While the front of the men’s 2024 UCI World Gravel Championships was a battle between WorldTour road racers, all eyes before the start were drawn to one moustachioed man.
Valtteri Bottas – a Formula 1 car racing driver if you didn’t know – is also a very competitive age group bike racer. He has a particular love of racing gravel events and his setup is befitting his racing palmares.
Canyon, a sponsor for the Canyon SRAM team of Bottas’ partner, Tiffany Cromwell, provides the Finnish racer with its latest Grail CFR gravel race bike.
His bike, however, features a one-off paint scheme to represent the Finnish colours.
The front end is complete with the fully integrated CP0039 cockpit and, to match the beautiful paint, Bottas has the bars wrapped in white tape.
Canyon’s Gear Groove features at the centre of the bar. While it can be fitted with a proprietary set of aero bars, UCI events do not permit such tech.
Instead, Bottas uses the groove to fit an out front mount with a Hammerhead Karoo displaying the day’s route.
Given the largely flat route, Bottas’ choice of SRAM’s Red XPLR AXS groupset with a wide 10-46t cassette may seem strange – tighter cassette with smaller jumps between teeth would have provided more even cadence jumps.
Regardless, the Finn pairs this with a power meter-equipped 48t aero chainring.
Zipp provides its latest 303 XPLR SW wheelset. The 54mm-deep rims feature an incredibly wide 32mm internal rim width. Bottas paired these with Schwalbe G-One RS tyres.
The design uses a file tread centre with short shoulder tread for a little extra bite in corners. Bottas told BikeRadar he doesn't use tubeless inserts.
For emergency puncture repair, a Canyon C02 canister and valve are taped to the back of the seatpost.
You may think it odd that we actively seek out Bottas at bike races. However, at 2024’s Unbound Gravel, his bike was a test platform for the then-unreleased SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset.
It may also seem strange for the likes of Canyon and SRAM – pure cycling companies – to outfit Bottas’ bike with their latest and sometimes unreleased products.
But a quick hop over to Bottas’ Instagram page shows a healthy 4.4m strong following – these are eyes few bike racers can match.
As such, it's well worth keeping a close eye on bikes under the F1 star.
