I have used it off and on; mostly off, but on the days I include it in my workouts and my rides I can sustain a higher output for a longer time.
Maybe mental......maybe not, but watch out for the hydration because creatine can lead to crampping; BAD crampping. Yes it might help but it won't make up for a winter on the sofa...........
Ask your doctor before starting any exercise program.

YES you will die so don't do it. Just kidding. There's no way around good training and diet. I doubt creatine will help you nearly as much as doing some extra squats or some good lactate threshold training will. Eat some red meat at least once a week but not 3 days before the race.

I've used it during heavy lifting periods and not really for the bike, but I gained alot of weight everytime I've used it. I would say the increased water intake needed justs gets put around your body. So the 1% increase in momentary strength is abolished by the 2% performance decrease with the 5lbs you now gained.

as almost every other poster has said - bicarbonate soda is what helps in the buffering of lactic acid, but as mises mentioned it has been reported to cause digestive stress

creatine has been shown to help in repeated bouts of intermittent exercise. having said that though if you are not specifically trained or you're after a quick fix then nothing can help

good luck in the race!

taking creatine is a stupid thing to do.
first, it'll damge our body, second, it won't help you...

Creatine is a phosfate? that will load your "phosfate?battery" You use this "battery"in the first seconds of a sprint or something like that. After that your body has to burn something else.
Magnesium will take away the pain of the lactic acid.

good luck with the crit!

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Before any event, most coaches advice the same thing.

"Dont change anything, without knowing how your body will react"


Stick to your usual
drink
bike set-up
eating


Changing stuff before something important is crazy. Training is where you should "try new stuff out".

_________________
"Ride it like you've just stolen it!"

there are hundreds of published research papers which show that creatine does work

perhaps you should check some out before you go making such rash blanket statements

there are hundreds of published research papers which show that creatine does damage your body and doesn't help you in endurance

Maybe both you guys can come up with a few links to these studies...

Creatine doesn't help you with your endurance. It will help you with sprinting etc.

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After about 20 seconds of a sprint, your muscles burned all the creatine they had. So taking creatine will help you in one sprint in the race...

ah, ah, The so called "battery" will slowly recharge. Within 10 minutes it already is up to 80% "charged" So you can sprint again. It will take an hour to do the complete "recharge".

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Are you still alive?

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John979

precisely - it is not an endurance aid, it is for repetitive, intermittent bouts of exercise

will post some links shortly to research conducted

@ Olver - i would be most interested to see these studies report damage to the body

I have been working as a physiologist for almost 10 years, have been involved in creatine studies both as a researcher and as a subject and have never heard this before...