We Liked Honey Stinger Before Lance Did

By Martin • April 28th, 2010

Today news broke that Lance Armstrong had bought an ownership stake in Honey Stinger, a small, Colorado-based company that makes nutrition products that feature — yep, you guessed it — honey. Beyond the fact that pretty much any product or service in the cycling world Lance touches turns to gold, it’s clearly a vote of confidence in the company’s products, especially when it comes to the very thing that we can all be so finicky about — nutrition.

We were especially happy to hear the news because Honey Stinger is a supporting sponsor for District Velocity Racing p/b The Bike Rack. Here’s the story.

Late last summer, I decamped to Asheville, NC for a week of cycling and hiking. Once I arrived, I realized I didn’t have many gels with me, so I headed to the closest store to buy some. The store had Honey Stinger on the shelf, and being that I love honey as is, I decided to give it a whirl. The stuff was amazing. Not only did it taste exactly like honey, but it had a much smoother consistency than most of the gels out there. I even ventured as far as to try their banana-flavored honey gel, which is very good — and I tend to hate fruit-flavored gels. Since then I’ve tried their gel blocks, on-the-bike bars and recovery bars and like them all.

I checked out their website and wrote an email to someone listed as their sponsorship director, if only to say that I liked what they had and to see if they’d be willing to work with a young team from the District of Columbia. Not only did I get a response, but they said they’d be happy to as part of their Grassroots Development Program.

So here we are, working with a nutrition company that isn’t only sponsoring the Trek-Livestrong U23 team, but is now also part of Lance’s ever-growing empire of cycling advocacy, products and services. (If he buys a stake in RadioShack I’ll be stumped.) We’re happy to see the company gain such a big-name supporter; they deserve it.

Give their stuff a try. I recommend the Honey Stinger Gold Gels, the Organic Chews and the 10-gram Protein Bars.