Martyn Irvine has been one of the real stalwarts of the domestic scene for years and has been the country’s most successful ever riders on the boards.
By Brian Canty
Former world champion Martyn Irvine has sensationally retired from competitive cycling just eight months out from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Qualification for the games had become increasingly difficult after a series of below-par performances and the Newtownards has decided to call it a day, bringing an end to one of the most decorated careers in recent years.#
The 30-year-old has been one of the real stalwarts of the domestic scene for years and has been the country’s most successful man on the boards.
In 2013 he became the first Irish rider to win a world track title in 117 years with victory in the same race in the world championships in Minsk, Belarus.
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He also won a World Cup gold in Manchester in the same year.
"Missing out on the Olympics is a big part of it and I fell out of love with cycling," she said.
"The passion to train and put all that time into it has gone. I would just be wasting my time if I carried on."
As well as gold in Belarus, Irvine also managed to win a silver in the individual pursuit – an incredible performance that came less than an hour before his triumph in the scratch event at the same championships.
He finished that year as number one scratch rider in the 2013 UCI world rankings and won a sractch race silver medal in the 2014 Track Cycling World Championships.
His achievements in 2013 led to him being named as the BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year.
Irvine struggled with injuries and said the "aches and pains" were another factor in his decision to retire.
"I just loved the fact that I got cycling to be more mainstream than it used to be," he added.
"I'm glad I achieved some world and European success - I got some medals and got my name in the history books."
Writing on his blog this morning, Tuesday, he added: “Something has just happened to me over the last one or two years and I can’t really pin point it.
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“Okay, I’ve had a few crashes that have left metal inside me but I came back from them. I mean, I won a European medal six months after breaking my hip!
“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it’s a mental thing. However, it’s not that simple.
“I really miss racing, even now when I’ve barely stopped. It just feels like a natural end though.
“For the last year I’ve been racing and underperforming across the board. Frustration has been setting in all year and I’m sick of just turning up to bike races.
“I set my own bar by winning seven medals in a row. World Championship, European, World cup and Commonwealth Games medals all hang up in my house somewhere.
“At the time, every single one of them was taken for granted. I never appreciated how cool it was to be winning medals. Since then I’ve just stopped winning and stopped enjoying it.
“Cycling has changed my life over the last decade. I stumbled upon the sport through a series of coincidences that you could never have predicted.
“I just kept rolling with the punches and it took me from a little town in Northern Ireland to every corner of the globe and back to a little town in the Republic of Ireland.
“Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Europe have left me with awesome memories and some awesome scars too!
“I regret nothing and wouldn't change a thing. Without cycling in my life most likely you wouldn't be reading this.
“Without cycling I wouldn't have met my lovely wife and I promise you, every day I’m grateful for what I have and what has happened to me.
“Hopefully this isn't the last time you hear from me and just to let you know I’m not stopping cycling, I’m just stopping putting cycling first in my life.
“I’m retiring from International competition. I was trying my best to not use the word “retiring” but it’s probably what's happening to me.
“I don’t really know what to say next. I have thousands of people I need to thank and I really hope to meet every one of you personally.
“People who got me cycling, people who got me competing, people who coached me to be the best I could physically be and the people who have kept me cycling, I’m grateful to every one of you and I’d love to repay the favour someday, somewhere.”
We’ll have a longer chat with Irvine in due course but for now, from all at stickybottle, we wish him well in his retirement and thank him for all the memories he has given us over the years.
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