Updated April 20, 2026 08:04AM
If Nomio broccoli shots are the new ketones, cherry juice, or sodium bicarbonate, then Tom Pidcock and Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling want to know about it.
Pidcock and Co. are guzzling the green “superfuel” as part of a research partnership that could shift the landscape of performance enhancement.
The “Big 5” of legal sport supplements could become “6” if Nomio can back up its own bold claims.
WorldTour nutritionists will be adding new lines to their menus. Weekend warriors will be filling their storecupboards.
Nomio – a concentrated broccoli drink – sprouted into the most hyped ergogenic aid of elite sport within months of its 2024 launch.
The brand’s own research found that a few slurps of Nomio a day can reduce exercise lactate by 12 percent and press fast forward on post-workout recovery.
Superstar athletes like Mads Pedersen, U.S. running phenom Cole Hocker, Ironman champion Casper Stornes, and masses of the elite marathon community have been enticed by the viscous green goop.
And Nomio believes the current wave of hype is only the start.
“Our goal is that all athletes going to the Olympics in LA 2028 will be users of Nomio,” they told us.
Nomio: Lots of hype, little science
Pidcock and his Pinarello Q36.5 teammates are being made test guinea pigs for Nomio. (Photo: Marco BERTORELLO / AFP via Getty Images)
But the broccoli supplement skeptics have almost outnumbered the green believers.
Trainers through the WorldTour laughed off Nomio as marketing style over performance substance when Velo contacted them about it.
And they have good reason to doubt what could just be a sporting AG1.
The science isn’t there.
At this point, the only studies supporting Nomio come from one of the founder’s own labs. The test subjects were enthusiastic amateurs with a huge headroom for performance growth.
The credibility was so cloudy that many independent experts brushed off the findings and moved on.
That’s why Nomio has enlisted Pinarello-Q36.5 as a partner for what’s already been a long-running research collaboration.
For the Swedish brand, partnering the cycling elite offers a chance at scientific credibility in a world of bogus science and snake oil.
For the upstart Swiss team, there’s the chance to get some first-mover advantage on what might be the peloton’s next genuine performance gain.
Kilos of broccoli and less lactate in every bottle
Will these drinks be in the fridges of the entire WorldTour in a few years? (Photo: Nomio)
As a quick recap of this deep dive we wrote last year, Nomio sells itself on the power of ITCs.
ITCs, or isothiocyanates, are antioxidant compounds found in high concentrations in broccoli.
ITCs can help regulate physical strain and stimulate pathways that promote mitochondrial development.
Mitochondria are the so-called “powerhouses” of metabolism. These cellular structures create energy and make winners.
Nomio concentrates a unique strain of broccoli sprout that’s renowned for packing a potent percentage of ITCs. One 60ml Nomio shot is – apparently – equivalent to eating 2.5kg of raw greens.
The brand recommends two or three shots around heavy workouts to boost performance, enhance recovery, and put athletic progression into an upward spiral.
Nomio’s sprout plantations will be worth as much as the most fertile “green” fields of Thailand if its Pidcock project pays off.
What is Nomio testing with Pidcock and Q36.5?
Pedersen has concocted a foul pre-race drink of Nomio and Monster energy drink. (Photo: Gruber Images)
Exact details of the Nomio x Pinarello-Q36.5 collaboration are sparse.
Their co-funded project has been kept under wraps for close to a year and was only low-key revealed earlier this month.
The two parties appear to have come together through a shared contact, Bent Rønnestad. This leading physiologist works with team Q36.5 and acts as scientific advisor to Nomio.
Velo has been in close contact with both Nomio and staff at Q36.5, but neither will reveal much about the testing protocol, data set, or anticipated findings.
It’s understood that the impact of Nomio on altitude training has been a key focus of a study that’s entailed all 30 riders on the ProTeam squad.
So that explains all the crates of Nomio that were shipped to Chile this winter.
“We’ve been testing Nomio under different settings with their top riders since last summer,” Nomio co-founder Emil Sjölander told Velo.
‘We’ve seen very strong data from those tests. The tests have extended to everything around impacts on training and altitude adaptations, as well as direct power output and time to exhaustion tests,” Sjölander said.
“Riders have seen improvements across many metrics.”
Neither Sjölander nor the team’s lead nutritionist Adam Plucinski would reveal which metrics were being tested beyond power.
Blood lactate, heart rate, and RPE (rate of perceived exertion) are our best-guesses.
“We have already tested Nomio in several scenarios,” Plucinski said. “We’re interested in understanding how other biomarkers could impact recovery. Nomio is a great partner to support us with that.
“Together, we hope to find new ways to push the limit in pro cycling.”
Nomio: The next mainstream performance supplement?
Pidcock got off to a hot start before he was held back by a crash in Catalunya. (Photo: DAVID PINTENS / BELGA MAG / Belga via AFP))
Why does this partnership matter?
Does it matter at all?
Sure, nobody believes broccoli shots could have the same impact on elite performance as altitude training or high-carb fueling.
But if Nomio’s own claims are true, these drinks could become another “thing” that orbits pro performance.
Remember how we smirked at the idea that cherry juice helps recovery? We’re not laughing now as we watch 90 percent of the peloton pound it down before they’ve even unclipped from a bike race.
Nomio is, of course, confident that there’s a lot to prove. They’re certain that broccoli shots are the next big thing.
“There are plenty of questions we can answer with the help of testing on top-tier cyclists,” brand founder Sjölander said.
“Previously, our research has been done on very fit amateurs, but we’ve had a hypothesis that the effects of ITCs are stronger the fitter the individual is. This will allow us to verify that at the highest level.”
Pidcock started slugging broccoli shots last summer and went on to finish third at the Vuelta a España.
The all-terrain Brit recently dominated Milan-Torino and took Tadej Pogačar to the line at Milan-San Remo.
And now he’s racing the Tour of the Alps, just weeks after smashing his knee in a horror crash while racing in Catalunya.
Nomio would like to claim that broccoli drinks were behind Pidcock’s recent rise to the very top of pro cycling.
The ongoing study will show if there’s substance behind the broccoli hype.