Rally Cycling has a “No Chain” Day at USPRO

Last month, Joey Rosskopf of Rally Cycling won the US national crit championship. His stablemate, Kyle Murphy, finished third after a day spent animating the race in a two-man break that depleted the strength of EF Education-Nippo, who were easily co-favorites with, of course, the dominant L39ION of Los Angeles.

Despite facing off against the WorldTour and the domestic crit powerhouse, Rally played the game their way, ensuring that the final sprint was hard for everyone and the big favorites weren’t approaching the finish line with their advantage intact. It was a great win for the underdog Rally, and it was also a debut of sorts for our new Liquid Shot, the non-gel made for immediate energy during full-gas efforts.

As Joey put it, everyone was “a little fried” in the end, but he and Kyle were both able to – ahem – rally for the win and a podium spot. Joey, Kyle, and the rest of the team rode the race like machines, but no machine runs without fuel, and it takes more than pure talent to keep hitting the wall till the wall crumbles. Ensuring that they had the final spark was crucial, and both cyclists had Liquid Shot on board to, if nothing else, keep them just a little less fried than the other guys. It worked.

During the race, Joey and Kyle combined to consume five Liquid Shots. Joey accounted for three on the day, and he told us he likes the thinness in terms of the package (“thin and packable”) and – no surprise at this point – the consistency. “I probably could have taken all three at once,” he told us, “I felt no negative impact in my stomach.”

Kyle took his two Liquid Shots just before the climb to stave off a budding emergency. “I think it was the first or second time up the climb in the breakaway I realized I was a little behind on fueling,” he admitted. “I slammed two of the new EFS liquid shots in quick succession in the green zone at the base of the Sherrod road climb. Pretty nice to be able to do that at the base of a double digit climb!”

Kyle told us he prefers “this thinner isotonic style” – given the fact he needed them at the bottom of a punchy effort, we can see why. You can’t afford to be choking on viscous sludge during the hardest part of a hot race. Despite taking them during that high-output effort, he reports “they went down pretty easy, which is nice.” Considering the race he’d had, and the pace he was still maintaining, we take “which is nice” as an understatement.

“I had one of those ‘no chain’ days where you can just go and go again.”

Kyle’s final assessment of the race? “I had one of those ‘no chain’ days where you can just go and go again.” Were Liquid Shot and EFS (which he was also taking during the race) responsible? In part, sure, but obviously not entirely. We would never claim that mid-race nutrition will do all the work for you, but we do also know that, without it, you can’t do any of the work for yourself.

Joey thanked us “for working on and developing Liquid Shot.” But really, we’re just flattered to have been able to play a part in his win, and we’re grateful to Joey, Kyle, and several other Rallys who have been giving us feedback during Liquid Shot’s development, including Robin Carpenter (“It’s easy to eat in hot weather”) and Lily Williams (“The more calories the better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”).

Developing these winning formulas is our passion, and they’re helping us by telling us what the sport’s biggest engines need to perform – and by proving our work with results like these.