His first ride on a time trial bike in two years saw Martyn Irvine go home with a bronze medal at the National Time Trial Championships on Thursday. (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
By Gerard Cromwell
Former world scratch race champion, Martyn Irvine added some more silverware to his trophy cabinet this week at the elite time trial championships in Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath.
Having only decided to compete in the event the day before however, his bronze medal winning ride came as a surprise to the Denver-based United Healthcare pro.
“A month ago, I was coming to the time trial on Thursday night, going to some schools the next day to promote the championships and then hanging around to ride the road race on Sunday,” said Irvine.
“But my flight didn’t get in until Tuesday, which meant I’d only have a day at home before I had to go and race so I cancelled it last week.
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"But then the more I thought about it, I thought ‘what can I lose? It’s just training’. So after a bit of farting about with bikes I did it anyway."
The day before the test however, Irvine had no bike to compete on after an initial bike build proved problematic.
“On Wednesday I wasn’t doing it,” Irvine says of the race against the clock, both on and off the road.
“I got a bike built up but there was a problem with the headset and there was a bit of drama. But then Cycling Ireland lent me a bike.
“The first time I sat on it was half an hour before the race, when I warmed up for the time trial.”
Having been racing the US criterium scene this season, the 190km championship undulating road race course will be a change of speed for Irvine, though he is still capable of being among the very last men standing.
Not having ridden a time trial bike since finishing second to Michael Hutchinson in the 2012 nationals, Irvine admitted there was no pressure on him to do anything this time around.
“I’ve done crits all year with the team and I haven’t done one single time trial. The last time I rode a time trial bike was when I was second to 'Hutch' in 2012.
“There was no stress. It was just a training session for me so I just rode my bike as hard as I could.
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“I didn’t even have a power metre on or anything, so I was just riding on feel. I probably went off at 600 watts for 10 minutes and blew up at the roundabout. I went off really hard and just hurt myself for the next 30 minutes.
"I could see I was catching Matt (Brammeier), who was my two minute man near the turn so I knew I wasn’t awful slow, even though I felt I was stuck to the road. But I was really happy to get anything out of it.”
Although he finished fourth fastest on the night, Irvine picked up the bronze medal due to the fact that Ryan Mullen, who clocked the fastest time, is still under 23 and under UCI rules didn’t count towards the elite prize.
“It’s not right, because the fastest man on the day should be the champion and I think ‘Hutch’ will probably tell you that too," says Irvine.
“I got it by default really. I didn’t really want a medal. I was fourth fastest on the night, but it was nice to sneak some silverware.
“But Ryan has plenty of years to win elite title so I don’t reckon he’ll be too worried.”
Irvine can always be relied upon to give his best in the road race and came close to soloing away from Brammeier, Nicolas Roche and Philip Lavery to claim victory in Clonmel a couple of years ago.
This time around however, a diet of criterium racing Stateside means he is going into the event short of the distance rides needed for such a wearing down process as tomorrow’s 190km title race.
“In May and June, I did a load of crits and that’s all I’ve done,” he admits.
“The longest spin I’ve done this year is 100km, so you know where not to put your money.
“It’ll be all Dan (Martin)’s. Philip (Deignan) has got good from and Sam (Bennett) too but I think Dan has proved that he’s a specialist in these hard one day races.
“I was around the circuit today and there’s not one bit of flat road on it. It depends who gets away with who, but it’s going to be far from a big bunch finish.
“It will be a random bump that decides the race.”
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