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Myprotein MP MAX Hurricane Evo protein drink

8
£42.49

VERDICT:

8
10
Great levels of recovery and performance at a decent price, choose your flavour wisely though
Weight: 
60g

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

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Cyclists mostly use protein drinks for recovery post ride to enable the muscles to rebuild and repair themselves. MyProtein's offering, MAX Hurricane Evo is more of an all-round muscle builder with its protein to carb ratio of 2:1 (most cycling specific recovery stuff is stacked 2:1 in the carbs favour) intended to be taken whether it's a training day or not.

Primarily aimed at sports like weightlifting and rugby, where large amounts of lean muscle mass are beneficial, the Evo drinks nevertheless show some pretty good benefits for the cyclist.

Your £42.49 gets you 1.8kg of powder which is enough for two to three weeks depending on how many days you train. The plan is to mix three scoops (60g) with 300-400ml of water or skimmed milk, give it a shake and drink it as soon as you wake and then have another as soon as you finish your workout. Non-training days mean just one shake when you wake.

The two flavour options are Chocolate Mint or Velvet Vanilla and only one of those gets my vote, the chocolate is pretty palatable but the vanilla is just plain wrong.

I had eight sachets to play with which is about four days-worth so a plan to test things in a real world kind of approach was hatched. Obviously eight sachets was never going to be enough to notice any real gains in muscle growth or strength but any differences in recovery should be obvious.

For two weeks I put in the same amount of weekly miles. Five days of commuting around 35-40 miles and whatever was required on a Saturday ride to make things up to 200 miles with one day of recovery before starting again. The daily routine is coffee then a fasted ride to the office, breakfast and then lunch at about 1pm. I'd then ride home, quick snack at 6pm then dinner around half eight. By the Thursday ride home the legs are normally starting to get tired with Friday and Saturday a 'just get it done' kind of approach.

Week three and everything is kept the same but with a shake when I get to the office and one when I step through the door in the evening. Things were looking promising by Thursday with very little fatigue in my legs at all whether that be on the bike or climbing stairs. Friday's ride feels much easier and Saturday's is a joy. Once back to normal the following week saw the return to tired legs and while granted its not a hugely scientific test I found the results pretty noticeable.

Overall the benefits were plain to see '' or at least feel '' for me. While more prolonged use could lead to weight gain, for short-term multi-day events I reckon the MAX Hurricane Evo could provide the kind of recovery and reduced muscle soreness that would make long distance riding much more enjoyable.

Taste wise the Mint Chocolate was just like a normal milkshake even with water and it mixed well as long as you use a water bottle or shaker. I didn't really get on with the Vanilla flavour but some might.

Pricing is pretty competitive as SIS' Rego Protein is £48 for the same 30 servings (less overall powder though at 1.2kg) while Zipvit's recovery drink is sixty five quid for 20 servings.

For riders looking to put on some muscle mass for the track or sprinting the Myprotein powder could well be the ideal all round package but certainly in terms of recovery performance the MAX Hurricane Evo powder is very good indeed.

Verdict

Great levels of recovery and performance at a decent price, choose your flavour wisely though.

road.cc test report

Make and model: Myprotein MP MAX Hurricane Evo

Size tested: Velvet Vanilla, Chocolate Mint

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

"MP MAX® Hurricane Evo is a premium all-in-one sports supplement. Packed with a unique combination of proteins, carbohydrates, Creatine, amino acids and HMB" is what MyProtein has to say and from my experience it should cover a broad range of sports. While it isn't cycling-specific the Evo provides a lot of benefits.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Growth and maintenance of lean muscle mass

Maintained energy levels

Added Creatine and HMB

Nutritional Information

Per 60g:

Energy: 908.0kJ

Energy: 217.0Kcal

Protein (as-is): 34.6g

Carbohydrates: 14.4g

of which sugars: 1.8g

of which polyols: 0.0g

Fat: 2.3g

of which saturates: 0.8g

Dietary Fibre: 2.2g

Sodium: 0.0g

Also provides per 60g:

Glutamine Peptides: 3.0g

L-Leucine: 2.0g

Creatine Monohydrate: 2.5g

Digezyme®: 50 mg

Lactospore®: 100 million

Calcium HMB: 1.5g

Rate the product for performance:
 
8/10
Rate the product for value:
 
8/10

Looks well-priced compared to the opposition.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Very well in terms of recovery.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

How my legs felt at the end of the week.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

The vanilla flavour.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would you consider buying the product? Yes for specific events.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 35  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: Ribble Winter Trainer for commuting, Genesis Flyer  My best bike is: Sarto Rovigo

I've been riding for: 10-20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,

 

Since writing his first bike review for road.cc back in early 2009 senior product reviewer Stu has tested more than a thousand pieces of kit, and hundreds of bikes.

With an HND in mechanical engineering and previous roles as a CNC programmer/machinist, draughtsman and development engineer (working in new product design) Stu understands what it takes to bring a product to market. A mix of that knowledge combined with his love of road and gravel cycling puts him in the ideal position to put the latest kit through its paces.

He first made the switch to road cycling in 1999, primarily for fitness, but it didn’t take long for his competitive side to take over which led to around ten years as a time triallist and some pretty decent results. These days though riding is more about escapism, keeping the weight off and just enjoying the fact that he gets to ride the latest technology as part of his day job.

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7 comments

Avatar
Joeinpoole | 11 years ago
0 likes

What's wrong with real food and drink which, last time I checked, was widely and cheaply available everywhere?

These ridiculous powders and 'gels' are just basic foods that have been massively over-processed, given pseudo-scientific names and then sold on at absurdly over-inflated prices to those stupid enough to pay for them.

You want some quick protein? Eat a can of sardines or tuna straight out of the tin. You want carbs? Eat some bread. Want extra carbs? Have some cake. Then wash it down with a glass of milk for the calcium.

You don't need to buy 1.8kg of white powder for £43 when you could buy the same weight of fillet steak for about the same price.

Avatar
allez neg | 11 years ago
0 likes

Do these protein drinks give you the sort of flatus that would qualify as a WMD?

Avatar
Nick T | 11 years ago
0 likes

I used to get MP whey protein, standard stuff, back when I did a fair amount of weights at the gym. A packet of nesquik was how I carb'd it up, tasted a lot better than their flavours did too.

Now I I don't mess with any of that, just stick to normal good and a drop of the aforementioned milkshake. I had to eat a metric ton to ever gain anything anyway. Don't have the make up for a bulky physique.

Avatar
Stim | 11 years ago
0 likes

43 quid for a couple of sachets of fucking milkshake?
not gonna happen,not now,not ever,NEVER
 38

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to Stim | 11 years ago
0 likes
Stim wrote:

43 quid for a couple of sachets of fucking milkshake?
not gonna happen,not now,not ever,NEVER
 38

Stim - are you just going to spend the afternoon scattering expletives around the website ? Yeah this is a stupid price and no 30 quid isn't an extortionate price for bib tights in Aldi... so what, just calm down.

Avatar
Ham-planet | 11 years ago
0 likes

MP's whey protein powder is much better value than this - you can get 5 kg of it for the price of 2 kg of this. Buy a bag of your preferred carbs with it and you'll save a pretty penny, at the price of slightly reduced convenience. You also gain the versatility of having protein and carb powders which you can easily add to your meals or drinks bottles.

Avatar
Nick T | 11 years ago
0 likes

Supermarket cartons of chocolate milkshake is worth a try if you want to give recovery drinks a go, a great whack of sugar and protein but less convenient than sachets of powder.

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