Martyn Irvine on the podium at the European Track Championships in Holland today, Sunday, where he bagged a bronze medal in the omnium.
Ireland’s track world champion, Martyn Irvine has today firmly put to rest the ghosts of his crash at the Tour of Taiwan back in March by taking a fantastic bronze medal in the omnium at the European Track Championships in Holland.
The reigning World Scratch Race Champion and world ranked No 1 in the pursuit and scratch race, Irvine was in third place in the standings after the first day of competition on Saturday; with the six events in the omnium split over three races on Saturday and three today, Sunday.
On Saturday, Irvine was 14th of the 20-man field in the flying lap 250 metres TT in a time of 13.922; a disappointing result by his standards. However, he won the points race and was then 4th in the elimination race.
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Those results left him with 19 points and in 3rd place in the overall standings behind Russian leader Viktor Manakov and second-placed Dutchman Tim Veldt; which would prove to be the final podium.
Irvine was 3rd in the pursuit today, in a time of 4:30.492. And he followed that up later in the day with 6th in the scratch race and 12th in the kilo; the latter in a time of 1:06.281. Those rides saw him finish in the bronze medal position.
It was an amazing result considering he failed to finish the points race on Friday, complaining of feeling empty, and was so badly injured this year.
Irvine won the world title in the scratch race in Minsk in March and on the same afternoon won a silver medal in the individual pursuit.
However, he immediately returned to road racing for his trade team Unitedhealthcare at the Tour of Taiwan and crashed there breaking his hip.
He has worked hard to get healthy and to get back to racing as quickly as possible. And having returned to gentle competition a few months back, he competed in Apeldoorn this weekend to bag bronze.
The result confirms he is very much back on top of his game, just a couple of weeks after Unitedhealthcare offered him another contract for next year.
Cycling Ireland head coach, Brian Nugent said the mood in the Irish camp was sky high following Irvine’s ride.
“It’s remarkable how Martyn has fought to come back to that, all credit to him,” he said.
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“He has worked hard with the squad over the past month in Majorca, going to races in Aigle and Gent, then he was unlucky to get sick last week.”
“He was disappointed with the points race on Friday, so just took it as him opening the system. In the omnium on Saturday and Sunday he was back in form. We are over the moon with the medal, Martyn is over the moon.”
Eoin Mullen and Caroline Ryan were also in action for Ireland this weekend at the Euros.
Mullen was 16th in the sprint qualifying on Friday; progressing to the match sprint rounds before being beaten by Poland’s Damian Zielinski in heat 9.
The young Irishman was again in action in the keirin event today on the final day of the three-day meeting, finishing 7th in his heat.
Caroline Ryan raced the omnium yesterday and today; finishing up in 10th place in the final standings.
The world No 1 ranked pursuiter was 4th in the pursuit today in a time of 3:44.095, 10th in the scratch race and 12th in the 500 metre TT in a time of 38.871.
On the opening day of the event on Saturday she was 14th in the flying lap in a time of 15.731, 6th in the points race (gaining a lap) and 15th in the elimination race.
Next up on the international track cycling stage is the first World Cup of the season in Manchester from November 1st to 3rd.
Today's bronze completes the set of medals at major championships for Irvine in 2013, having won a gold and silver at the Worlds this year.
Head down arse up: It was another characteristic all-out effort by an Irish rider for whom many accolades and medals are surely still to come.
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