Listen to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy Podcast 🎧

Not All Sports Drinks Are Equal: How to Choose the Right Fuel for Triathlon Performance

Jun 27, 2025

If you’re a triathlete chasing performance, you already know nutrition is your fourth discipline. But here’s a hard truth: not all sports drinks are created equal - and choosing the wrong one could mean GI issues, under-fuelling or simply bonking at the worst possible moment.

In this deep dive, we’ll compare two products from Pure Sports Nutrition - Race Fuel and Electrolyte Hydration and unpack why knowing what’s in your bottle can make or break your race day.

The Problem with One-Size-Fits-All Sports Drinks

Both of these products are marketed as “sports drinks,” but they have vastly different compositions and uses:

Race Fuel is designed for endurance fueling with a massive 90g of carbohydrate per serve
Electrolyte Hydration is more of a traditional sports drink, containing 12.5g of carbohydrate per scoop

Sounds straightforward? Not quite. If you’re just following label instructions, you could be missing the mark entirely.

What’s in Pure Race Fuel?

Race Fuel sits in Pure’s “Performance Plus” range, promising a high-carb hit ideal for long-course racing. Each serve delivers:

90g of carbohydrate (mostly from cluster dextrin)
651mg of sodium, plus potassium, calcium and magnesium
No flavouring, to help avoid taste fatigue
HASTA certification, meaning batch testing for banned substances

Sounds ideal, right? Except there’s a catch.

“Race Fuel is 90% glucose-based with only 9g of fructose. That’s not a true dual-source carb blend—and it can absolutely wreck your gut if you use it alone,” says Advanced Sports Dietitian Taryn Richardson.

Why it matters: High-carb fuelling works best when carbs come from both glucose and fructose. Without that, absorption maxes out and the rest sits in your gut—hello, bloat and race-day regrets.

What’s in Pure Electrolyte Hydration?

Despite its name, this product does contain carbs - but in smaller amounts. Per scoop:

12.5g carbohydrate (sucrose and glucose)
100mg sodium
When mixed at 3–4 scoops per bottle: 37.5–50g of carbs with better glucose:fructose ratio

It’s also isotonic (252 mOsmol/L), which helps with fluid and carb absorption. And yes, the 500g pouch is HASTA certified, but check your batch number to be sure.

Which One Belongs in Your Bottle?

It depends on your session, your sweat rate and your goals.

Use Race Fuel when:

You’re training or racing long (>2.5 hours)
You pair it with other fructose-rich sources
You tolerate high sodium and low flavour well

But don’t rely on it solo—its glucose-dominant formula limits absorption, especially if you're chasing 90–100g of carbs per hour.

Use Electrolyte Hydration when:

You want a base sports drink with customisable carbs
You're in the off-season or doing shorter sessions
You want a better carb blend without overloading your gut

You can bump up the carb content by adding extra scoops—but beware of osmolarity. Once it gets too concentrated, it becomes harder to digest unless you’ve trained your gut accordingly.

Final Verdict: Match Your Drink to Your Race Plan

Both products have their place - but neither is a perfect solution straight out of the packet. You need to tweak, combine and test based on your unique needs.

And don’t fall into the trap of copying your mate or relying solely on on-course nutrition. Your gut, performance and wallet will thank you.

Next Steps

Want to test if your current fuelling is hitting the mark?
Download the Triathlon Nutrition Checklist to find your biggest performance leaks:
👉dietitianapproved.com/checklist

Ready to nerd out on your nutrition and build a rock-solid plan?
Register for the Triathlon Nutrition Academy before doors close:
👉 dietitianapproved.com/academy