Valtteri Bottas isn’t exactly like the rest of us
The man’s day job consists of orbiting a racetrack at speeds of up to 350 kilometers (217 miles) per hour with his heart rate pegged at 170 beats per minute - for two hours straight. And, again, that’s Bottas’ typical workday. As one of today’s most successful Formula 1 racers, you’d think the guy would slow down on his days off. Yeah, not so much.
When Bottas is not dominating the world’s fastest form of motorsport’s racing, he is busy being fast as hell on a gravel bike. And “fast as hell” is an understatement when you consider that the famous Finnish rider has racked up podium finishes at SBT Gravel and the Belgium Waffle Ride, and even finished mid-pack in the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championships - an event you can’t enter unless you are deadly quick on two wheels.
How did you get into gravel riding?
F1 racing is really demanding – when you’re driving 300-plus kilometers per hour around the track, you’re battling the kind of G-forces that fighter jet pilots have to endure. It takes a lot of stamina, so all of us F1 drivers spend a lot of time training.
It’s actually like a 90-10 split of training and fitness versus driving. I cycled a bit, but I was mainly a runner. When I met my partner (Canyon-SRAM gravel racer, Tiffany Cromwell) I began riding gravel a lot more. I fell in love with it. Obviously, Formula One is the priority for me, but cycling is a close second.
Are there any similarities between Formula 1 and gravel racing?
F1 and cycling are obviously very different sports and you do need different skills. F1 is a very skilled sport and it’s extremely physical as well, depending on the track. F1 races require good cardio fitness and endurance because races are anything up to two hours.
With a bike the pain you feel is mostly your legs, and just fatigue in your lungs and your breathing. With F1, the pain is like in the whole body towards the end of the race. With the G forces corner after corner, it starts to fatigue everything, especially your neck. What I like about cycling is that obviously it does make me fitter.
So cycling and F1 complement one another?
For sure. When I’m on my bike, I gain cardio, but I also use the bike almost like a stress release, you know? In a way, it's a great way to clear my head if I have a bit of stress, and a chance to explore. It’s also a way for me to challenge myself when I'm not racing in my car. And when I miss racing, then I race on my bicycle. I actually get quite a similar feeling out of it. Maybe not going 350 kilometres per hour on a bike, and not maybe quite having the same adrenaline rush, but in terms of challenging myself it's quite similar.
What does the perfect bike ride look like to you?
For me, the perfect ride is in a new location. I love to explore. Whether it is in Finland, in the U.S. or wherever I’m at in the world, I want a new ride. You try to gain a bit of knowledge from locals and you have a blast. You see new scenery, new views, new roads, new surfaces. The ride would be on a gravel bike because that's my favourite at the moment.
During the ride yes, you have coffee for sure, the temperature would be around I would say 25 degrees Celsius and no wind. I’d be in good company, preferably with Tiffany. And then at the end of the ride, you upload your ride on Strava, you look at the data and you chill. A good beer post-ride would be the final thing that makes it perfect!
Canyon actually launched a Valtteri Bottas limited-edition Grail CFR. What was that like?
Really gratifying. I love Gravel and I’ve spent hundreds of hours riding and racing a Grail. To actually sit down and partner with the team at Canyon to create a bike that’s a replica of what I personally race – and to get to just have fun with the disco-inspired paint job? It was a lot of fun. I’m serious about racing, but I like to let loose and have fun. That’s just part of my personality. I think the bike captured the essence of that. It’s really gratifying knowing that there are other riders out there who are riding and racing on something that’s so personal to me.
What was it like racing the Gravel World Championships in Belgium?
Honestly? I was more nervous on the starting line of the Gravel World Champs than I am at the beginning of an F1 race! I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to finish the race in one piece. And most importantly, I wanted to actually enjoy it all. But, at 182 kilometers, I also knew that it was going to be a very big day on the bike. I knew it was going to be hard and it truly was.
There was a huge amount of people attending, queueing up for the singletrack sections in the beginning, and I had to fix a puncture 5 kilometers before the finish! I was happy to finish it and all the support from fans on the course was awesome. It was unreal!
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