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The mystery red drink riders are guzzling by the gallon at the finish of Tour de France stages is no protein-carb mega-shake or controversial ketone shot.
The Tour de France’s newest magic potion is basically just turbocharged breakfast juice.
Tart cherry is the new go-to post-stage refreshment for Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, and a majority of Le Tour.
It’s not a taste preference pushing everyone to the red drink.
“It’s well-researched that cherry juice helps with recovery after muscle-damaging exercise,” Tudor Pro Cycling nutrition consultant Tim Podlogar told Velo. “The juice contains polyphenols that have now been proven in many studies to improve recovery.”
Polyphenols are an antioxidizing, anti-inflammatory wonder-nutrient that can keep riders racing hard for 21 days.
They counteract the micro-tears and inflammation of intense exercise and do away with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). They’re also loaded with melatonin to help over-tired racers get to sleep.
“It’s especially important that riders drink their cherry juice as soon as they cross the line at a stage race,” said EF Education-EasyPost medic Jon Greenwell.
“Muscles are most receptive as soon as you have finished exercising, particularly when you are trying to refill with carbohydrates, as well. So, the sooner they drink it, the better.”
Watch the finish line of the Tour de France closely this month. You’ll see the peloton can’t get enough of this red elixir.
It’s typically easily visible in a clear bottle, or sometimes hidden in the blue packaging of “sports cherry” connoisseurs, Amacx.
Cherry juice for racing, definitely not for training
Cherry juice all round for Visma-Lease a Bike after stage 1 of the Tour de France. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
“Big Cherry” (if that’s a thing) has been promoting the benefits of its wonder berries for years.
Montmorency cherries were the poster-fruit of ads promoting the potential benefits to general wellbeing and potentially also performance.
Sadly for athletes, it’s not as simple as going to Walmart and swiping a cart of Ocean Spray.
Regular cherry juice doesn’t pack enough polyphenol punch to sufficiently fast-forward recovery.
Sport nutrition brands took note and hopped onto the hype of nature’s red revitalizer. Team sponsors like Amacx and 6D took tart cherry extract, pumped it with extra carbohydrates to help accelerate recovery, and packaged it into fancy bottles.
Ever wondered what the mysterious dark drink was that Evenepoel was always swigging at the 2022 Vuelta a España?
Now you know.
More recently, UAE Emirates-XRG nutrition partner Enervit launched a”Magic Cherry Powder” for mixing with water, complete with Pogi all over the packaging.
Intriguingly, cherry juice is one of the few marginal gains that’s best reserved for race day. Team nutritionists warn riders away from “the red wonder” during blocks of training as it inhibits the inflammation and “micro tears” that promote future growth.
So, there’s another of the peloton’s half-percenter supplements for you.
You can add cherry juice to the bicarb gels, ketone shots, and salmon-based “recovery pills” that power the high-speed modern era of the Tour de France.
As nutrition expert Podlogar told Velo, “it’s probably a rather marginal gain, but everything counts.”
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