the hardest thing is changing direction . That physical strain on your body is very hard .” Motorsport is different from ball sports , where there is a lot more expansive movement of the limbs . Here comes the very short science bit … We will get it done early and easily . In bike racing there is a lot of intrathoracic pressure and intra-abdominal pressure involved , which are all interrelated when sub-maximal and maximal isometric muscle contractions occur . Think extreme body and cardio stress , as the thoracic and many other muscles come under intense pressure . Make no mistake , the precise requirements may be different , but these guys ‘ letting the bike do all the work ’ are right up there with any ballsport athletes in their fitness levels . All that effort and strain requires vast amounts of oxygen and energy for 40 minutes , with pretty much no rest whatsoever . No luxury of a break and a sit down after every second game like in tennis , no letting your team-mates have the ball while you bring your concentration and oxygen levels back to near normal while waiting for a corner kick in football . Sports science , naturally , has become a major part of bike racing in recent times , especially for factory riders like Rea and increasingly for would-be champion Toprak Razgatlioglu ( Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK ). Take Toprak ’ s training regime at home in Turkey . As a semi-supported rider for the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team he was already fit enough to win races in WorldSBK in the two privateer seasons before he became an official Yamaha rider in 2020 . His existing fitness and physical routine was almost exclusively bikebased then , as he trained by riding thousands of laps on small cc machines around an intense 1km private track in Turkey owned by his mentor and training partner , Kenan Sofuoglu . “ If the weather is good I still go to Kenan ’ s track , to ride bikes , but if the weather is rainy I go to the gym ,” said Razgatlioglu . “ I think riding the bike is better training . We have snow here right now and I am going to the gym more , but also I do kick boxing as part of my training . When the weather clears I will go back to Kenan ’ s track . Sometimes I also ride a road bicycle , but not so much . And when I go running , I normally do it at night . I do not have a dedicated trainer , but I have an experienced friend that I train with at the gym . Typically I will do one day of kick boxing for each two days of cross fitness .” Fun and variety with his exercise is obviously a big part of the 24-yearold Razgatlioglu ’ s personal system . “ I ride a bike on track for four or five days a week , mostly , but sometimes I also drive go-karts ,” he explains . “ It is not like a planned system , so sometimes I drive the kart and then ride a bike ; we keep it different to
I ride a bike on track for four or five days a week , mostly , but sometimes I also drive go-karts .
make it interesting . Sometimes we do 50 laps , sometimes 30 . The gokart is 450cc , so it has incredible power . This is very good training . The bikes on track are R3 Yamahas , and I think it is better to ride this kind of bike for training , not the bigger bikes . But we also ride a Supermoto sometimes . I also take my WR450 into the mountains for Enduro . Motocross ? When I was young I rode motocross for five years but then took up road racing . I like Enduro more now .”
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