Martyn Irvine has found the going tough at these Worlds thus far but it's definitely not too late for the big man to pull it out of the bag. All eyes will also be on Ryan Mullen tomorrow (Saturday) at 4.05pm as he aims to emulate the performances that saw him make the bronze medal ride-off in the Individual Pursuit 12 months ago (Photo with thanks to Guy Swarbrick)
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Martyn Irvine lies in 16th place at the halfway point of the omnium event at the UCI World Track Championships in Paris.
The Newtownards man had a packed agenda today, racing the Scratch Race, Individual Pursuit and the Elimination Race with mixed success.
The former world champion set a new personal best of 4.26.814 for the Individual Pursuit which clearly illustrates he’s in some good form right now – a marvellous achievement given he broke his collar bone in November.
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That time was good enough for 9th best of 21 riders.
Unfortunately, that was to be the highlight of Irvine’s day, despite some typically 'no guts no glory’ riding.
In the first event today, the Scratch, Irvine was one of the strongest in the race and he attacked relentlessly in an attempt to split the field.
Martyn Irvine riding as aggressively as always today, but he was given little slack from a bunch that kept a very close watch on him throughout the scratch and elimination races (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
His efforts paid off as shortly after the halfway mark he pulled out a significant gap and though the bunch chased hard, they couldn’t reel him back in.
Eventually, Chun Leung from Hong Kong jumped across to Irvine but brought the bunch with him and with three laps to go the gap decreased.
Then, with two laps to go the accelerating bunch passed Irvine, leaving him in 20th place.
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Italian Elia Viviani won the sprint from Great Britain’s Jonathen Dibben.
Afterwards, Irvine remarked; “I was hoping for something a bit better, I suppose it was a good performance with a bad result, that’s the way it is, that’s the race I ride.
“You’re either in the thing, or you finish last, and today I pretty much finished last.”
Caroline Ryan, a bronze medal winner at the Worlds three years ago in Melbourne, gets her omnium underway tomorrow with the scratch race at 6.20pm followed by the individual pursuit (3pm) and elimination race (9.05pm)
The other event saw Irvine race the Elimination Race, an event he was fourth in at the European Championships last year.
Here, the last rider over the line on every second lap is out and the winner is the last man standing.
Irvine again raced from the front as best he could but was the seventh rider to be eliminated, meaning he dropped to 16th place overall going into tomorrow.
But before Irvine concludes his campaign, European championships bronze medallist Eoin Mullen kicks things off at 12noon when he rides his speciality sprint event.
Irvine then completes his omnium with the final three events; the 1km TT (1.20pm), flying lap (3.40pm) and 40km Points race (7pm).
Caroline Ryan, a bronze medal winner at the Worlds three years ago in Melbourne, gets her omnium underway with the Scratch race (6.20pm), Individual Pursuit (3pm) and Elimination Race (9.05pm).
And Ryan Mullen goes in the qualifiers of the individual pursuit (4.05pm), an event he was 4th in last year.
If he makes the final they’ll be on just after 8pm.
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