The Secret Elixir at The Tour

You may have heard some of the buzz around Ketone drinks and be a bit in the dark about what they are/do/mean for endurance athletes. Well, let's answer some questions.

What are Ketones?

Ketones already exist in your body. Whenever your body is pushed to its limits — think multi-hour efforts, fasted training, or deep caloric deficit — it converts stored body fat into Ketones to fuel your system, especially your brain. This process, called ketosis, is your body's backup energy system kicking in when glucose runs low.

Ketone drinks skip that process entirely. They elevate your blood ketone levels directly, without the days of fasting or carbohydrate restriction that would otherwise be required to get there naturally. You get the fuel without the deprivation.

Why do I want Ketones?

Ketones are an additional fuel source your body can use alongside carbohydrates and fat. What makes them interesting for athletes isn't just that they provide energy — it's how they provide it.

In the brain, ketones are remarkably efficient. They cross the blood-brain barrier easily and have been shown to increase mental acuity, focus, and cognitive performance under fatigue. For endurance athletes — who spend hours making decisions about pacing, positioning, and effort — that matters more than people give it credit for.

On the performance side, the real value is glycogen preservation. When your body is burning ketones for fuel, it draws less aggressively on your glycogen stores. Glycogen is your most efficient fuel for high-intensity efforts, and you only have so much of it. Preserving it early means having more available when it actually counts — the final climb, the last 10 miles, the finishing sprint.

Will Ketones help me lose weight?

Yes and no.

Ketones suppress ghrelin, the hormone responsible for hunger signaling. When ghrelin is lower, you feel less hungry. When you feel less hungry, you're likely to eat less. And eating less, over time, leads to weight loss.

So while Ketone drinks aren't a weight loss product in the traditional sense, the appetite suppression effect is real and well-documented. If you're using them as part of a structured nutrition strategy, they can support a caloric deficit without the misery of constant hunger.

Worth noting: if you're an athlete in heavy training, suppressed appetite can actually work against you. Recovery requires fuel. Don't confuse "less hungry" with "don't need to eat.".

How do Tour riders use Ketones?

We know a thing or two about this as we are the world's largest seller of Ketones, especially to the Tour Teams. They are three ways they are using Ketones:

1) Recovery: Most teams use Ketones immediately after the stage and again before bed to accelerate recovery. A study conducted several years ago found that athletes using Ketone Esters showed 15% higher recovery rates after multiple weeks of hard training and racing compared to a control group. For a Grand Tour rider covering 21 stages over three weeks, that kind of edge compounds quickly.

2) Energy: Some teams are supplementing with Ketone Esters mid-race, typically 15–25g every 90 minutes or so. The Ketones convert to usable energy, but the more important benefit is substrate sparing — riders burn Ketones alongside carbohydrates, which means they dip into glycogen reserves more slowly. That preserved glycogen becomes the decisive fuel on the final climb or the stage-ending sprint.

3) Mental Acuity: Hours of racing at the Tour doesn't just deplete the legs — it destroys the brain. Riders have reported that consuming 15–25g of Ketones in the final hour of a stage when they're cognitively cooked helps them sharpen back up: more focused, more alert, better at reading the race, and less likely to make the kind of inattentive mistake that causes crashes in a peloton doing 50kph.

Are all Ketones the same?

Not even close. First, a word of caution: the drinks marketed as Ketone "Salts" — often pushed by multi-level marketing companies — are a different product entirely and not what we're talking about here. They'll raise ketone levels modestly, but the research supporting elite performance benefits is based on Ketone Esters, which are a different compound with different pharmacokinetics. There are three legitimate options on the market worth considering:

1) Ketone IQ Shots: HVMN's ready-to-drink ketone shot. Not technically an Ester, but it elevates blood ketone levels meaningfully and has become one of the most popular ketone products we carry. The tradeoff from the original Ester format: less expensive, notably better taste, and dead simple to use. Grab a shot, drink it, move on. A solid entry point if you're new to ketones and not ready to commit to the full Ester experience.

2) Kenetik Ketone Concentrate: Also a Ketone Ester and now the official partner of the Quickstep team that is using KetoneAid heavily at the Tour.

3) Korrect Fuel:The most complete ketone product on the market right now. Korrect Fuel combines goBHB® — a patented exogenous ketone — with Metabolyte®, a compound that helps your body ramp up its own ketone production. Add 600mg of sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium from pink Himalayan salt, and you've got a ketone drink that also functions as a serious hydration product. Only 20mg of caffeine, zero sugar, and a Melonberry flavor that won't make you wince. Best use case: pre-workout or long session fuel when you want ketones and hydration handled in one shot.

What about us regular people not racing the Tour?

There are two significant use cases for Ketones:

1) ☕️ Morning Coffee. This is the one that tends to surprise people. Ketones' cognitive effects aren't exclusive to racing — they work just as well at your desk. Adding ketones to your morning cup produces a noticeable lift in focus and mental clarity that lasts several hours. For people who struggle with distractibility or rely on stacked espressos to get through the morning, it's worth experimenting with.

2) 🥇 A big ride/event. Ketone Esters are expensive — there's no getting around that. But if you've spent months building toward a specific race or event, the cost math changes. Use them for recovery support during your heaviest training blocks in the final weeks before your event, and then deploy them on race day itself for the combined benefits of glycogen sparing and sustained mental sharpness. You've invested a lot to get there. The last thing to cut corners on is the execution.

What do Ketone Drinks taste like?

Honestly? Mostly terrible.

However, they've come a long way in recent years with new products and drink formats producing some enjoyable stuff. Don't approach your first bottle expecting something pleasant, though, because you may be unpleasantly surprised.

If you're sensitive to taste and still want the benefits, that's your best starting point. For everyone else: take it fast, chase it with something, and move on..

Enjoy the super fuel of Ketone Drinks.