An interview with Matt Bottrill, British TT legend

By John Swindells 26 Feb 2015 | Comment

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Mark Florence had the honour of interviewing top GB time triallist Matt Bottrill. Bottrill is 37, got into time trialling in 1998, started winning at the national level in 2000, and in 2014 won the national 10, 25 and 50 mile competitions. You can listen to the whole Matt Bottrill interview, which I highly recommend, but I've also made a few notes here of the key points.

Training

Matt trains 8-10 hrs per week, but will up that to 12 hours in the run-up to a big event. He typically does 3 days of high intensity training each week, and aims to be in the "sweet spot" - top end of level 3, just below the aerobic threshold - as much as possible. 80% of his training is in the TT position.

In run-up to the nationals, he finishes his high intensity sessions so that he can't walk afterwards!

He avoids over-training by using "training peaks". The biggest mistake people make is to over-train in the winter months, which means that they will then de-train during the season.

Being postman (for the last 18 years) is good for cardio. He doesn't ride a bike now though - posties aren't allowed!

Performance

2014: 27 rides, and lost once - to Wiggins.

2016 ambition: triathlon (and hopefully ironman). He wants to compete at Kona by the age of 45 (in 7 year's time). However, recovery is getting harder as he is getting older.

It's important that you break down your goals; people are often just doing too much.

Matt also reveals his top 5 training sessions. He states that his training is based on power, but the first four routines he describes use heart rate to set the intensity.

Equipment

He claims to have the fastest TT bike in the world - and has obsessed over every detail. He is sponsored by wind tunnel tester drag2zero.com, and has probably spent around 6hrs in the tunnel himself.

More information

twitter.com/BottrillMatthew
mattbottrillperformancecoaching.com
facebook.com/mattbottrillpc

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About the author

My name is John Swindells and I'm a keen recreational cyclist with a preference for long one-day rides. I've also previously dabbled in time trialling and cyclo-cross. See more of what I get up to on Strava!