A couple of years ago, the two team founder, Timo Schäfer and Matthias Schnapka, went to Kenya, more precisely to Iten, the long distance runner's Mecca. They wanted to get an idea of how cycling is done in Kenya and visited the Kenyan Riders project. They also got to know Yannis Pitsiladis, a professor at Brighton University, who was researching the Sub2hrs project in a small institute in Kenya.
At that time there were the large multi-million dollar projects of Nike and Adidas, which were fighting each other for the 2 hour barrier in the marathon and this small nonprofit project. Prossor Yannis Pitsiladis said something about a new beverage powder that he is developing. Consisting of just five natural ingredients, it would revolutionize the sports nutrition products market.
A few years later this vision became reality and under the name Maurten the products are available for everyone. Our team tested the products themselves last season and is impressed by the results. This sounds like a clumsy advertising drum, but if you've ever done a 200km bike race or a whole stage race with just drinking bottles without a single additional bite and didn't feel hungry until the end, you can hardly believe it.
The secret? The limiting factor in endurance sports is the provision of energy. If the carbohydrate stores are used up, it is difficult to absorb new ones under stress, the performance decreases. Many runners and cyclists know the problem of stomach cramps when trying to eat too much. In recent times, athletes have increasingly maltreated them self with the so-called "no-carb" diet, with the aim of achieving a ketogenic energy supply and thus getting a further boost. Maurten has succeeded in significantly increasing the carbohydrate concentration compared to previous sports nutrition and at the same time reducing the stress on the stomach. Just simple like that.
Of course, other professional athletes have also discovered this “secret” and it is not unusual for them to use Maurten products despite other sponsorship agreements. Maurten now has the entire product series in its shop as a neutrally packaged version without a label, so the demand is so high.
This collaboration is therefore a real game changer for our team, Maurten is the rising brand par excellence in the competitive market of sports nutrition manufacturers. They are simple, healthy products with few ingredients but great effects. Also Team Bike Aid rider Ande van Engelen is delighted to race the next years with Maurten products. “I have been riding with their products for more than 1.5 year now, and actually cannot ride without it anymore. I truly believe that it gives us an edge over the competition in the hardest parts of the races; the moments that we have to excel!”
Maurten representative Arien Verkade explains that there is a unique situation that makes the partnership with Team Bike Aid so special: “A few years ago we started working with the best marathon runners from Kenya. We worked closely together to develop the optimal nutrition for them to break world records, win Olympic medals, and making history when Eliud Kipchoge broke the two hour barrier on the marathon distance in Vienna last year. When we found out that there were also professional cyclists based in Iten, training on the same roads as the world class runners we cooperate with, we saw it as a great chance to support them. The BIKE AID team is a special story in professional cycling that we would like to accompany and also help us to further develop our brand.”
BIKE AID thus belongs to the select group of internationally outstanding projects and athletes who are supported by Maurten. In addition to the best marathon runners in the world and triathletes like Jan Frodeno, there are just three cycling teams, the World Tour Team EF Pro Cycling from the USA, the Pro Continental team Uno-X from Norway and now the German continental team BIKE AID.
