Last October, Italian rider Vittoria Bussi came within 404 meters of breaking the world one-hour cycling Record of 47,980 meters at a high-altitude velodrome in Mexico.

Given Bussi’s odd provenance, that margin was remarkable: the 30-year-old ex-runner began cycling less than four years ago, while earning her doctorate in pure mathematics at the University of Oxford.

A drink developed for troops to generate energy from ketones rather than carbs or fat 

The 400-meter margin had an odd mathematical resonance as well. While Bussi was working on her thesis, Oxford biochemists, including Bussi’s cycling coach, Tom Kirk, were researching the endurance-boosting properties of ketones, a type of emergency fuel produced by the body when it detects starvation and can provide muscles with an alternative source of energy beyond carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

“A Drink developed for troops to generate energy from ketones rather than carbs or fat allowed highly experienced cyclists to add up to 400 meters of distance to their training,” they boasted in a press release in July 2016.

It’s no surprise, however, that Bussi will return to the velodrome in Aguascalientes on September 12 for another attack on the Hour, this time utilizing ketones to try to eke out those last 404 meters.

HVMN, a Silicon Valley business that now sells the Oxford ketone drink for an eye-popping price of slightly over $30 a bottle, is supporting her effort in part. When I wrote for Outside earlier this year about HVMN’s new ketone drink, I concluded with a question mark, stating that “the true extent and nature of the edge—or lack thereof—that ketones offer in real-world circumstances will likely take years to sort out.

” But, if Bussi can set a new world record with ketones, the business expects that those worries will start to fade.

Ketones, in principle, provide more energy to your muscles during activity, prolonging the time when they run out of carbohydrate. However, proving this in practice has proven challenging, in part due to the difficulties of creating a tasty and economical ketone drink.

The breath controls it all – the autonomic nerve system—circulation, blood flow and more, read about breathwork here

The Oxford researchers devised a formulation based on ketone esters, a chemical form that partially tackles these issues: it’s still not cheap, but it’s a bargain compared to the $25,000-per-dose price tag in their initial studies. Their 2016 study, which was published in the journal Cell Metabolism, discovered a 400-meter increase in performance over a 30-minute cycling trial—a promising finding that has yet to be duplicated despite previous attempts.

It’s not apparent how that rise may lead to an assault on the Hour record. Geoffrey Woo, HVMN’s CEO, was evasive when I questioned how much advantage he expected Bussi to derive from the drink.

“We expect she’ll cover an extra 400 to 800 meters this time,” he said, but he was cautious to point out that such gains would be attributable to “increased experience and training” as well as the ketone component. Thanks to wind tunnel tests with aerodynamics specialist Simon Smart, Bussi has made substantial improvements to her riding posture since last year.

All of this is eerily similar to Nike’s Breaking2 experiment from last year, which Woo claims as an inspiration. Nike had a new pair of shoes to promote in their pursuit of a two-hour marathon, which they claimed (with good reason, evidently) would make runners four percent more efficient.

But they also put a lot of effort into improving the race track, the pacemaking team’s aerodynamics, and a variety of other elements, so it was difficult to determine how much of Eliud Kipchoge’s success to attribute to the shoes against the other factors when he ran an amazing 2:00:25. The fact that the research was a real-world test outside of the lab limited the conclusions that could be derived.

Bussi’s attempt on the Hour record, which is currently held by American cyclist Evelyn Stevens, will undoubtedly be the same: victory will not indicate that ketones work, and failure will not establish that they don’t. However, witnessing a top-level biker attempt it in full transparency will be fascinating.

There are a lot of rumors about pro cyclists and other elite sportsmen utilizing ketones, but there isn’t a lot of real evidence. When I first wrote about HVMN, the firm promised to put me in touch with “professional athletes who have benefited from HVMN Ketone,” but later pulled out of that commitment, citing confidentiality agreements.

Bussi has only been tinkering with the beverage since June, and admits that “the taste isn’t terrific.” She usually eats nothing but white rice before training or racing, so getting used to a stomach-churning pre-race drink will be a huge struggle.

For the time being, her strategy is to drink 1 to 1.5 bottles of ketone drink 90 minutes before the event. She claims that the drink has given her “more energy in the last portion of the effort and more mental focus” thus far.

The breath controls it all – the autonomic nerve system—circulation, blood flow and more, read about breathwork here

Bussi’s decision to employ ketones will, in the end, cause some debate. Is her ambition to break the record now just a big publicity stunt? Will the usage of a new super-fuel stain her record if she narrowly tops Stevens’ time? These criticisms are understandable. Nonetheless, after some thought, I’d want to see more moonshot efforts like this.

A huge attempt at a world record will never be able to substitute thorough laboratory science. However, it does provide a different kind of reality check: if your new product can truly make athletes better than competitors, why not demonstrate it by assisting someone in going faster or farther than any human has gone before? It’s an excellent proof-of-concept, and, as Breaking2 shown, it can also be a lot of fun to watch.

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