Interbike 2008 – From the Kitchens of

-by Michael Hopkins

It is a well know fact that eating in Las Vegas is an adventure in culinary delights and eating on the bicycle is an adventure in balance and gastronomical disappointments normally.

Well, another year has passed and the companies charged with keeping your energy levels up have been slaving away in their various experimental kitchens and have managed to fashion what might be described as a complete meal.

There is a plethora of restaurants in Vegas, but you need not search one out when you go to Interbike. By walking the aisles of Interbike and visiting the booths of those charged with feeding the rider inside you can have a complete meal, with a healthy mix of carbohydrates and protein in the form of bars, gels, beans and blocks and then wash it all down with a sports drink.

What follows is a sample of the new offerings from Clif, Accelerade, Power Bar and Jelly Belly put together in a sequence to appease the hungriest of people.

Clif introduces their margarita flavored shot blocks. With three times the amount of sodium as their other blocks these will fend off cramping, and might even eliminate the need to carry sodium tablets on long hot rides. You'll get about 100 calories of energy and 24g of carbs in three blocks and there are six blocks in a pack.

Accelerade brought one new flavor with them to InterBike this year, the citrus orange flavor brought back memories of the Creamsicle ice-cream bar. It is that exact creaminess that causes problems however as you want things to go down easy, not stay caught in your mouth and throat. With 100 calories, 100mg of sodium, 40mg of potassium, 20g of carbs and 5g of protein per serving this one is almost better as a pre-ride tool.

Power Bar brought their new and very tasty Honey Roasted Nut performance bar to the show and when I tried this bar I was very happy with the taste. This bar demonstrates why Power Bar remains one of the leaders in rider nutrition. You get a whopping 250 calories, 45g of carbs and 10g of protein in the honey roasted nut bar.

The best of the lot however was the excellent offerings from the fine folks at Jelly Belly who brought two new flavors of their sport beans. I chose the Berry Blue, which is a true jellybean that has a tart flavor and wild blue color. This flavor lacks the salt taste, which is found in many of the other flavors The only thing lacking in the product is protein as you get none from the package, you do get 100 calories, 80mg of sodium, 40mg of potassium, 25g of carbohydrates though.

Next we'll talk about some of the very fine bikes presented by the less well known manufacturers.