula makes you go faster or farther than usual, then you might be happy forking out a bit of extra cash.

Verdict

Highly technical, high-performing, nice-tasting energy drink. Easy on the stomach, but not on the wallet.