F1’s Valtteri Bottas Gets Cheeky—Literally—In a Teaser Video About a New Gravel Race

Valterri Bottas is best known for driving fast cars really, really fast, but he’s also a damn good bike racer—in fact, he just finished second in the Wafer distance at the Kansas Belgian Waffle Ride. He’s a big fan of gravel races, so much so that he just became the poster boy for a new gravel event, RADL GRVL, dropping the news (and his pants) in a hilarious video announcing the event.

In the Reel he shared on Instagram, he’s chatting with Canyon//SRAM’s Tiffany Cromwell—his longtime girlfriend—about a lack of shiraz. (Bottas also worked with a winery to create a shiraz, because why not?)

The conversation devolves, as chats about wine often do, to the desire to get out on some good gravel roads, preferably near the winery. This leads to the location—Adelaide, Australia—and a decision to head there ASAP.

And that’s when things get risque, as Bottas goes from hanging out on the couch sipping wine while wearing a shirt with his own face on it (again, why not?) to rocking a speedo and dragging his bike bag out the door, presumably heading for the land down under.

What is RADL GRVL?

So, what is RADL GRVL? The RADL GRVL race on January 19, 2024 in Adelaide is part of the GRVL family, which includes SBT GRVL in Colorado, FNLD GRVL in Finland and possibly another unannounced race named PRT GRVL, if you scope the links on the RADL GRVL website. It’s happening in conjunction with the 2024 Tour Down Under.

But back to Bottas’ behind. (Say that 10 times fast.) He’s been known to get cheeky on the internet to promote gravel races in the past, like this pin-up shot around the FNLD GRVL race in June:

Anything that brings attention to our weird sport, amiright? When a guy with 3.8 million (you read that right) followers is trying to bring people out to races (and drink more shiraz), you just have to love that.

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