Valtteri Bottas recently finished second in a cycling race in Kansas called UNBOUND Gravel. It is one of the premier gravel racing events in the world and the Finn was one of the 1,400 riders who participated in the 108-mile race. Perhaps this has inspired Carlos Sainz to buy his own bike worth $11,400.
According to @nuovacorti on Instagram, the Spaniard purchased an S-Works Roubaix SL8 which is a high-performance bike with better ergonomics. The shop ‘Nuova Corti’ wrote in their caption while posting a picture of Sainz in front of their shop,
“It was a great pleasure to have @carlossainz55 among us. Big fan of bikes as well as motors! See you soon for a ride together! Good luck with your season!”
View this post on Instagram
It is a custom-made ride with the efforts of three manufacturers. The price of the bike as per specialized.com.tw is NT$368,000 ($11,400 approx). The bike weighs 16 lbs (7.34 kg) with an SRAM Red 12-speed chain and an XG 1290, 10-33T cassette.
The bike also has a Future Shock 3.3w/Smooth Boot suspension. Both the front and rear tires have a size of 700x32c with hydraulic disc brake systems.
Now, Sainz is quite an avid rider like many other F1 drivers and personnel. During track walks, the #55 driver often takes his bike and enjoys riding whenever he can. Certainly seeing Bottas do so well in the Gravel racing event, Sainz may have felt that he needed to up his cycling game too.
How Valtteri Bottas has become the ‘cyclist’ of the F1 paddock
Ever since Valtteri Bottas started dating Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, his personality has evolved into a vibrant one. The Sauber driver has started cycling a lot more due to his girlfriend, who is a professional gravel racer.
In fact, she won in the women’s category of the UNBOUND Gravel for Team Canyon-SRAM. Now, the couple has started to participate in several cycling events across the world. Thus, with Bottas negotiating for his F1 future, he may not fuss too much even if he doesn’t get an F1 seat for 2025 in the worst-case scenario.
View this post on Instagram
The 10-time Grand Prix winner has opened multiple businesses away from F1 and cycling has become a regular passion for him to continue living an exciting life beyond F1 as well. At the Imola GP, Bottas arrived for the track run paying tribute to Ayrton Senna with his bike and in cycling gear.
However, he perhaps did not wear the Senna tribute T-shirts arranged by Sebastian Vettel’s team because his t-shirt got stolen. Max Verstappen did not wear his either because of the same reason.
