Trial reportSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2024
The Effects of a Novel Sodium Bicarbonate Ingestion System on Repeated 4 km Cycling Time Trial Performance in Well-Trained Male Cyclists.
Trial report in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic and critical review of measurement scales for evaluating gastrointestinal symptoms during exercise.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Gastrointestinal Symptoms Associated With Sodium Bicarbonate Supplementation Protocols: A Systematic Review.European journal of sport science · 2026Pooled it
- Negligible benefit of oral single-dose sodium bicarbonate on continuous running performance: systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Bicarbonate and Carbohydrate Co-Ingestion During Exercise in a Novel Gel Format Improves Time-Trial Performance After 3 h of Moderate-Intensity Exercise in Trained Cyclists.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2026Trial
- The effect of sodium bicarbonate mini-tablets in a carbohydrate hydrogel on prolonged high-intensity cycling performance and metabolism in acute normobaric hypoxia.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- Delaying task failure in high-intensity exercise: a Pi-afferent-effort framework for targeted sports nutrition.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Review
- Common questions and misconceptions of sodium bicarbonate as an ergogenic aid: what does the science really show?Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Review
- Prevalence, implementation, and barriers of sodium bicarbonate supplementation in team sports.Biology of sport · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA novel sodium bicarbonate (SB) product has come to market named the "Bicarb System" (M-SB; Maurten AB, Gothenburg, Sweden). It claims to minimise gastrointestinal (GI) discomfort whilst still improving exercise performance.
aimTo investigate the effects of M-SB ingestion on repeated 4 km cycling time trials (TT1 and TT2) in well-trained male cyclists.
methodsThe study recruited ten well-trained cyclists (maximal oxygen uptake (
resultsPerformance in TT1 was faster in the M-SB condition compared with TT1 in CON (- 5.1 s; p = 0.004) and PLA (- 3.5 s; p < 0.001). In TT2, performance was also significantly faster in the M-SB condition compared with CON (- 4.4 s; p = 0.018) or PLA (- 4.1 s; p = 0.002). Total aggregated GI symptoms were generally low and not significantly different between PLA and the M-SB conditions for a range of symptoms.
conclusionsThe ingestion of M-SB improves repeated 4 km cycling TT performance and the recovery of acid-base balance between bouts, whilst causing minimal GI discomfort.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.