Martyn Irvine's words will encourage any up and coming rider and their coaches: "I'm nothing special. Anybody can do it, it’s just hard work. It’s that simple."
By Brian Canty
Martyn Irvine has said the things that have given him most satisfaction looking back on his career are raising the standard and profile of Irish track cycling, the “giant-killing” performances on the world stage and his Rás stage win in 2011.
The 30-year old Newtownards man called time on his glittering career this week and has no immediate plans to race at any level.
But he is more than happy with his lot and looking forward to leading a more normal life now.
“I’m from humble beginnings, I didn’t come in to cycling with any illusions about what I wanted to do or who I was,” he told stickybottle.
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“I was just a normal Joe tipping away at something; was lucky I got good at it but I’m nothing special.
“Anybody can do it, it’s just hard work. It’s that simple,” he added.
On the front riding the scratch race on Sundrive Rd, Dublin, at the National Track Championships in 2013 while wearing the iconic rainbow jersey. Of the Irish scene, Irvine knew how important it was for people to see him race at home when he was at the top. He could bring a huge amount to the Irish scene now that he's hung up his wheels (Photo: Arcane Cycling Team)
Irvine was one of the mainstays of the Irish track programme for nigh on a decade and he was often the only rider capable of actually competing for medals against the world’s best on a consistent basis.
Now, it’s a streamlined operation with more riders and a clearer pathway from junior to elite.
He can take a lot of credit for securing the medals that brought the recognition and subsequent funding to allow for that progress.
“If I said six or seven years ago that I’d be world champion on the track you’d have laughed at me, so to get track cycling more mainstream is hugely satisfying.
“Getting it onto the RTE news and the end of year sports awards, the same up in the north with the BBC sports awards; to get that recognition was pretty cool.
“The other thing I look back on with pride is; we took some big scalps with a basic set-up.
“We didn’t have the fancy bikes or the skinsuits, so it was very satisfying to beat people who did.
“It was like a real giant-killing act and it’s really good to look back at that.”
With Philip Deignan in the colours of Unitedhealthcare; the road ProContinental team he rode for in 2013. A crash in Taiwan not long after his scratch race world title win early in the year robbed him of that road season, though he came back in autumn and won a bronze in the omnium at the European Track Championships almost immediately.
Some of the big scalps included a World Cup win in Manchester in 2014, a gold medal in the World Championships scratch race as well as silver in the individual pursuit an hour earlier in February 2013.
They’re the undoubted highlights of his time on the boards.
“I just loved the whole story behind those World Championships in Minsk, the fact I did the pursuit before the scratch and I think it was (Michael) Hepburn beat me there.
“I remember thinking on the podium, ‘what am I doing’. And I was back up there an hour later so it was really cool. I’ll not forget that weekend.
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“That scratch race win was the highlight because if I was never a world champion I wouldn’t have persisted with it and nobody would have known me.”
Irvine credits US coach Andy Sparks with whipping and guiding him into the kind of shape that made him a world beater, though he said wife Grace was his inspiration and motivator. Sparks is now working for USA Cycling.
As was the case with many of his finest moments, they were always delicately poised and none more so than the latter win against Andreas Muller of Austria.
“They were real blood-baths; there was no finesse to my bike racing. I just battered away until I felt right.
"But I have to say, I honestly got serious motivation from watching other people suffer, it was like a switch in my head.
“I could be getting dropped but if I knew the guy on the front was about to blow up I’d have another gear.
"And that’s how I won that World Cup in Manchester,” he said in reference to beating established road pro Elia Viviani of Italy and Olympic omnium champion Lasse-Norman Hansen from Denmark.
“They were chipping away all race and I was getting dropped and then in the last 30 or 40 laps I took off and got a break and collected all the points and just got a medal; it was a mental thing.
“If you look back at my races they were on a knife edge and they could’ve went totally off. I won by being persistent and often by a fraction of a second.”
Many people have helped Irvine out along the way it’s his wife Grace who he owes the biggest debt of gratitude to.
“I’m not the most positive person in the world but Grace taught me to be a positive pessimist," he said.
“I probably would have jacked it in a while ago if she wasn’t in my corner cheering me on; it’s all in the head a lot of the time and she gave me many a good talking to.”
Taking flight in the Shay Elliott Memorial never to be seen again and taking a fantastic win last May (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
Well-known international track Andy Sparks was the man he said “beat him into form”, though Irvine was forced to do without his mentor in recent seasons after he departed to a coaching job at USA Cycling.
“I stumbled into the sport; I’m not of the born and bred mentality. I wasn’t born to race and when things got hard I needed a lot of coaching.
“Andy Sparks is the man who got me into shape because if he wasn’t coaching me I’d never have gotten to where I’ve gotten. I can say that with a whole heart.
“He was the one that beat the form into me. It was just loads of hard work and he was able to judge what I could take and push me further than I thought I could.”
The immediate future might be unclear for him but Irvine said he’d perhaps like to get into the media industry, or possibly coaching.
“I’m happy to go back to grassroots and learn something if I need to in terms of coaching," he said.
“I’ll go back to the bottom and work my way up. I’m actually just looking forward to going and watching some cycling for a change.
“I might go and see the early season races in Europe.
“I’ve always been at the track races for them but I’m definitely a cycling fan so it’ll be nice to do that instead of bursting my balls for 4-5 hours every day; that feels kinda nice.”
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