In January last year, former World Scratch Race champion Martyn Irvine announced his retirement from the sport after failing to qualify for the Rio Olympics. At the time, he said that frustration with his performances had been setting in all year and that he had stopped enjoying it.

However, less than a year after hanging up his wheels, Irvine realised that the hunger was still there and that he was still motivated to compete at the highest level. In October, it was announced that he had signed for new Irish Pro Continental team Aqua Blue Sport.

Irvine explains that the contract came about after getting in touch with rider agent Andrew McQuaid.

“It was May or June, just after the Rás,” he says. “I was back in work, I’d probably been working since March or April and the Rás planted a seed in my head. He (Andrew) thought it wasn’t the worst idea in the world and I think he knew in the background that the Irish team was starting up. There was a lot of good luck which happened at the right time for me. It just seemed to click timing-wise.”

His motivation to return to the sport was kick-started by being up close and personal with the action at An Post Rás which he followed in a support vehicle.

“There were days where you were close to the action and you could see it happening and there was a bit of a green-eyed monster in me,” he explains. When you’re sitting there looking at it, you envy what they’re doing. There was definitely a lot of motivation from that week.”

In addition, walking away from cycling and taking up a regular job seems to have provided him with extra motivation to return to the sport.

“Grace (his wife) saw that I was this miserable grey soul floating around over the summer. She realised that I had to do this, tick the box. You never really regret what you do, you regret what you don’t do. I had to go back and give it one last hit. I always felt I could have been a good roadie, but the track took me off in another way.”

“That last year being off form spiralled back to two years before when I crashed. You miss three months and when you come back you’re trying to compete and qualify for the Olympics. There were a lot of circumstances battered the life out of me. It wasn’t that I was horribly unfit, it was just that everybody else was really fit. I suppose at the time, I didn’t really see it that way. I just saw myself as doing shit. I was making a shit show of it.”

Photo: Flickr (some guy)
Photo: Flickr (some guy)

“I was just stuck in a rut and miserable about it. I just got stuck in that track run and I suppose I’m a roadie, I started with the road. You don’t just start track cycling In Ireland. That’s where I started and that’s where I found a love of racing, on the road. I was always trying to come back to it, but never really had the option with the grant system.”

During his time away from the sport, he had the opportunity to work with RTE as a pundit during the Olympics, providing expert commentary on the track events, but surprisingly enough, he didn’t feel particularly jealous at seeing the Games that he had hoped to compete at.

“I watched the Olympics with 50% envy and 50% relief,” he says. “I really enjoyed being in the middle of the sport but not doing all that physical toll. It was good.”

Irvine met with his new team for the first time at a training camp in the south of France December. He didn’t know many of his new team-mates, but some of them were familiar faces, such as 2012 Olympic gold medallist Lasse Norman Hansen and fellow Irish rider Matt Brammeier. It’s a team which he feels has a lot of options but as he’s just returning to racing, he doesn’t feel confident that he will be amongst the riders getting results in the early part of the season.

“I knew Lasse Norman Hansen from the track days and have chatted to Adam Blythe at the Revolution events,” he says. “For a first year Pro Conti team, it’s got a lot of depth. We’ve got plenty of arsenal. Adam Blythe is a fast finisher and Lasse Norman Hansen is a young kid with a serious amount of horsepower. But I wouldn’t put myself up there in the early season.”

Former Olympic cyclist and World Track Champion Martyn Irvine is pictured alongside Director of Athletic Performance Stephen Barrett  and Sporting Director Tim Barry at the launch of Team Aqua Blue Sport, Ireland's first UCI Professional Continental cycling team. Picture: Cathal Noonan
Former Olympic cyclist and World Track Champion Martyn Irvine is pictured alongside Director of Athletic Performance Stephen Barrett and Sporting Director Tim Barry at the launch of Team Aqua Blue Sport, Ireland’s first UCI Professional Continental cycling team.
Picture: Cathal Noonan

Irvine has previously raced at Pro Continental level for United Healthcare and for various Continental level teams such as Madison Genesis and Giant Kenda, so despite having concentrated on the track, he does bring good experience to the team.

“I know what not to do in racing,” he explains. “Obviously winning is what everyone wants to do but there’s more to pro cycling than winning and if you’re in that support role, you can see a positive in everything if you look at it right. And I suppose that’s something I’ve learnt from before. If you’ve helped the team, fed the team and did a bit of work, it’s not a bad day’s work.”

2 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here