Rider Chat: Grant Martin (Vitus Pro Cycling)

Returning to race for Cherie Pridham’s team, Vitus Pro Cycling, is young Scottish rider Grant Martin who has high hopes for 2018 in new colours, new bike and lots of new teammates

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Rider Chat: Grant Martin (Vitus Pro Cycling)

Returning to race for Cherie in 2018 is young Scottish rider Grant Martin who made a big impact with the team in 2017. Like many of the riders in the 2018 Vitus Pro Cycling Team, Grant was a first year senior in 2017 and because of injuries to other riders, found himself doing a lot of racing for the team and impressed the boss a lot.

He says it’s going to be exciting to meet the new guys this year and spend some time training with them out on the roads in Spain as well as meet the new sponsors and get acquainted with the new bike and stunning kit.

With quite a few of the 2018 team first year seniors, we asked Grant how he found the step up to racing with the best and what were the hardest things about that? “I suppose the hardest bit for me was the endurance in the prems. Going from the relatively short junior races, to 100+ mile road races against some of the best guys in Britain in my first year senior was quite a shock”.

Last season saw Grant given the opportunity to race close to home in Scotland thanks to the Tour Series being in Motherwell and Aberdeen and that was, he says, a highlight. “The Motherwell round of the Tour Series was a highlight simply because it was a home race with loads of my friends and family in the crowd. Another highlight was being part of the team and learning from some top level guys like Seb Mora and Enrique Sanz with bags full of experience”.

“I learnt more than I could possibly list from the guys last year. Enrique taught me to use my head rather than only power in races. I learnt how to stay calm and not let the pressure get to me from Seb. I remember one of the team helping guide/teach me to move through the bunch, saving energy in races like the Lincoln GP. I learnt lessons from almost every race I did last year from all the guys in the team”.
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When asked what advice he’ll be giving the first year seniors joining the team in 2018, he replied “don’t let the stress get to you. Not every race will go well so when something goes wrong, it’s about learning from the mistakes and moving onto the next race”.

Talking to Grant about his own goals for 2018, he explains that he’d love to really improve on his criterium results and hopefully get a podium as well as show himself in the breaks in some of the prems. One of the keys to a good season is a good winter’s training but Grant does live in Scotland and when it snows, it’s in Scotland that it can be worse so we asked how his winter has been?

“I’ve been lucky this year having some good training camps out in Tenerife living in the Bike Emotion apartments. However, when I have been at home, the cold doesn’t effect me too badly so as long as the roads aren’t icy or covered in snow, I’d be out.

“The training camps with Bike Emotion in Tenerife are playing a vital role in the changes to my training. In Tenerife, you have great roads with long climbs and it rarely drops below 15 degrees so there’s no excuse to not to be out doing the long miles and doing those intense efforts. I’ve spent more hours on the bike this winter to improve my endurance in the prems and included back to back hard sessions to improve my consistency. On top of that, I’ve followed a full core program to improve my transition of power and my position.”

Our final question was to ask Grant what is the one thing about racing at the top level he feels is the hardest to deal with? He replied “Being one of the youngest guys, it’s hard for me to compete against the best and not get the results I want but I’ll keep trying and continue to set ambitious goals”.

Good luck to Grant in 2018 and thank you to him for the interview

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