Jorge Martin speaks to Crash.net about cycling, leading the MotoGP standings, and why the 2026 title isn’t an immediate priority.
Jorge Martin’s MotoGP career has been almost binary, all-or-nothing, winning or crashing, rostrum or hospital. At the moment he’s at a high point, but he’s there now with a wider perspective than perhaps at any point before.
When Martin won his 2024 title, he’d almost let it slip before the summer break when he crashed out of first place at the Sachsenring and allowed Francesco Bagnaia to take victory, and with it the championship lead by 12 points.
At this year’s German Grand Prix, Martin was underwhelming, finishing only sixth in the Sprint and fifth in the Sunday race. But those points allowed him to go into the summer leading the riders’ championship.
The four-week break was a hot one for anyone staying in Europe, and Martin added in a 1,000km cycling event, the TransPyrenees, to his ‘holiday’.
“A big challenge,” Jorge Martin said in an interview with Crash.net ahead of the British Grand Prix.
“We organised with my friends, going from Roses to San Sebastian.
“It was a nice challenge. Mentally it was tough, difficult, but we pushed our limits – hot conditions, raining, cold also, a bit of everything, but it was really good fun and it’s always nice to have these type of challenges.”
Despite the intense challenge over the summer, Martin maintains that, for him, cycling is merely a hobby, one that happens to help his conditioning for racing in MotoGP, but not one to be positioned above motorcycle racing, a balance that has been much finer for Aleix Espargaro, for example.
“I think he’s [Espargaro] a bit more obsessed with cycling,” said Martin. “Maybe 30 per cent of his life is cycling! Then he has his family and then his friends. He’s really obsessed.
“For me, I understand it’s part of my training, I really enjoy it, I really enjoy watching it also, but not as [much] as him. He was even professional, so it’s crazy.
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“For me, it’s just my hobby and I enjoy doing it with friends: you can eat more and have fun, and it’s really nice.”
As such, Martin’s heroes are still from the motorcycle racing world, rather than legendary cyclists like Tadej Pogacar, who won his fifth Tour de France – and third in succession – in July.
“I for sure admire other sports, I admire other athletes,” he said.
