It was 20 years ago this fall — November 17, 1990, to be precise — when Gary Erickson started to bonk on the long bike ride up Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County, Calif. He had six energy bars with him for the day, a stash of calories and fuel he’d hoped would be enough for a 175-mile endurance fest concocted by a friend and fellow bike racer to be completed in a single day. But nearing the top on Mount Hamilton — legs spinning, body beginning to crash — Erickson could not stomach another bite of the bar he had in his jersey pocket. “That was the ‘epiphany moment,’ as I’ve come to call it,” Erickson said.
He didn’t know it at the time, but that single bar’s bad taste in 1990 would spark a realization with Erickson — “I can create a better-tasting energy bar!” — that was so strong it led to the formation of a company.
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Clif Bar Inc. was born in 1992, an upstart based out of a bakery Erickson ran and co-owned in Berkeley, Calif. The company blended his skills as a baker with knowledge of what’s needed on the nutritional level to succeed in an endurance event.
Today, Clif Bar & Company employs more than 200 people and produces a line of energy bars, gels, drink mixes, and kids’ snacks. I caught up with Erickson last week for an interview to talk nutrition and the future of the energy-food world.
The ride in 1990 was really the key thing to starting Clif Bar?
Yes, I think about it to this day. I didn’t realize until a time much later after the ride, but that moment was really crucial. Now I think “What if I hadn’t gone riding that day?” I wonder if I hadn’t biked that route if Clif Bar would have ever come to be.
What are some common fallacies people have about energy food as a whole?
It’s evolved over the years. Here’s one thing: At first, when I was a hardcore climber, I would try and pass out Clif Bars at the crag to these uber-thin sport climbers. They’d see the fat content in our bar, which at the time was one gram more than what was in a PowerBar, and that was too much. They didn’t want to eat it because of one extra gram! But today people understand more that fat is needed for endurance. There are healthy fats. Another long-term trend or change is that there used to be only energy bars and energy/electrolyte drinks. Now there is this whole growing center of energy gels and things like gummy CLIF SHOT BLOKS that are so important. It’s becoming mainstream.
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Can you give an outline for your optimal nutrition plan for a century bike ride [100 miles]?
A good breakfast. Then I would take two CLIF SHOT energy gels about 10 minutes before the event starts. During the ride, every 20 minutes or so, I eat two or three CLIF SHOT BLOKS. I try and eat 200 to 300 calories an hour. Then every couple of hours I’d eat a CLIF BAR and load up the calories a bit more. At the end of the race I start eating caffeinated CLIF SHOT gels for more of a boost. I take CLIF SHOT Electrolyte Drink throughout the ride, though I add in about an extra 1/4 teaspoon of salt to get the higher sodium content that I personally need.
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