Tour de France: Why do professional cyclists love sour cherry juice?

One of the biggest sporting events of the summer is currently underway: the Tour de France. And this year, sour cherries are always involved¹ – The tart juice of the popular stone fruit tastes good – and is good for you. This is because sour cherries contain polyphenols, which are said to have an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect and can therefore promote muscle regeneration.

Cycling races: Top performance over more than 3,300 kilometres

The Tour de France is the most famous and one of the most demanding cycling races in the world: this year it has a total distance of more than 3,300 kilometres and runs in 21 stages from Lille to Paris. The race involves over 50,000 metres of climbing in total.²

The race is an enormous physical and mental challenge for the 184 participants² . In order to perform optimally, not only the right nutrition is crucial, but also the choice of drinks. A particular favourite of many athletes this year: sour cherry juice, which is sometimes enjoyed immediately after crossing the finish line. Self-confessed fans include the stars Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) and Pascal Ackermann (Germany).¹

Sour cherries: these ingredients make them so valuable

Sour cherries don’t just impress with their refreshingly tart flavour. They are also full of valuable ingredients: In addition to various vitamins and minerals, these include polyphenols.

What are polyphenols?

Polyphenols are secondary plant substances. They serve plants as fragrances and colourants and protect them from the sun and predators.³ According to the German Federal Centre for Nutrition (BZfE), most secondary plant substances are classified as health-promoting substances.⁴

There are different types of polyphenols:

• Flavonoids: they form a large group. These include anthocyanins, which give flowers and fruits their reddish to blue-black colour. ^5,6 Cherries also owe their red colour to anthocyanins.
• Non-flavonoids: Substances in this group include resveratrol, which is found in red grapes and red wine, and phenolic acids.³ The latter characterise the taste of many foods and are also said to have an antioxidant effect.⁷

Where are polyphenols found?

Polyphenols are generally found in plant-based foods: in fruit and vegetables, but also in tea, coffee and cocoa. Berries in particular are rich in these secondary plant substances: The riper the fruit is, the more polyphenols it contains. Good sources are chokeberries, blueberries, black elderberries and cherries³ – with sour cherries providing more polyphenols than sweet cherries.⁸

What benefits can polyphenols have for athletes?

Intense sport can lead to muscle overload. This can result in minor damage, so-called microtears. It also leads to local inflammatory processes and oxidative stress.⁹ This means that reactive molecules are produced that can damage body cells.

To counteract this effect, many competitive athletes take dietary supplements with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties – preferably based on secondary plant substances. Incidentally, this is not doping: professional athletes choose ingredients that have been expressly authorised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).¹⁰

According to various studies, supplements containing polyphenols can have a positive effect on the muscles as they have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. This means that they can support the healing of muscle damage, reduce symptoms such as muscle soreness and fatigue – and thus promote the regeneration of athletes.^9,11

Tart cherries in sport: what do studies say?

The polyphenol-rich sour cherry is also said to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. They are even listed as sour cherry juice or concentrate in the ‘IOC Consensus Statement: Food Supplements and High Performance Athletes’: The document mentions it under the heading of ‘dietary supplements that may support training capacity, recovery, muscle soreness and injury management’.¹⁰

Numerous studies have looked at the benefits of tart cherries, particularly in sport. Two reviews summarise selected results and conclude that

• in most studies, eating cherries reduced oxidative stress and inflammation, exercise-induced muscle soreness and loss of strength, and lowered blood pressure^12,
• Tart cherry concentrate has shown anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and circulation-enhancing properties^{14, 13} and
• sour cherry concentrate has been shown to increase performance during endurance training¹³.

The circulation-enhancing effect is said to improve the oxygen supply to the muscles during exercise.¹⁴ The phenolic acids it contains are probably responsible for this.¹⁵

According to Jon Greenwell, team doctor for the US racing team EF Education-EasyPost, eating sour cherries directly after exercise is beneficial. This is when the muscles are particularly receptive.¹

However, normal cherry juice is not enough to maximise the benefits of the polyphenols. Sour cherry concentrates or concentrated sour cherry extracts in capsule form provide significantly larger amounts of polyphenols – and less tooth-damaging sugar.

References:

1. de. Tour de France 2025: Kirschsaft als “Zaubertrank” für Radstars bei Frankreich-Rundfahrt. Stand: 12.07.2025 https://www.eurosport.de/radsport/tour-de-france/2025/kirschsaft-als-zaubertrank-radstars-frankreich-rundfahrt-saft-bringt-vorteile-mit_sto23201331/story.shtml, letzter Abruf am 17.07.2025
2. Le Tour.fr. Strecke 2025. Hrsg.: Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.) Ltd. https://www.letour.fr/de/allgemeine-strecke, letzter Abruf am 17.07.2025
3. de Polyphenole. Hrsg.: LUMITOS AG. https://www.chemie.de/lexikon/Polyphenole.html, letzter Abruf am 17.07.2025
4. Bundeszentrum für Ernährung (BZfE). Müller C. Sekundäre Pflanzenstoffe – Wichtig für Pflanzen – gesund für Menschen. Stand: 28.02.2025. Hrsg.: Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE). https://www.bzfe.de/essen-und-gesundheit/naehrstoffe/sekundaere-pflanzenstoffe, letzter Abruf am 18.07.2025
5. de. Flavonoide. Hrsg.: LUMITOS AG. https://www.chemie.de/lexikon/Flavonoide.html, letzter Abruf am 17.07.2025
6. gv.at. Flavonoide. Hrsg.: Bundesministerium für Arbeit, Soziales, Gesundheit, Pflege und Konsumentenschutz (BMASGPK), Wien. https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/lexikon/F/lexikon-flavonoide.html, letzter Abruf am 17.07.2025
7. Fachgesellschaft für Ernährungstherapie und Prävention (FET) e.V. Phenolsäuren: Unsichtbare Schutzschilde. Stand: 05.09.2024. https://fet-ev.eu/phenolsaeuren/, letzter Abruf am 18.07.2025
8. sports+medicine.com. Häußer J. Kirschen und Kirschsaft für eine bessere Regeneration. Stand: 27.10.2019. https://sportsandmedicine.com/de/2019/10/kirschen-und-kirschsaft-fuer-eine-bessere-regeneration/, letzter Abruf am 17.07.2025
9. Tanabe Y et al. Dietary Supplementation for Attenuating Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage and Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness in Humans. 2021 Dec 24; 14(1): 70. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8746365/
10. Maughan RJ et al. IOC Consensus Statement: Dietary Supplements and the High-Performance Athlete. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Mar 14; 52(7): 439–455. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/7/439.long
11. Rawson ES et al. Dietary Supplements for Health, Adaptation, and Recovery in Athletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2018 Mar 1; 28(2): 188-199. https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/28/2/article-p188.xml
12. Kelley DS et al. A Review of the Health Benefits of Cherries. 2018 Mar 17; 10(3): 368. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5872786/
13. Gao R & PD Chilibeck. Effect of Tart Cherry Concentrate on Endurance Exercise Performance: A Meta-analysis. J Am Coll Nutr. 2020 Sep-Oct; 39(7): 657-664. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/07315724.2020.1713246
14. Morgan PT, Barton MJ, Bowtell JL. Montmorency cherry supplementation improves 15-km cycling time-trial performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 119(3):675–684, 2019. doi:10.1007/ s00421-018-04058-6. 8. Keane KM, George TW
15. Keane KM et al. Phytochemical uptake following human consumption of Montmorency tart cherry (L. Prunus cerasus) and influence of phenolic acids on vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro. Eur J Nutr. 2016 Jun; 55(4): 1695-705. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-015-0988-9