Norwegian sprinter Rikke Steen Enstad has joined Hitec Products-Fluid Control with immediate effect for the remainder of the 2026 season, stepping up from Sandnes Sykleklubb after a breakthrough run of results this summer.
Hitec Products-Fluid Control announced Enstad’s signing on 12 August, with the 23-year-old due to make her debut for the Continental team at the Egmont Cycling Race Women on Tuesday 18 August.
The move gives Enstad her first opportunity at UCI Continental level since racing with Team Rytger Development earlier in her career. She has spent 2026 representing Sandnes Sykleklubb, combining Norwegian racing with a programme in Belgium and Scandinavia, but had already become familiar with Hitec after joining the squad at its training camp in February.
“I am really looking forward to join Team Hitec Products Fluid Control for the rest of the season,” Enstad said. “It has been a lot of hard work and a bumpy road to get here, but I am really happy that the team is believing in me and that they see my potential.”
Enstad already knew Hitec after joining February training camp
This is not a completely new environment for Enstad. She spent time with Hitec Products-Fluid Control during the team’s pre-season camp in February, allowing her to experience the squad’s riders, staff and way of working several months before the opportunity to join permanently emerged.
“I joined the team on training camp in February, and it was a great atmosphere and very nice people,” she said. “I am very excited to continue this journey with the team, and see what we can achieve together.”
That existing relationship should make a mid-August switch considerably easier. Enstad is not entering an unfamiliar team with only a few weeks of the European road season remaining, and Hitec have already had an opportunity to assess her away from race results.
It also fits a long-established part of the Norwegian team’s identity. ProCyclingUK’s history of Hitec Products charts how the squad has repeatedly provided opportunities for Norwegian riders while maintaining an international racing programme.
Two U6 Cycle Tour wins put Enstad on the radar
Enstad’s strongest results of 2026 came during July at Sweden’s U6 Cycle Tour, where she won consecutive stages.
She took Stage 2 from Tidaholm to Havsjöberg before winning again the following day at Folkabo. Enstad then added second place on Stage 5 and eventually completed the six-day event 11th overall. Those performances gave Hitec further evidence of the finishing speed they believe can translate to a higher level.
Her season has not been limited to Scandinavian racing. Enstad has spent considerable time competing in the Belgian kermesse scene, where positioning, repeated accelerations and fast finishes provide useful development for a rider being brought into Hitec primarily for her sprinting potential.
A particularly strong result came at Geluwe in June, where she finished third behind Hanne Theys and Elsie Apps.
Enstad also finished 13th in the Norwegian elite road race championship at the end of June, improving on her 19th place from the previous season.
Egmont Cycling Race will be Enstad’s first test in Hitec colours
Enstad will make her Hitec Products-Fluid Control debut at the Egmont Cycling Race Women on 18 August, giving her an immediate opportunity to test her sprint against a stronger international field.
The Zottegem race should provide a useful indication of where she currently stands. Egmont has repeatedly produced aggressive racing before a fast finale, making positioning and the ability to survive repeated attacks almost as important as outright finishing speed.
ProCyclingUK’s 2025 Egmont Cycling Race preview looked at a race whose short history has already produced several different types of winner. The 2025 edition eventually came back together for a bunch finish, with Martina Alzini winning the sprint after Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset was caught close to the line.
A year earlier, Lieke Nooijen had demonstrated the other way to win in Zottegem, attacking from around 40km out and completing a long solo victory at the 2024 Egmont Cycling Race.
For Enstad, the priority will be less about immediately reproducing either result and more about discovering how the speed that has delivered wins at club level translates into a UCI international race.
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Hitec continue their long tradition of developing Norwegian riders
Enstad’s arrival is particularly characteristic of a team that has spent much of its history offering Norwegian talent a route into international women’s cycling.
Hitec have previously brought riders such as Ingvild Gåskjenn, Nora Tveit, Anne Dorthe Ysland and Silje Mathisen through the programme, alongside a long list of international riders. ProCyclingUK covered that development model when Nora Tveit joined Hitec during the 2021 season, another example of the team adding a young Norwegian rider partway through a campaign.
The squad remains active across a broad European programme in 2026. Hitec Products-Fluid Control have raced events ranging from the Copenhagen Sprint and Brabantse Pijl to Spanish stage races and one-day events, giving Enstad the possibility of gaining experience beyond the domestic and kermesse calendar that has shaped much of her season so far.
That step up is likely to be the most important element of the move. Enstad has already demonstrated that she can win races from fast finishes. The remaining months of 2026 will show how effectively she can position herself and preserve that speed when racing against stronger fields.
Enstad gets her opportunity after a difficult route back to Continental level
The significance of the move is clear in Enstad’s own description of the journey as a “bumpy road”.
She previously spent time with Team Rytger Development but has had to build her way back towards the professional peloton through club racing. Her performances for Sandnes Sykleklubb this season have now provided another opportunity, rather than her progression following the conventional route of moving seamlessly from junior development into a long-term Continental contract.
Hitec are taking that opportunity seriously enough to bring her into the team immediately rather than waiting until 2027.
There is no need to make extravagant predictions about what comes next. Enstad is joining primarily as a promising sprinter who has shown she can win races and produce results in the chaotic environment of Belgian kermesses. The jump to UCI racing will be considerably harder.
But after two victories in Sweden, a Belgian podium and 13th at the Norwegian championships, she has earned the chance to find out where her ceiling lies.
The first answer comes in Zottegem on Tuesday.
