The Aqua Blue Sport team and crew; a ride in a Grand Tour could happen faster than people think (Photo: Karen M Edwards)
Martyn Irvine has said while his new team Aqua Blue Sport would have to work hard to reach Tour de France level, the prospect of starting another Grand Tour may be much closer.
Speaking as a panellist on RTE Radio 1’s weekend sport coverage today, he said the team was now in a position, as a ProContinental outfit, to start Grand Tours. And with big ambitions it saw itself as a possible start of the Vuelta and perhaps even the Giro.
Team owner Rick Delaney had “a very clear picture” about what he wanted from the project.
“I think that probably explains why he’s so successful; he’s very goal driven and he’s got some hefty goals,” said Irvine.
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“I would say he didn’t get to where he is without some big targets,” he added before suggesting Grand Tour participation was not a distant aspiration.
“Being at ProConti level, you’d be putting your hand up to even start the Grand Tours; maybe even the Giro.
“The Tour of Spain could be on the cards. That would be awesome this year.”
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He said if the team was ambitious and wanted to ride the Tour de France it needed to get into big races and work hard to get to that level.
Aqua Blue Sport has already said it wanted to ride the Tour in the first four years of the team’s existence.
Asked whether the team was trying to win the support of Irish cycling fans in the way Irish soccer rallied around Dundalk FC this year, Irvine said they would be delighted with such a response.
“It’s some that hasn’t been done before; that level, ProContinental. It’s just one down from the top tier, so it’s pretty ambitious.
“Any sponsor-driven sport; they want to get to the top level. That’s it; it’s a business as well as a sport so (sponsors) want their name out as far and wide as they can.
“And that top tier is the only place to be. You can’t really aspire for anything else.”
Irvine added the fact that team was based out of Ireland with Irish people at the helm really attracted him to it and out of retirement.
He also believed there may now be a “tail laid out” for young Irish riders in trying to turn pro, of which Aqua Blue Sport would not be a part.
At one point, somewhat incredibly, one of the presenters asked Irvine if he didn’t question Delaney about why he was backing a cycling team given all the negative press on the sport.
Irvine said most people raised the issue of doping in the sport with him when he met them out and about, saying conversations with his family were the only ones he could be certain that the issue would not come up.
He found that frustrating but he believed cycling was in some ways a victim of its own success in having caught so many riders doping.
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