Here at TORQ we are always pleased to hear of people’s sporting success, especially when fuelled with our performance nutrition products. Alex Glasgow and his riding partner Alex Johnson started using TORQ at the begining of the 2010 race season. Here are a few words from Alex on how their year unfolded.
After a surprise success at the British XC Champs in 2009, I was keen on a strong season in 2010. The highlight was to be a trip to Poland for the Sudety Challenge, a 6 day MTB stage race with strong international competition. This would involve 4 hours racing each day through big hills, so I planned to include more endurance and distance training through my season.
I also knew that nutrition would be very important in Poland. I had met Emma Bradley, a TORQ Development Rider, at the ’09 World Masters Championships in France. She’d made a pretty persuasive sales pitch about the benefits of TORQ and I ended up fuelling myself on TORQ gels for the World Champs – after finishing strongly in 4th place and missing a World podium only because of a mechanical, I had to agree with Emma’s TORQ patter! So in preparation for Poland, I contacted Matt Hart kindly gave me and my teammate, Alex Johnson, some support on various nutritional goodies.
In training I was happy to find I didn’t suffer any of the gut cramps I commonly got from other energy drinks and particularly gels. I had always been hesitant in taking multiple gels in races as they never sat well in the belly. Through the season I realised I could confidently keep taking TORQ energy drinks and gels without any upset. It allowed me to keep performing well right to the end of endurance events. Alex J was finding the same; he won the mammoth 4 day Islands to Peaks running/sailing race fuelled by TORQ, and then he and I teamed up to blitz the field in the 12 hour Puffer Light endurance MTB race in June. I had also stepped up to Elite in the Scottish Cross Country series, giving harder competition and longer races than my age category, and was happy with a couple of podiums through the series – not bad for an old fart.
Poland was a superb suffer-fest; a brutal hill climb prologue had Alex and I in sixth overall at the start, and we worked hard all week through long, steep stages to maintain position, eventually finishing fifth overall and third in our senior pairs category. Careful study of the TORQ Performance Resource booklet (its brilliant), and chats with Matt, kept us optimally fuelled in the heat of the Central European summer, and a wee dose of Ribose along with the Recovery drink helped us prepare for the next gruelling day. I was very pleased to still be hammering hard at the end of each day, and at the end of a long week of racing.
Having been soundly beaten into second place by Paul Hopkins at the 2010 British XC Champs, my endurance in Poland encouraged an attempt at the Marathon Champs. So another long trip south to Pippingford was rewarded with a National Jersey for the Marathon, winning the Vets by a good margin. Again, TORQ did the business over 5 hours of effort.
Despite the high and sustained intake of energy drinks and gels in Poland, we never suffered any stomach cramps, indigestion or (excessive!) wind. TORQ genuinely works, and in my experience, works better than other energy products I have tried. Roll on next season.
Alex Glasgow
