We have discovered that VeloPress is in the process of converting an array of their new and bestselling titles to eBook format for such popular devices as Kindle, Nook, Apple iBook, Kobo, and others. VeloPress offers a wide selection of cycling books pertaining to training, exercise, nutrition, biography, and history. They also offer books on triathlon, running, and winter sports.

For example, VeloPress is now offering their recently-published (and quite interesting) “Team 7-Eleven” Kindle version on Amazon for $13.49. Watch Bikerumor for a review of this book in coming days.

To see highlights of what they’re offering and to get the link to the full list of titles currently and soon-to-be available, click more…

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Building on their basic electrolyte replacement formula, GU Brew, their new Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Drink adds some of the performance ingredients found in their Roctane gel varieties.

Upgrades include Taurine, White Tea extract, Beta Alanine and Histidine to buffer acid and the BCAA’s Leucine, Valine and Isoleucine. It’s designed for rides and workouts lasting more than 90 minutes.

Full PR with pricing and sizes behind the break, and if you order through GU’s website, they have a special that includes eight FREE Roctane gels with purchase…

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The Aerobie AeroPress, which is available through Kinetic Koffee’s website, is a simple hand powered espresso and coffee press. It’s perfect for a quick cup or two when you don’t want to brew a full pot, or when power’s not available. We’ve used ours camping this summer and at the BURN 24 Hour Challenge by boiling water on the camp stove. Not only is it really easy, but it’s pretty quick and the coffee it produces it quite tasty.

See what’s in the box, plus several other mini reviews of Muscle Milk, Swiftwick socks, and more after the break…

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Clif Bar and Gu aren’t the only ones releasing limited edition holiday flavors. Cytosport’s Muscle Milk is getting in the game with an Egg Nog rendition of their protein recovery drink mix. It’s only available in their 2.47lb canister for $53.49, but they’ve got free shipping.

Of course you’ll need something to put it in, and Kleen Kanteen has partnered with Nau to offer a set of four stainless steel travel pint cups. We were looking for something like this all summer for our six week road trip, so you can be sure we’ll be getting a set in here for “testing.” They’re stackable, retail for $39 (which is pretty good if you’ve ever price shopped SS cups!) and should do a better job of keeping your hands warm than a thermos should you brew up some coffee at cyclocross races this winter.

Looks can be deceiving; dirt's not on the menu for Todd Well's race day nutrition.

Cyclocross is a weird animal. It’s intense and technically demanding, so you don’t get much chance to consume anything during the race. It’s also short, so heavy carb loading might be overkill.

We tapped the racing-based knowledge of Team Clif Bar / Specialized pro cyclocross racer Todd Wells and nutritionist to the stars Dr. Allen Lim to see what works…

BIKERUMOR: What do you recommend eating the night before a ‘cross race?
LIM: Definitely a carb-heavy meal. Chicken marsala with rice, a salad and a nice bowl of fruit, nuts and yogurt to finish it off.

WELLS: I like to eat something fairly digestible, something like pasta or rice, maybe a little protein, nothing too heavy.

BIKERUMOR: What would you recommend eating for breakfast and leading up to a cyclocross race?
LIM: Big bowl of oatmeal with scrambled or poached eggs and maybe a small glass of freshly squeezed beet juice. If you’re standing around for a few hours before your heat, something like that you can just nibble on like our rice cakes or a peanut butter and jelly tortilla or waffle.

WELLS: I like to eat about 3 hours before a race, and I go with either rice or pasta. It depends on what time you race as well. Some amateurs generally start pretty early in the morning. I like to eat the least amount for a meal, but about an hour before the race I’ll have a Clif Bar and while warming up I’ll drink Clif’s sports drink just to keep topped off. During the race I don’t really eat or drink anything because they’re just not time. If it’s hot, though, and they’re feeding, I might grab a cup of water.

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Dr. Allen Lim has been the nutritionist to some of the biggest teams (Garmin, RadioShack) and stars, helping them stay fueled, healthy and upset stomach-free during hours and days on the bike. In 2009, he developed the Secret Drink Mix, which only recently has been made available to cyclists of average ability like you and I.

I met Dr. Lim briefly and grabbed a few samples at Interbike. They’re delicious, and they worked well for me. What makes them different is the use of real, freeze dried fruit to flavor the products and no artificial or extraneous anything. Even the packaging is bare bones plain jane. That leaves only his ideal of an electrolyte and sugar blend that has worked for many of the best riders in the world. Here are his thoughts on the development of his drink, good hydration and fueling practices and more:

BIKERUMOR: You have another version for non-workout use…tell us about that.
LIM: The Anytime. We’ve had it out for quite sometime actually, we wanted to give the guys a low calorie electrolyte drink they could use off the bike to stay hydrated. It’s actually a lot like Pedialyte, except it doesn’t taste like crap. It’s a 2% solution, so only 50 calories per serving. I gotta tell you, it works amazing for hangovers. It also works anytime for diarrhea or when (the riders are) sick. Hence the “anytime” name.

