Have you ever asked yourself how fit is a F1 driver? Today we'll analyse some training data of Valtteri Bottas about his cycling performance
VALTTERI BOTTAS
The finnish, born in 1989, has a great passion for cycling and trains a lot with it. Sometimes he performs some runs - even in freeze climate - some nordic ski and snowshoes activities. Weight training is not missing especially before season start to optimize specific strength, such as neck strength.
You can follow his activities on Strava, a fitness app mainly used by cyclists.
ANALYZING BOTTAS'S CYCLING PERFORMANCE
It's not a mystery, his favourite sport is cycling and dedicate hours weekly to it, sometimes with his girlfriend Tiffany Cromwell, pro cyclist.
He has even partecipated to some amateur races with a lot of podium arrivals and a win at today.
But I'm sure you want to know more about his fitness level and so we can analyse his Strava data to better understand his physical condition.
FTP AND VO2MAX ESTEEM
Before reading: this are data estimated by the writer of this article and can not be true at 100%.
Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is the maximum power that a cyclist can keep for 1 hour at maximum effort with a constant pace.
It is measured with a power meter on pedals.
As you can see from the graphic, Bottas has a Zone 4 (Threshold Zone) set between 293 to 341 Watts. Average between this two values is set to 317 Watts.
So 317 W is Valtteri Bottas's estimated FTP.
In cycling is useful to compare power expressed to pedals also with body weigth, to obtain W / Kg data. We know also that Valtteri's body weigth is 69 Kg.
So FTP / Kg = 317 / 69 = 4.6 W/Kg
VO2 Max is an endurance ability index which indicates the maximum amount of oxygen that a body can utilize in a minute. Relative VO2Max depends also by Kg of weigth.
According to Hunter Allen Power Blog, VO2Max can be estimated after a 20' cycling test at maximum effort. Average watts can be fit in this calculation:
Relative VO2Max = [(10.8 x W)/M] + 7
where:
W = watts of 20' test
M = cyclist weight in kg
VO2Max = mL/(kg x min) (ACSM, 2010)
Unfortunately we don't have a 20' maximal test of Valtteri but we can estimate his watts with this formula:
Watts of 20' = FTP / 0.95
We know Bottas's FTP is 317
So 317 / 0.95 = 334 Watts
334 Watts is Valtteri Bottas estimated power of a 20' maximal effort cycling test.
Let's try then to estimate VO2Max of Valtteri.
Relative VO2Max = [(10.8 x W)/M] + 7
Relative VO2Max= [(10.8 x 334) / 69] + 7 =
59.3 ml/min/kg
NORMAL VALUES OF FTP AND VO2MAX
Ok, now we know that Valtteri Bottas has 317 W of FTP, 4.6 Watts for Kg and 59 ml/min/kg of VO2Max as estimated values.
But to better understand this values - and Valtteri's fitness level - we should compare them to other people values.
FITNESS LEVEL | BOTTAS | UNTRAINED GUY | AVERAGE AMATEUR | PRO CYCLIST |
FTP | 317 W | 150 W circa | 250 W circa | 400 W circa |
FTP / Kg | 4.6 | 1.8 - 2.5 | 3.5 - 4.6 | 5 - 6.5 |
VO2MAX | 59 | 40 - 45 | 50 - 59 | > 70 |
Thank you for reading, see you next article!
Written by
Enrico Repossi
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