Martyn Irvine on his way to a silver medal in the scratch race at the world track championships in Colombia.
By Gerard Cromwell
Martyn Irvine today expressed his satisfaction with his performance at this year’s track world championships, where he came away with a silver medal in the scratch race and finished sixth in the points race.
Irvine began the championships with a disappointing 12th place finish in the individual pursuit, an event that had previously been a strong point, but admitted the 4km test was not his top priority this year.
“I wasn’t really focusing on the pursuit,” he said today. “But knew I was as good as anyone in the bunch races. In the scratch race, I just seem to have the knack and it was great to get on the podium. I’m delighted.”
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Irvine ended the world championships with sixth place in the points race in the early hours of this morning, having won three sprints and lapped the field, despite being heavily marked throughout.
“I was a passenger for a lot of it,” the Ards man admitted despite a gutsy performance in the event. “I was a bit over-geared and my legs were screaming at me. When I went, people wanted to go with me, but it was a stop start race so it wasn’t a great race for me.”
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The points race, won by home rider Edwin Avila, brought the Colombian crowd to their feet and Irvine admitted the atmosphere on the velodrome was electric for the duration of the 160 lap race.
“My ear drums are still hurting from the cheers. It was the first world title for the Colombians here, so he is a hero now. I felt I could do something. It feels like a bad day when I’m not attacking. If I had taken the extra lap it could have been a podium, but you can’t win them all. The move came back because I wasn’t accelerating, I was just holding on.”
Irvine returns to his base in Denver, tomorrow to recover before leaving for the Tour of Taiwan on Wednesday with his United Healthcare team, the same race that saw him break his femur in a crash and miss seven months of the season last year.
“Hopefully, I can help the team do something in Taiwan but we did a lot of racing this weekend so I’m going to rest up before flying back. When I get back to Denver, I get to be normal for a few days and I will spend some time with (his wife) Grace. The focus will be on recovering an not getting sick before flying out to Taiwan.”
As Irvine makes his way home, Caroline Ryan completes her world championships tomorrow morning with the 25km women’s points race at 12.50am Irish time. Ryan will be hoping to repeat her performance of two years ago, when she won a bronze medal in the event Melbourne.
Irvine is building up a very impressive collection of track medals; seen here adding silver to the haul in Cali.
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