Built by an athlete. Driven by performance.

Rush The Gap Nutrition was founded from a genuine passion for endurance sport, performance, and the constant pursuit of improvement.

I’m the founder of Rush The Gap and an 18-year-old competitive road cyclist. For the past five years, cycling has been a huge part of my life. I’ve spent thousands of hours training, racing, travelling to events, riding through winter, pushing through difficult sessions, and learning what it really takes to prepare for competition.

Being an athlete has taught me that performance isn't simply about how hard you can train.

It is about everything that surrounds the training — preparation, consistency, recovery, equipment, mindset and, perhaps most importantly, nutrition.

Where the idea came from

Through my own experience in cycling, I became increasingly interested in the role that nutrition plays in endurance sport.

I experienced first-hand how easy it can be to overcomplicate sports nutrition. There are countless products, different formulations, complicated ingredient lists and significant differences in price. For athletes who train and race regularly, the cost of fuelling can add up quickly.

I started asking a simple question:

Could sports nutrition be made simpler, more accessible and more affordable without compromising on quality?

That question became the starting point for Rush The Gap Nutrition.

The aim was never to create products simply for the sake of creating another sports nutrition brand. It was to develop straightforward products around the things that actually matter to endurance athletes  - carefully selected ingredients, considered formulations, practicality and value.

From the bike to the business

Rush The Gap has been built alongside my own development as an athlete.

I understand what it is like to spend hours on the bike preparing for a race, to structure training around a busy schedule, and to rely on nutrition being practical enough to fit into real training and racing.

That perspective is at the heart of the brand.

I want Rush The Gap products to be simple to understand and simple to use. Whether you're heading out for a lengthy training ride, a long run, preparing for a race, or simply trying to make fuelling more straightforward, sports nutrition shouldn't feel unnecessarily complicated.

That is why practicality is such an important part of how I have approached the brand — from the ingredients we use to the way our products are packaged and used.

Combining real-world experience with science

My interest in sports nutrition doesn't stop with my own experience as an athlete.

I achieved 3 x Distinction*  at BTEC level 3 Sports & Exercise science at college.

In September 2026 I will continue my studies with a degree course in Sports and Exercise Science at University. I’ll be developing my understanding of exercise physiology, human performance, training and nutrition.

As I continue my education, I want to bring together two perspectives that I believe are incredibly valuable:

The science behind performance and the reality of being an athlete.

Scientific knowledge can help us understand why certain approaches may work, but real-world experience helps us understand how those approaches actually fit into an athlete's life.

Rush The Gap will continue to develop with both of those perspectives in mind.

As I learn more, race more and gain more experience within endurance sport, I want that knowledge to continually influence how the brand develops.

More than just nutrition

The name Rush The Gap comes from the mindset behind endurance sport.

In cycling, the definition of "Rush the Gap" is where a rider tactically lets a small gap open to the wheel in front of them, before sprinting into the slipstream and then using the momentum to surge past the riders ahead. This is generally done to establish a breakaway or to bridge the gap to the breakaway. 

However ....

Every athlete has a gap they are trying to close.

It might be the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. The gap between getting dropped and staying with the group. The gap between completing a training session and completing it well. Or simply the gap between yesterday's performance and tomorrow's.

Sometimes closing that gap happens quickly.

More often, it happens through hundreds of small improvements — another training session, another early morning, another difficult interval, another race, another lesson learned.

That mindset is what I want Rush The Gap to represent.

Ambition. Discipline. Consistency. Progress.

Not perfection — progress.

Our mission

Rush The Gap Nutrition exists to make performance nutrition more straightforward and accessible for endurance athletes.

We believe athletes should be able to understand what they're putting into their bodies, know why those ingredients are there, and have access to products that provide genuine value.

We're starting with endurance sport, but the ambition is much bigger.

I want to build Rush The Gap into a brand created by athletes, shaped by science and constantly improved through experience.

Because I'm not building this brand from the outside looking in.

I'm an athlete too.

I'm still training. I'm still racing. I'm still learning. And I'm still trying to close my own gap.

Rush The Gap is simply the next part of that journey. 

With the support from my brother and mum, my idea has evolved into a small, but viable family business. A lot of planning and research has now enabled me to launch this product. I hope you like it!

 

Rush the Gap.

Toby Barnes                                                                             September 2026