Your approach to cycling nutrition is one of the essential areas to focus on to ensure you reap the positive adaptations from training. We have split this guide into best recovery drink powders, best ready-made recovery drinks and best vegan recovery drinks.

Below we rate the best recovery drinks and why some are better for some than others. Then, we answer your questions about recovery drinks. You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose.

Find out more about how we test. Best value. With a natural taste, nice consistency and excellent price, Wiggle's Nutrition Recovery powder is off to a great start.

It also has a ratio of carbohydrates to protein for good recovery after exercise which cements its place in first spot. Best ratio.

High5 also offers the perfect carbohydrate-to-protein ratio that works to rebuild muscles and replenish energy. Slightly thinner when mixed than some, which may make it more palatable after exercise, although some flavours didn't suit our tester. Best with whey. The whey adds extra protein to OTE's recovery drink, but it does lack a little in the carbs' department though.

It is Informed Sports Certified, so can be used safely by competitive athletes and it also benefits from added essential and branched chain amino acids for a boost to muscle recovery.

MyProtein's Vegan Protein Blend powder mixed easily with water and made a great-tasting drink with 22g of protein, although carbs might need some supplementing from other sources. The flavours were all excellent and best of all, it is extremely good value too. Best savoury.

For those sick of sweet gels and drinks, PB2's Peanut Protein drink may well hit the spot. There is a slightly chalky texture but no powdery lumps, whether mixed with water or milk, and the drink is both vegan-friendly and gluten-free.

It is a little pricey though and the occasional nut fragment may put some off. Best Informed Sport. REGO is soya-based, so is perfect for vegan athletes and includes electrolytes to help with rehydration as well as muscle recovery.

The velvety texture is easy to drink and the available flavours are all very pleasant. It isn't the cheapest drink on test though. The Wiggle Recovery drink does exactly what it needs to and for almost half the price of most of its competitors.

With around a ratio of carbohydrates to protein, this drink provides the optimum amounts of both for recovery after a tough or long training session. Add to that the carbs and proteins being faster acting, and this recovery drink will help you be primed and ready for your next training session.

The drink mixes very well, leaving no clumps at all, and with the guided amount of water, the drink was a good consistency similar to a milkshake with a nice natural taste to match. The banana flavour has no artificial taste to it and after drinking we felt like it left us full enough.

The High5 recovery drink was the only other protein powder on test to offer the same ~ carbs to protein ratio. Flavours were good on the whole, but I found the banana one to be a little too weak. Value was pretty good among competitors, and the only reason we docked half a mark was due to the inconsistency between flavours.

Other than that, an ideal recovery drink. The carb content, on the other hand, was a bit lacking for a recovery drink, though. That said, the inclusion of essential and branched chain amino acids was a bonus for muscle recovery.

And the option for batch testing, along with everything being made in a facility that is Informed Sport Certified is another perk. The drink mixed very well and left us feeling full, ready for a proper meal later on. However, there was a strange artificially sweet taste — although there are apparently no artificial sweeteners present.

The drink is quite expensive compared to some of the more value-oriented options, but it still sits around the middle of the spectrum when bought in bulk. The option for sachets is useful for those travelling or bikepacking, but it is more expensive.

One point is lost due to the reduced carb amount and funny flavour, but when bought in bulk this offers a great protein drink at a solid value. SiS REGO Rapid Recovery has been around for a long time, and does well with a high amount of protein and solid amount of carbs.

It is a ratio, though, so the carb content is perhaps a little lacking — but it can be consumed alongside a meal more rich in carbs. The drink mixes very well with no lumps and has a nice flavour without any artificial taste.

A nice addition is a full profile of electrolytes, which makes this a great drink for rehydration — an aspect sometimes forgotten by other recovery drinks and a big bonus.

The drink left me feeling satisfied after a workout, but still a bit hungry after around 30 minutes or so. When bought as a 1. Additionally, all SiS products are batch-tested, which is a great feature. The price per serving is high, but the recovery drink you get is near enough a meal replacement which — for people having just finished a race or short on time — might actually be ideal.

The drink also features branched chain and essential amino acids, as well as a very long list of vitamins and minerals that are essential to recovery and hydration.

When mixed, the drink is quite thick but has no lumps and tastes delicious — it was one of my favourites in that regard. Due to the high carb and protein content, it left me very full afterwards and not in need of any additional fuelling.

Torq recommends a different serving size dependent on the duration and intensity of exercise, from one 50g sachet for a moderate workout up to two for a hard session or none for a light workout. The ratio is good, but the total content is low. To get enough protein, you do need the full two-sachet dose — but that will constitute a meal replacement for most people, with around kCal of energy content.

The Veloforte Vita recovery drink is ideal for those who want completely natural ingredients, without excessive processing or artificial flavours. This does lead to a slight grittiness in the drink when mixed, so it tastes more like a smoothie or fruit juice than a milkshake.

The flavour was refreshing and natural and I did quite like it. The amount of carbs and the ratio of that to the to protein is quite good, but the overall protein quantity is still too low. You can mix it with milk, though, which will boost the carbs and protein as well as leading to a thicker consistency.

The price per serving is high, likely due to the quality of the ingredients. Another nice touch is that Veloforte has a recycling service for all their waste and wrappers, as well as not using any plastic in their delivery. This is really the only option for those who are environmentally conscious.

But considering the lower protein content and the high price, it missed out on the top scores. The For Goodness Shakes Recovery drink was as close to perfect as possible. Not only a great ratio of carbs to protein but also a good profile of vitamins and minerals for hydration and recovery.

Obviously not lactose-free, but using milk as a base gives a great source of protein and calcium great for cyclists where bone mineral density is important , but also very good for hydration post-exercise.

