Chased by a dog and hopping over reptiles: Bottas’ unusual Malaysia-to-Singapore ride

Valtteri Bottas says he had to navigate snakes, reptiles and being chased by a dog as part of his commute from Malaysia to the Singapore Grand Prix by bike.

The Finn is a strong cyclist and often competes in gravel cycling races in his spare time, qualifying for this weekend’s UCI Gravel World Championships in his own right. While Bottas is unable to take part due to his Formula 1 commitments with Cadillac in Singapore, he took the opportunity to cycle the 260 miles from the previous round in Sepang down to the Marina Bay Street Circuit between races.

“I think Tiffany [Cromwell, Bottas’ partner] mentioned it as kind of like a joke: ‘Hey, you could just ride from there, it’s not that far,’ and then I was like, ‘Hmm, maybe I could…’” Bottas said. “I obviously had to check the distance, how the roads are, the timings, and then just made a solid plan for each day.

“All the routes were planned. I also planned that the two bigger days were Monday and Tuesday, so they're not too close to the race weekend, because if I would do a big day on, let’s say, Wednesday, then that could already compromise a little bit my Friday in terms of recovery. But yesterday ended up being a short ride, kind of like a recovery ride. Today I can have an easy day as well. So it was all well planned and well executed.”

“It was a good one-off adventure. I saw a lot, experienced a lot … I saw some snakes, which I was a little bit worried about, but actually they were pretty chill. They were just doing their thing.

“I saw one cobra, saw one python just crossing the path in front of me. I saw some of those big lizards that you also see here - one was on the path, I had to jump over it with the bike, because I saw it last minute. I got chased by one dog, got stuck behind a group of cows on one small track - eventually they moved away.

“What was the wildest part was the riding at night in the jungle. The noise in there is like... Then your mind starts to play games of, ‘What is out there?’ Who knows what is out there, but then you just need to crack on and keep going. Riding with your lights at night, that was probably the most epic part in the forest.”

The night riding was part of Bottas’ acclimatization plan for Singapore, with the night race taking place on European time, but he also said the time spent in the heat is also good preparation for the next race weekend.

“Obviously I wouldn’t do it if I knew it would hurt my performance. So, for sure, I’m pretty well acclimatized. The amount of sweat in those days was quite impressive, but definitely you get used to the heat the more time you spend in the heat, so that can help me hopefully a little bit.

“I’m definitely used to the heat now. I still have today to take it easy and hydrate and fuel myself [but] those distances are nothing unusual for me. It’s not like it was my longest ride ever or anything like this. So I was surprised how big it became. But if people follow me on my activities, they know that it’s not like something super extreme to me. I love the endurance stuff anyway.”