The Founding Story of Carbs Fuel. Part 1: Gabe Multer & The Idea

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Why is it so expensive and so complicated to fuel properly?

That question created Carbs Fuel.

Carbs Fuel Founder, Gabe Multer, grew up racing bikes in northern California. He, like so many junior racers, had lofty dreams of being a professional cyclist.

Gabe winning the Downtown Auburn Criterium

Gabe accepted early on that a profession as a rider wasn't possible, but it didn't take away his love for the sport. Since then, he has continued to ride and race bikes and has stayed close to how the sport has developed.

Gabe loved the details; he loved listening to podcasts like the "Ask A Cycling Coach Podcast" by TrainerRoad and grew very familiar with the incredible developments in the fueling requirements of our sport. He listened every day to elite and amateur athletes talking about eating 100-140 grams of carbs per hour. This completely astonished Gabe, who was used to GU's "15 before and every 45" talking about 22 grams of carbs. He was interested in fueling more, but it seemed impossible due to the high cost and the inconvenience of carrying so many gels. This frustration stewed for some time in Gabe's mind until he spoke with a friend.

Gabe had a friend in Europe who had raced for the Axeon Hagens Berman team in the years past; since then he has been racing on local European teams. This athlete was on the brink of breaking into the World Tour of professional cycling. Gabe spent some time with him in Europe and discovered that he too, struggled with fueling. His friend was scraping by, trying to make it as a pro, and couldn't afford proper nutrition products. Instead of accepting the cost, he fueled by eating cheap candy during rides and races.

This was an athlete putting EVERYTHING into his sport, and was fueling with candy. We all love candy on rides and we understand it is also a form of simple carbohydrates, but it is far from optimal fueling due to extra ingredients and improper glucose-to-fructose ratio. This little difference could be the difference between him performing at the end of a race, determining if he becomes a pro or not.

Gabe realized this is a huge problem; this isn't the only athlete that is resorting to either under-fueling or unideal fueling - this is happening everywhere. This is happening because the gels on the market are not dense enough with carbohydrates and they are far too expensive to actually be used at the frequency they should be.

Gabe knew the idea of launching a 50 gram carbohydrate gel at $2 would be a game-changer, but he didn't know how feasible it would be. That's when Gabe called Aaron Gouw, a childhood friend that was about to finish his PhD in Human Bioenergetics... but that story is for another day.