How did you first get into developing a sports drink? What was the catalyst, and what was the first step?
The catalyst were the guys constantly complaining – moaning and groaning- about their bad stomachs. It was like a bunch of little kids and you just get sick of hearing it. But it was also a real issue. People just assume it’s inevitable that an endurance athlete will get sick of their drink, that they need to train with the drink they will race with. That’s like saying you have to get hit with a baseball bat repeatedly so it won’t hurt when someone hits you with a baseball bat.

The first step was buying every other product on the market and trying them all. It was trying to find a drink rather than developing our own. It was kind of a pain in the ass. The second step was taking the existing products and adding back electrolytes so we could reduce the sugar content. Guys are always diluting the sports drinks, which might get the sugar content right, but it dilutes out the electrolytes. And the real purpose of a sports drink is to maintain sodium balance. We tried different versions of ingredients, too, ending up with sodium citrate rather than sodium chloride. Then I talked with Dr. Stacy Sims in 2009 and teamed up to make a drink from scratch so I didn’t have to worry about getting the sugar and electrolyte concentrations right by mixing things into existing drinks.

About a week before that Tour, we found a formula that worked, made a few hundred pounds in my kitchen in Girona and took it to the Tour.

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The Feedzone Cookbook is a new tome by Dr. Allen Lim, the creator of the Secret Drink Mix that is covertly used by some of the top cyclists in the world, and celebrated chef Biju Thomas. It’s 320 pages with 150 recipes for $24.95 (or $15.64 on Amazon).

PRESS RELEASE: When Dr. Allen Lim left the lab to work with pro cyclists like Levi Leipheimer and Christian Vande Velde, he found a peloton weary of food. For years the sport’s elite athletes had been underperforming on bland fare and processed bars and gels. Science held few easy answers for nutrition in the real world, where hungry athletes must find the time to shop for healthy ingredients; prepare meals; and eat before, during, and after each workout, day after day.

So Lim set out to make eating delicious and practical. His journey began with his mom, took him inside the kitchens of the Tour de France, and delivered him to a dinner party where he met celebrated chef Biju Thomas.

Chef Biju and Dr. Lim vetted countless meals with the world’s best endurance athletes during the world’s most demanding races. Now, in The Feed Zone Cookbook: Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes, Lim and Thomas share their energy-packed, nutritious recipes to make meals easy to prepare, delicious to eat, and better for performance.

The Feed Zone Cookbook provides 150 flavorful recipes that even the busiest athletes can prepare in less time than it takes to warm up for a workout. With simple recipes requiring just a handful of ingredients, Biju and Lim show how easy it is for athletes to prepare their own food, whether at home or on the go.

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Sure, they’ve been on shelves for about a month, but we thought that it would only be right to spend some time with CLIF’s Spiced Pumpkin Pie, Iced Gingerbread, and new-for-2011 Peppermint Stick energy bars before recommending them.  Don’t forget that CLIF donate 1% of sales of their holiday-inspired flavors to the Winter Wildlands Alliance (“the first and only national organization that works on behalf of skiers, snowboarders, snowshoers, winter hikers and other outdoor adventurers to address national issues that impact our winter wildlands.”) and follow your stomach past the break…

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About a year after introducing the citrus flavor Clif Shot energy gel, the lemon-lime Bloks get replaced by Citrus. They’re pretty tasty, too. As long as they don’t replace the margarita flavor, we’re cool. Available now. Full PR after the break…

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I reviewed GU’s surprisingly good peanut butter flavor here, and now they’ve gone and added it to their official SKU count. Should go well with Black Raspberry or Chocolate! They also have a new limited edition holiday Peppermint Stick flavor. Full PR follows. Sadly, they didn’t keep the Andre the Giant imagery on the PNB flavor…

PRESS RELEASE: GU Energy Labs, creators of the original sports energy gel, is proud to announce the release of two dynamic gel flavors: Peanut Butter and Peppermint Stick.

Peanut Butter GU, made with natural crushed peanuts, offers athletes a savory alternative to the vastly sweet dominated gel landscape, while Peppermint Stick GU provides a crisp zing of minty-fresh fuel. Both new flavors of GU contain GU’s proprietary Amino Blend (Leucine, Valine, Histidine, Isoleucine) as well as Potassium, Vitamin C and Vitamin E and a touch of Herbal Blend (Chamomile and Ginger).

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Seeing as how the original Stinger Waffle is still one of my all time favorite ride foods, I was excited to check out some of the new flavors Honey Stinger has goin on. New to the line up for the the organic energy chews are the pink lemonade flavor above, along with a caffeinated Limeade flavor as well. Of course the strawberry Stinger Waffle is relatively new as well. For one of my first rides back at home fresh from Interbike, I decided to grab the pink Lemonade chews and a Strawberry waffle before I set out for a short road ride.

Seeing as how I’m not a big fan of pink Lemonade the drink, I wasn’t so sure how I would react to the chews. Jump past the break to find out!

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GU had a few things laying around their Interbike booth that looked new-ish (Brew fizz tabs, etc), but what everyone seemed nutty about was the Peanut Butter flavor gel. I’m back from Vegas, out on a ride and starving.

Well, here goes nuttin’…

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