The taste and consistency are close to that of a really good milkshake, and left me feeling very satisfied after drinking. The taste may be a little sweet for some, especially the vanilla fudge flavour, but I loved it and my desire to raid the sweets cupboard after a training session was quenched!

The For Goodness Shakes Protein drink is a great-tasting recovery drink that I really liked after short, sharp sessions or gym workouts. The protein amount is higher than most and right in the g range that is recommended.

However, the carb content is a bit low with the ratio. The taste and consistency of these drinks is fantastic and I absolutely loved them — just like a milkshake!

They also contain a good profile of vitamins and minerals for recovery and hydration, leaving me feeling satisfied after one serving — but wanting more for the taste! The price per serving sits pretty much bang in the middle of what we saw with recovery drinks.

It only slightly lost out in its score due to the lack of carbs compared to the protein, but the taste, practicality, and good amount of protein were all on point.

The great taste and value of MyProtein's Vegan Protein Blend is very hard to match. The single-scoop, 30g serving size mixes very easily with minimal shaking, and we found there are never any lumps or grittiness in the resulting shake.

It has a neutral colour and MyProtein assures us that no artificial colours and flavours are used in this product.

Each serving provides a whopping 22g of protein, coming from a combination of pea and fava bean isolate, meaning the full amino acid profile is covered. With only 3. My favorite is the admittedly rather traditional banana, though I can also vouch for the white chocolate raspberry and caramel biscuit — which is astonishingly caramel-biscuity!

Could it really provide that uniquely satisfying peanut butter hit of flavour? The answer is: very nearly. The two-scoop, 45g serving, mixed with ml of water or milk, provides 20g of protein and calories. It contains no added sugar.

The texture is slightly chalky, with the occasional hard fragment of nut — caution advised — but it mixes easily leaving no powdery lumps.

There are Dutch Cocoa and Madagascar Vanilla versions, as well as almond-based alternatives for those less keen on peanuts, and the whole range is vegan and gluten-free. Yes, this product does appear earlier in this guide. Such is the trend towards plant-based products in sports nutrition that SiS has stopped producing whey-based recovery powder.

The serving size is 50g and thus a 1. That said, SiS prides itself on quality, being batch-tested and Informed Sport-approved. The powder forms a pleasant, almost velvety texture once mixed. We tested the chocolate flavour and had no complaints about the flavour.

Free Delivery on orders of £35 or more Apologies, we are currently unable to ship outside Great Britain. FGS Recovery Shake ml 8-pack. Flavour Chocolate Vanilla. Bring on Tomorrow. Chocolate Vanilla. Ingredients For Goodness Shakes® Recovery is a fat-free UHT milk-based shake enriched with vitamins.

Allergens: See ingredients in bold. When to use? You may also like. Fgs recovery powder 1. Fgs rehydrate tabs £5.

Stacey Sims writes about how females need more protein than carbs for recovery because we are NOT small men and have different physiologies. Her book Roar touches on this. Thanks for this important information.

Regarding fats, recent info states that total and saturated fats are not the primary concern for leading to atherosclerosis and subsequent cardio- or cerebrovascular disease, but that trans fat is the culprit.

Your comment on that? And what amount of total mono or polyunsaturated fat do you recommend? Can you get too much healthy fat, limits? In fact I recently read a article quoting a heart surgeon who was dead wrong in his views on fats and their relationship to atherosclerosis!

That must be really important for athletes who are trying to gain fitness and lose weight. I like these articles on dispelling the myths.

Getting it down to the science helps make it real again. One of the commenters did a good job of demonstrating that not all protein is the same nor should it be considered such. Yet not all carbohydrates and fats are good or bad either. Everything has a range of quality. I know diabetics can differentiate carbohydrate quality whole grain vs.

highly refined when they test their blood post consumption. Then two commenter s argued chocolate milk vs. plain milk. My thinking is the most important post workout recovery drink is water and rehydration.

Milk is convenient and so is a banana. More and more respected trainers are saying that you require less carbohydrate and that your body craves fats. Go Butter! I realize that this is outside the scope of this article, but something that was not covered at all, and that I would like to understand better, is that not all proteins are utilized by the body equally.

This may in fact be different for different individuals. It is fairly common knowledge that some protein sources are healthier than others. For example, 6-ounce broiled porterhouse steak is a great source of protein—about 40 grams worth. But it also delivers about 12 grams of saturated fat, more than 60 percent of the recommended daily intake for saturated fat.

A 6-ounce ham steak has only about 2. A cup of cooked lentils provides about 18 grams of protein and it has virtually no saturated fat or sodium.

But, which of these is easiest for the body to utilize? If you would find some research on this and present it here, I am certain that many of your readers would benefit.

Protein quality and the value your body derives from the protein is dependent upon the source of the protein. The best way to compare protein quality is to compare different proteins Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Scores DIAAS.

However DIAAS is a relatively new measure of protein quality so depending on the source you may not find a DIAAs score. To date Dairy proteins have the highest DIAAS scores followed by fish, eggs, chicken, beef, pork, and plant proteins as the lowest half of what dairy has to offer The reason plant proteins score so poorly is that they commonly have digestion inhibitors that result in much of the protein not being absorbed and passing through your digestive system.

This per Dr. David Minkoff. I truly appreciate the articles you and your team produce for the cycling community. They helped me tremendously in my cycling adventures. Would you please help us a tiny bit more? I understand to reach a certain level of fitness takes work.

Why do you omit the primary fuel for endurance sports, fat? The unlimited fuel source….. You need limited carbs to increase fat oxidation, not the other way around.

Simple sugar is the most efficient fuel for extreme endurance sports. Gu, fruit in heavy syrup, and even pop is what gives you the best energy. If you want to spend that kind of dollars, get an Espresso or Macchiato.