Martyn Irvine may not be thinking of his own goals on the road much at the moment, but he stormed away for victory at the Waller Cup in Bohermeen, Co Meath, with a long range escape the others couldn't control (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Jessica Lamb
Former world track champion Martyn Irvine soloed to his third victory in two weeks at Bohermeen CC's Waller Cup in Co Meath yesterday.
In his post race interview with stickybottle, Irvine said he hoped to use his inclusion in the Irish Development team – for Rás Mumhan at Easter and the coming weekend at the Tour of Ulster – to help young riders avoid making some of the mistakes he made in his early days.
And in an apparent reference to the difficulties of hosting races in some areas, especially the Fingal County Council patch north of Dublin; he said he feared for the future of road racing in Ireland.
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The Madison Genesis rider, who won Stamullen's Joey Whytte and the Pat Howard in Ardcath last weekend, attacked early yesterday to set up a small breakaway that took him to the 80km mark.
Irvine has slotted back into road racing seamlessly, taking three wins in recent weeks (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Soon after the reeling in of that group, Irvine rode away from the peloton with only UCD CC's Ian Richardson for company.
"Five or six of us got away at the start," he said. "And I think we rode for about 80k before it got back together.
"I then attacked on my own and Ian Richardson came with me for a bit and tried to help me, then he went back and I did the rest of the race on my own - about 30km.
"It was then just a matter of turning the brain on and riding steady and hard to the finish."
The early escape that looked good but did not prove the winning of the race (Photo: Sean Rowe)
That's now three races in Meath and three wins for the Northern Ireland man and, as he continues his training for the final Olympic track qualification rounds, he's sure to turn up in the locality again.
"I love these roads; I live not too far away and it's always good to get competition.
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“Racing sorts you out a bit more than just training and I like to support racing.
Driving the two-man move after the initial escape came to nothing, with Ian Richardson for company (Photo: Sean Rowe)
"I'm kind of scared that it's going to be a dying breed soon enough; bike racing in Ireland.
“But if local communities promote them they will get bigger and better."
Irvine will ride for Ireland in next weekend's AmberGreen Energy Tour Of Ulster and is planning to play a supporting role for the young team.
"I go in really relaxed," he said. "I'm on the Irish team so there's young lads there that I will try to keep right.
"I won't be riding for myself that much. I'm not going to be thinking, 'I'm the man and I can win this'."
Ploughing on solo through a heavy storm on his way to what looked like a comfortable victory (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Despite his wealth of experience and success, Irvine modestly feels he fails to pass enough on to the younger generation, but he can definitely prevent them repeating his "stupid" mistakes.
"I'm kind of useless to be honest; I'm a bad mentor,” he said self depreciatingly.
“But I try to help as best I can. I've got to the stage in bike racing where there's things I know, that I maybe don't even know that I know.
"I've done a lot of stupid things, so I do try to make sure they don't do the same."
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