In just nine UCI race days, Martin Tjøtta has made quite an impact in the Norwegian peloton.
After winning the Sundvolden GP atop a 5km climb at 6.5%, Martin would go on to add 17th place at Course de la Paix and 4th at the elite Norwegian RR champs.
What makes his season even more special is that he is not yet even a Conti rider: the third-year U23 races for famous Norwegian club Team Ringerikskraft. I interviewed him recently to get to know him better.
“The season has been great so far. It is above all expectations. We started out strong as a team and have been able to keep the momentum thought out the spring.”
Martin selected his positioning as his biggest strength, although he is also obviously very good when the road goes uphill. Perhaps unsurprisingly as he hasn’t raced too many UCI TTs (five in his last two and a half years as a UCI rider), that is his self-professed weakness.
“I would say my biggest strength is my positioning and ability to be at the right place at the right time. It gives me the image of being very versatile. I’m also strong in long hard races with a lot of elevation. My weakness is the time trial.”
Martin explained a little bit about his team, and that after ending 2021 strongly, he knew he could have a successful 2022 campaign.
“Team Ringerikskraft is a club-team, but we do a lot of races internationally. Few clubs in Norway get the opportunity to travel, so I am grateful for the chances I get with the team. I expected that I would be strong this season. I finished the 2021-season with a strong performance at Lillehammer GP (6th on an 11km climb at over 7%, ed.) and I knew that I had gotten a little stronger over the winter. But I didn’t expect to ride in as many good results as I have. The team has been great though out the spring and we have worked well to put ourselves in situations where we can succeed.”
As he said, the 21-year-old expected to be good in 2022, but winning his opening UCI race of the season against a strong field was a lofty goal, yet Martin set out and achieved it.
“The win at Sundvolden GP was amazing. It was my main goal of the season. We came into the race with confidence and good chemistry in the team. They protected me into some of the critical parts of the course. In the final climb it went hard from the bottom. Half way up, there were only four riders left. I knew that I had the best sprint of them all, so I tried to conserve as much energy as I could. In the final, I timed my sprint well to take the win. It wasn’t only my first UCI win, but also a win at the team’s home ground and on roads that I often train on. It was especially important for me and the team to prove ourselves, because we had just arrived home from a successful three weeks in France and Belgium. And it’s therefor more important to show that we won the races because we were strong, and not because the competition was weak.”
In what sounded like a chaotic edition of the Norwegian National RR, Martin surfed the chaos the best to take a terrific ride to end as the best non-pro on the day.
“The nationals are always a strange race. It is Uno-X vs the international pros. It is easy to go under the radar. The race played out in a way where most of the pros got in a big breakaway, with Uno-X leading the peloton behind. It became a high paced, hard race. It suited me well, as I was able to conserve energy while Uno-X and the pros were killing each other. The peloton came together late in the race, and I was then able to hang on through the final separations as Uno-X attacked. I positioned and timed my sprint well, and came out with a solid 4th.”
Given his team’s club status, Martin isn’t too sure about his upcoming race program, and may be relying on the national team to pick him for races like l’Avenir and the Worlds. He has just competed at the European U23 RR in Portugal this past weekend.
“I see the rest of the season as uncertain, since the team is still working on invites for the autumn. I hope to be able ride with the national team, especially the L’Avenir. But it is always tight for the spots on the national team. My next race will be the U23 European championship in Portugal.”
Martin knows he has done enough to earn a move to a higher level for 2023, but isn’t sure yet where that will be. He tells me that finding the right team to continue his development is key.
“I don’t know how next year is going to be. I think, I certainly will be riding for a new team, but I don’t know where. I hope to continue developing myself as a rider, and hopefully I can find a team that can help me progress.”
Martin and I ended the interview by talking about his dream pro. He would love to race a Grand Tour one day, but his dream win is the oldest Classic of them all.
“If I could choose one race, it would be a grand tour. I think it would be amazing to ride at a grand tour, and be able to travel around with the circus for a month. My dream race to win would be Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It’s a course that I think would suit the kind of rider that I am.”
There is no doubt that you will hear Martin Tjøtta’s name again, as he has already shown a very high level of skill and will have impressed a lot of people this season. He may even be moving right to the pros in 2023, or joining a very high level Conti team. Stay tuned in the coming months as his future is revealed.
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U23 Cycling Zone wishes to thank Martin for taking the time to answer my questions, and I wish him all the best for the rest of the season and beyond. You can find his Instagram linked here and his Twitter linked here.
U23 Cycling Zone 