Good info here: Reactive hypoglycaemia
However I do something similar to what you do, but no gel before the start anymore, because it made me feel sick. So now I drink up until about 10 min before the start, and even have a handful of sweets about 30min before. So I do everything wrong, lol. However, I don’t feel sick and I don’t run out of energy, so I don’t feel like changing it.