With Martyn Irvine and Ryan Mullen looking to both peak at the same time for the Worlds, it looks like Ireland is throwing the kitchen sink at trying to win more medals (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
Martyn Irvine will be “100 per cent ready to race” at the UCI Track World Cup third round in Cali, Colombia, over the weekend of January 17th and 18th.
The former world scratch race champion broke his collar bone in a bad crash during the World Cup in Mexico last month.
And while he started the World Cup in London the weekend before last to satisfy criteria need to keep his place at the World Championships in France in the New Year, he pulled out almost immediately.
Cycling Ireland high performance coach Brian Nugent said Irvine is back training and will be good to go in four weeks’ time having arrived in Majorca last week for another pre-Christmas block of training.
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“Martyn will be 100 per cent ready to race unless he has a setback, he’ll be in good form and ready to race," said Nugent.
"He just couldn’t take the risks in the races this last weekend but he’s training well and is in good shape.
“I was standing 50 metres away from where he crashed in Mexico and straight away I knew when he didn’t get up he was in trouble.
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With a 4th place to his name in the pursuit at the World Championships in the early weeks of this year to his name, Ryan Mullen will be looking to leave his mark at the same meeting , this time in France, in the New Year (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
“The bone was sticking out of his shoulder and we knew it was going to be a tough winter for him because the plan was for him to get points (for Olympic qualification).
“And he was going well but what we’re very good at is resetting goals.
"After that the priority was getting the best attention possible for Martyn and aiming for the Worlds. It’s part of the game; all the setbacks.”
Nugent said Irvine’s spill in Mexico was not only a personal set back but also one for the Irish team, of which Irvine is the most decorated and the natural leader.
“As soon as that happened we had to re-shuffle the men’s team pursuit for London,” Nugent said of last month’s crash.
“So when Martyn had that unfortunate incident we just rested Ryan (Mullen) straight away because we want those guys to be going similar towards the World Championships.”
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