ZipVit ZV9 Protein Energy Plus Bar (pk 15)

I LOVE these! For the week or two running up to last summer's Marmotte in the French Alps, these bars were worth their weight in gold – perhaps ZipVit should change their silver wrapping to suit. Some seriously long and hard days on the South Downs were always followed swiftly with one of these moist bars and a suitable rehydration drink. The result - they helped produce a fresh rider ready for the following morning! Unbelievable. Every time.

Having used most of the similar bars on the market, these come out on top by far. The chocolate orange flavour was very agreeable and didn't cause me a problem. Even in the 30 minutes after crossing the finish line of The Marmotte itself, when I didn't really want to eat anything else at all, I was actually looking forward to one of these bars - it was still a pleasure. Interestingly, I was the only rider of our group to eat a recovery bar after that tough day and I believe it was evident that my recovery was so much quicker as the evening wore on.

I'm already planning for next year's rides now ad the training starts in earnest in the next few weeks, one of the things I will be trying is eating a bar about 30 minutes before the end of a ride to see if that helps boost recovery time even further, it's an approach ZipVit say works for the pros. 

The ZipVit bar contains an impressive 19.7g of protein (none of it from soy) and 37.2g of carbs to help repair your muscles, refuel your energy tanks and generally get you ready to get back on the bike again. It's quick and easy to digest and is suitable for veggies. Only available in boxes of 15 at £17 a box they work out as a fairly cost effective post-ride recovery food… bottom line is though, that they work.

Verdict

A great, tasty bar which I will continue to use regularly. They should change the silver wrapper to gold to reflect the quality