Vermeulen gets the heart racing
 Justin
Veivers is a regular presenter on Australia’s Channel
7 network and has more than 20 years experience in all areas
of TV and Radio.
He is also responsible for Chris Vermeulen’s PR activities
in Australia and for the content of the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
star’s website.
Now Justin’s expertise is on offer to you in an exclusive
interview with Vermeulen, his fitness trainer Rob Crick and
Suzuki’s Team Physio Dean Miller.
The four discuss how the new brand of MotoGP stars are making
their own fitness as important as the performance of the bike
when rider and machine take to the track!
In the high paced, high energy and extremely high cost world
of MotoGP Racing, it’s the small things that can sometimes
make the biggest difference.
The days of riders just being able to show up and hop-on
are long gone. The men that straddle these 800cc powerhouses
are highly trained and extremely fit athletes.
18 rounds of gruelling racing in 15 countries, on four continents
take a massive toll on the body. A MotoGP racer needs to be
at peak physical condition for all the racing and testing
as well as the intense travelling to and from events.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen is the perfect
example of the new wave of stars that are gracing race tracks
around the world.
The young Australian has ridden bikes for his entire life
and fitness has always been a big part of his make up, “You
know the level we ride at takes a lot out of your body, you’d
be foolish to think you could ride these things and be competitive,
if you’ve cut any corners and are not at your peak physically
you’ll soon be found out.” Chris added.
Testing the bikes is an important part of improving the riders’
performance, but the twenty four year old puts his body under
the microscope as well.
Vermeulen has recently been wired to Garmin’s new Forerunner
305. Primarily for runners, the GPS enabled heart rate trainer
delivered some interesting figures.
Dean Miller is Suzuki’s Team Physio and he knows from
30 years of experience in the industry just how important
devices like the Forerunner can be. “We’re looking
at matching the technology of the rider with the technology
of the equipment. A lot of what happens to make these bikes
quick doesn’t happen on the race track it occurs in
labs and it’s the same with the modern day athlete.”
Miller added, “To be able to have a global instrument
pattern to that heart rate is important for us and for him,
in perspective of timing when he goes to train; he has a better
direct goal of what he needs to do to be at his best.”
The man who’s been responsible for Chris’s fitness
for his entire career, Rob Crick, was a keen observer when
the data was downloaded. “His heart rate was higher
then what we thought it might be, but it confirmed for us
that the training we do with Chris is on track. We do a lot
of interval work, so he trains constantly in a higher heart
rate zone. We push him hard to 190bpm, but 160 to 180 are
what we try to maintain.”
Taking a rider’s heart rate is nothing new. It’s
the software and amount of information the new technology
delivers that’s interesting.
As Dean Miller said, “The riders analyse the data off
their machines, now they are able to see and identify what’s
going on with their own bodies.”
“It’s funny that my heart rate peaks in the twisty
sections of the circuits. I am able to start recovering in
the straights when we are doing speeds up to and in excess
of 300kms an hour. So at top speed my body is having a rest,
that’s incredible.” Vermeulen said.
Crick added, “The software is great, we can pinpoint
where his heart rate rises and falls on a map of the race
track. We found out it’s not so much the speed of the
bike but the physical nature of the race track which has the
biggest bearing.”
The data proved a rider’s body goes through an amazing
workout every time he suits up. Chris’s heart rate hit
a top mark of 179bpm, but was constantly over 160. Put that
into the context of a race that lasts, 40 to 45 minutes, it’s
an enormous amount of stress on the body.
“The thing is you are working hard physically but also
making split second decisions at extremely high speed. Garmin
might be able to design something to help me out on the brain
side of things!” Chris joked.
The GPS heart rate monitor was also able to give Chris a
speed read out, distance covered, terrain and a course layout.
One thing measured in the software, that Suzuki doesn’t
record, is the gradient levels.
An animated Vermeulen said. “I really found it quiet
enthralling to go and download my information, whilst the
mechanics were doing the same to the bike. Seriously though,
I look for every edge. It confirmed the sort of training I
do is working.”
The high speed arena Chris works in is light years away from
the world of runners, but the “Forerunner” performed
extremely well.
Miller said, “These are the finest motorcycle riders
and bikes in the world bar none, so the best are riding the
best, when you get to this level the separation can come down
to 10’ths and 100’ths of a second , each year
the cutting edge becomes much, much sharper. We say about
footballers, what an athlete, and wow look at him move. At
the same time try and do that with a varied centre of gravity
in relationship to the machine, travelling at 300kms an hour
, then slow it down and flick it into another corner and then
change that centre of gravity almost instantaneously. I think
they rate right amongst the top athletes in the world.”
So next time you sit down to watch a MotoGP race, keep an
eye out for Chris Vermeulen. You’ll know the amount
of effort that’s gone into getting the bike and rider
to the peak of their performance!
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