CyclingWeekly went gravel biking Valtteri and fell in love with Finland's trails

I was late to the hype, but in the spring of this year, I finally downloaded some episodes of Netflix’s Drive to Survive episodes to watch on a flight. Besides growing up in the Netherlands and Germany during the Michael Schumacher heydays in the 90s and early aughts, when he and his Ferrari team became household names, I knew very little about Formula 1 racing.

But between the show’s storytelling and illuminating insights on the athleticism and sportsmanship of motorsport, I was quickly hooked, binge-watching every episode and suddenly catching myself googling F1 race results over my Monday morning coffee.

Of course, being a cycling journalist, I’d seen mentions of Tiffany Cromwell’s famous F1 driver boyfriend and his appearances at cycling event in the past few years, and was a tad irked to see her mentioned simply as  “Valtteri Bottas’ girlfriend” during her Netflix show cameos. The Canyon-SRAM rider is a well-respected athlete in her own right, after all, with World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games appearances to her name.

She’s also the reason behind Bottas’ entry into the cycling world — both as a gravel racer and event owner — and, ultimately, why I found myself in Finland in the middle of August to explore the Alfa Romeo driver's favorite gravel roads.

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