Drinks before/during the race

I can't use gatoraid for the same reason.  You may want to try Heed.  The flavors are not that great in my opinion, but my stomach tolerates it quite well. 

x2 on HEED!  And I tolerate GU20 very well, too.  Both have very mild flavoring and they don't have that nasty salty taste like Gatorade does.

However, I do tolerate Gatorade's lower calorie version, G2 quite well and I often end up buying a bottle of it at gas stations when I need a refill on a longer ride.  I dilute it a bit with whatever is still left in my water bottle, and it goes down just fine.  IMO...it's not as strong and as sweet as regular Gatorade. 

Edited by nscrbug 2009-07-02 8:25 PM

I use powdered Gatorade so that I can mix it to my strength preference (pretty light) for longer rides (more than 90 minutes) and Nuun or CamelBak Elixir for shorter rides.  I always carry a bottle of water and a bottle of whatever other drink. 

I like CytoMax (on sale at Performance Bikes quite often, or you can buy smaller containers at GNC if you're just wanting to try it out).  For me, it just seems to benefit me more than Gatorade... but I've got a lot of buddies that I ride/train with that use Gatorade or Heed.

-Joel

For a sprint race, you probably don't need any fuel as long as you've eaten well the days before and morning of. I just drink regular water and tape a package of gu to my top tube just in case.

For long training rides, I'll sneak some nuts and a banana into the pouch on my camelback in case I get hungry.

I won't put anything but water into my camelback, as I don't want to encourage things to grow.

after reading a post on here I tried GU the other day after leaving a local swim store...I have to say I was impressed...Im mixed it a bit different than the label (wich may have led to the "weird" taste). I dont normally feel good after drinking poweraid/gatoraid etc but didnt notice anything with the GU.

Shiner Bock

Just grab a little water at a water station. You shouldn't need anything else unless you're sprint races are in upwards of 1.5hrs.

we get powdered Ultima at our house.  raspberry or orange/citrus flavored.  uses stevia instead of sugar (or HFCS or sucralose/splenda) and i can mix it up in any strength i like.  lots of 'lytes without tasting too chalky/vitamin-ish.