I’M A RIDER STOFFEL VANDOORNE

The ‘Stoff’ has secured a hot seat in the McLaren-Honda F1 team for 2017, but he loves two wheels as much as four...

The flat’s nice when you’re riding with a group – but I prefer the technical demands of climbing

Being Belgian I had to get into cycling. Belgium’s most famous sports are cycling and soccer, so motorsport doesn’t get much attention. It meant it was hard getting the support I needed to make my way up through the motorsport ladder as sponsorship there is more for established sports such as cycling. But the closer I’ve got to racing Formula 1 the more popular in Belgium the sport has become. I grew up surrounded by bikes. I’m from Flanders, which is home to a lot of Classics races including the Tour of Flanders. You can’t avoid cycling there. There’s also cyclo-cross on TV every weekend and events all summer. My first love was for mountain biking. It may seem odd for someone from that area [the Lowlands] but in my teens I was hooked on mountain biking. It was fun but for serious sport I got into karting. I don’t have an F1 pedigree. My dad is an architect. He designed a restaurant at a karting track and when I went along the owner let me try out a mini-kart. That was it! I fell in love with it from the first moment. Every time my dad went I wanted to go along for a drive. Cycling has become part of my regime. I’ve got into road cycling through my driver training. I’ve just been in Marbella for a training camp where the conditions are perfect. I like the hills. The flat’s nice when you’re with a group – but I prefer the technical demands of climbing. It helps to have a guide. I don’t cycle alone on training sessions. I’m with my trainer, Mikey [Collier, sports scientist and physio with McLaren], and often other drivers. In a week I’ll do four days cycling, three to four hours at a time, plus gym sessions. I’m not just driving a McLaren. I’m riding one too. I’ve got a custom-built Specialized McLaren S-Works Tarmac – I have one at home and one in a box that travels around with me. I fit bike rides in when I can. From December to the end of January is my peak cycling time. We try to book in as much training time on the bike as possible because once the season starts we’re so busy with travelling, racing and testing that I’ll only get to do some recovery rides just to keep up my immunity. Indoor riding isn’t so much fun. I have to ride in the gym on a turbo as part of the work the Human Performance team at McLaren does to monitor fitness. We do LSD (Long Slow Duration) sessions for endurance and cardiovascular conditioning. I’ll also do 40-minute high-intensity interval sessions. The idea is to train us to be fit enough to tolerate high temperatures, produce leg strength to slow the car repeatedly and to deal with the G-forces. Richmond Park is a favourite circuit. In England I stay in Richmond and I cycle around the park when I have the time. It’s got a lot of interesting elements to it and it’s popular with cyclists. I find it hard keeping up with the pros. I’ve ridden with Philippe Gilbert and Tom Boonen and that’s really tough. They’re so accustomed to riding bikes for such a length of time. I know that Fernando Alonso said that if he wasn’t a driver he’d be a pro cyclist, but I don’t think I could ride for that much time each day. I can’t afford to have a crash. We were descending in Marbella and Mikey didn’t take the corner well - he almost fell off the cliff! He was knocked out when I got to him but it could have been worse – no bones were broken but his helmet was cracked. It reminds me how dangerous it is. I take care as I know a bad crash could jeopardise my career. I’ve peaked at just the right time. This year features a lot of changes to the F1 regulations, which means it’ll be new to everyone. Settling in will be positive for me, as it won’t just be me experiencing these changes for the very first time.