Martyn Irvine is brutally honest about his form to date but is still hopeful of making an impact at the World Championships. Above, winning World Cup gold in Manchester in November 2013.
Having crashed in the team pursuit at the European Championships in October and broken his collarbone at the UCI World Cup in Mexico the following month, the track season had been a disaster for Martyn Irvine.
The former world champion in the scratch race and three-time Worlds medalist went to the concluding round of the World Cup in Cali, Colombia, last month hoping to get his racing back on track.
What followed was an average performance.
But as he says in this latest dispatch - and with the World Championships just two weeks away - he had pulled big results out of the bag before when the pressure was on.
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Irvine said coming home from an international meeting empty handed having worn the green of Ireland is very tough to take (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
I touched down in Cali with three days to go until race day. The initial problem was my pursuit bike didn't turn up.
It was perhaps expected as it’s a long way from home and it’s Colombia.
I packed my essentials like shoes and pedals, which are pretty useless when you've no bike to attach them to.
But I did have my bunch bike to get me going.
The first few training sessions, I used my bunch bike and borrowed some stuff from others to get training with the guys for the team pursuit.
The boxes with all the essentials eventually arrived the day before the racing and we were all good to go.
First up was the team pursuit and it was a bit of a non-event but not a disaster.
The scaffolding in Irvine's shoulder after his smash at the Mexico UCI World Cup in November.
We had a few boxes that we wanted to tick and we missed out on a few of them.
During the race itself I wasn’t on my best day which didn't help things but it was what it was; pretty average.
After I chalked the team pursuit to the back of my mind I shifted my focus onto the omnium and I was ready to go.
I have numerous expletives that I’m really tempted to use when talking about this race but in a weird way I’m enjoying working hard on stuff that I’m brutal at.
I’m just waiting for it to pay off. Excuse me but this is going to be brief.
Behind Ryan Mullen and Cormac Clarke in the team pursuit line at the Cali World Cup (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
I’m going to use a race by race format to describe the omnium as I don't want to dwell on the bad side of things.
My race was very average and generally below average across the board.
Scratch race; crap result. I raced reasonably well though and found myself off the front inside 10 laps to go.
That wasn't really my plan but I wasn't going to put the brakes on.
As my legs folded under me and my vision clouded over it all came to nothing inside the last 100 metres; from 1st to 14th in a blink.
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The 4km individual pursuit; more averageness but not brutal.
I took 8th place in a well paced effort so I couldn't complain about that result too much. Just more gas needed.
Elimination race: F#@*ing! B#@*#*D! Useless f#*king d#*khead! These were probably the first words to come out of my mouth, I’m sure it’s on video somewhere.
I finished in 23rd place; more stuff to feed my nightmares.
Irvine was one of the fallers when the pursuit team came down at the Euros in Guadeloupe in October.
The night in-between the first and second day’s racing was grand.
I had pretty low morale and some serious contemplating was done but I had to shake it off and try again the next day for the remaining three races of six.
Kilometre TT: A glitch with the gate at the start meant I started my effort, got pulled by the gate.
I had to go back, get on the rollers, re-motivate myself and go again at the end.
I ended up starting more cautiously the second time so as not to be caught by the gate, which cost me.
I clocked 1min 04.9sec which placed me 16th. A time of 1min 04.0secs would have placed me 7th. Again, I was on the wrong side of the slimmest of margins.
Flying lap: It was what it was; average at 13.6. In a nutshell; middle of the road.
Irvine is perhaps being a little hard on himself in this latest dispatch; though nobody would doubt his ability to bounce back.
But again the fact that I was on the wrong side of a few hundredths just summed up my day.
Points Race: 160laps - 40km - and the pain and misery would be over.
My race was crap again and I was pretty much a passenger for most of it.
It wasn't a total disaster as I raced hard and did get points here and there but I barely moved on the general classification and my Cali World Cup came to a dismal end.
With a passion, I hate going home with nothing.
When the day comes where I’m happy going home with an average performance, I’m done, no more racing.
I race for my country and I want to show off how good it is.
When I make an impact - it’s generally a big one.
Next up is the World Championships in Paris, wish me luck.
Martyn
Check out Irvine's website by clicking here
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