Tadej Pogacar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates have been given access to a new form of race fuel that appears almost designed to raise eyebrows.
The reigning Tour powerhouse is using a drink containing sodium lactate, a substance intended to provide the body with an additional source of energy when riders are approaching the most punishing moments of a stage.
Its manufacturer, Italian sports nutrition company Enervit, has described the C2:1PRO Lactate Gel Mix as a major breakthrough. The product has been developed and tested behind the scenes for two years, with UAE holding exclusive access during the Tour de France.
The terminology may sound suspicious in a sport permanently marked by doping scandals. However, this is not a banned drug, an injection or a method designed to conceal prohibited substances.
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It is a powdered drink mix containing ingredients that are legal under current anti-doping rules.
The mysterious bottle raising eyebrows at the Tour
Despite its name, the product is not a traditional energy gel consumed directly from a sachet.
It is mixed with water and carried in a rider’s bottle. Each serving contains 90 grams of carbohydrates, ten grams of sodium lactate and vitamin B1, according to Enervit’s official presentation of the product.
UAE helped develop the formula during laboratory work and extensive training and race testing across the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
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The aim is to give riders another source of fuel alongside the large quantities of glucose and fructose they already consume during long stages.
Enervit claims lactate is absorbed through a different transport pathway from the carbohydrates in the drink. In theory, that could allow riders to obtain extra energy without simply forcing even more sugar through the same digestive routes.
Professor George Brooks, who collaborated with Enervit on the project, described the formula in dramatic terms.
“This new product, the new Enervit C2:1PRO Lactate Gel Mix, is a breakthrough that initiates a new era in sports nutrition,” Brooks said.
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It sounds suspicious — but it is completely legal
Lactate has traditionally been associated with burning muscles, exhaustion and the moment an athlete reaches their physical limit.
Modern research has fundamentally changed that understanding.
Brooks’ published work describes lactate as a major energy source that is continuously produced and transported between muscles and other organs, rather than merely being a harmful waste product. His research also identifies it as an important precursor for glucose production and a signalling molecule inside the body, as explained in his scientific review published through the US National Library of Medicine.
The controversial-looking part is that UAE’s riders are no longer relying only on the lactate produced naturally during exercise. They are also consuming it from an external source.
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That does not make it doping.
Sodium lactate does not appear among the banned substances or methods in WADA’s official 2026 prohibited list.
WADA has not approved or endorsed the Enervit product, as the organisation does not certify individual supplements. Its absence from the prohibited list simply means that consuming sodium lactate is not currently an anti-doping violation.
There is therefore no evidence that Pogacar or UAE Team Emirates-XRG has broken any sporting rule by using the drink.
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UAE saves its strange weapon for brutal days
The team is not giving the new mixture to its riders during every stage.
According to Daniel Ostanek’s report for Cyclingnews, its clearest documented uses during the Tour came in the opening team time trial and the mountainous 14th stage.
“We’re using it when it’s needed, not always,” UAE nutritionist Gorka Prieto-Bellver said.
“It’s not for all the stages but for stages where the energy expenditure is quite high.”
That selective approach makes the product sound even more like a special weapon reserved for decisive moments. In practice, it also shows that UAE is still working out how and when the formula should be used.
The team has not claimed that one bottle will suddenly transform a rider’s performance or allow Pogacar to produce power that would otherwise be impossible.
Instead, the drink is intended to add another small advantage to a highly controlled nutritional strategy in which riders can already consume more than 100 grams of carbohydrates per hour.
The extraordinary claims still need proof
The science showing that the human body can use lactate as fuel is well established.
The more important question is whether drinking additional lactate during a race produces a meaningful competitive advantage.
That has not yet been conclusively demonstrated for Enervit’s exact formulation. The company’s announcement did not include results from a peer-reviewed performance trial comparing the product with a conventional carbohydrate drink.
Prieto-Bellver also acknowledged that more research is required to determine its full impact on performance.
An older randomised study involving seven trained cyclists found no improvement in endurance or peak power after oral lactate supplementation. However, that experiment used a different formulation and cannot provide a definitive verdict on UAE’s new product, as shown in the study indexed by the US National Library of Medicine.
The early evidence therefore creates an intriguing contrast.
Lactate is unquestionably a fuel used by the body, but it has not yet been publicly proven that Enervit’s product gives elite cyclists the dramatic advantage suggested by words such as “breakthrough” and “new era”.
Pogacar’s rivals may soon get the same boost
UAE currently has exclusive access to the drink during the Tour, giving Pogacar’s team another carefully guarded component in its performance system.
That advantage will not remain exclusive forever.
Enervit says the product will become commercially available after the 2026 Vuelta a España. Amateur cyclists and rival teams could therefore soon be able to experiment with the same formula.
For now, the lactate mix occupies a provocative position in modern cycling.
It sounds like something produced in a laboratory to push riders beyond their natural limits. It is being used selectively by the strongest team in the world, and its manufacturer is promising a new era in sports nutrition.
But the crucial distinction remains clear.
It may be designed to enhance performance, but performance enhancement is not automatically doping. Until anti-doping rules change or evidence emerges of prohibited ingredients, Pogacar’s mysterious new fuel remains unusual, controversial-looking and entirely legal.
