Sport: a funny old business. Three years ago Martyn Irvine was on top of the world, ending Ireland’s 117-year wait for a track cycling gold medal when he won the World Scratch Race championship in Minsk.
He did so the hard way, beginning the race less than an hour after taking silver in the individual team pursuit, then shrugging off fatigue to clinch gold.
The result was the best in the history of Irish track cycling, with Irvine's medals at the pro level exceeding the win of Harry Reynolds in the 1996 amateur sprint.
The performance suggested Irvine would be one of the top contenders in the Rio Olympics. Instead, three years later, he has announced his retirement, walking away from the sport at just 30 years of age.
"I was looking back thinking 'what happened?'," Irvine reflected, talking to The Irish Times. "I just stopped torturing myself. My style of bike riding is pretty brutal and I think I just lost the mentality to torture myself enough to perform at that level."
Surprise
The news, announced yesterday, came as a surprise to many. Irvine has shown a real fighting spirit since he took up the sport, making constant progress up until his world championship win.
Since then, though, he has had a series of demoralising disruptions. Weeks after those medals he crashed heavily in the Tour of Taiwan and fractured his femur. He returned to claim bronze in the European championship omnium that October and then silver in the defence of his World Scratch Race title in February 2014.
More bad luck was in store. In October 2014 he was part of the Irish team pursuit squad that fell heavily at the Europeans, and he missed more points-scoring opportunities when he suffered a broken collarbone that December.
“I was on the back foot as regards the Olympics when the team pursuit crashed. I lost a load of points and then the collarbone came on the back of that, and I missed two rounds. It was just a snowball of shit that I had,” he explains, speaking frankly about where things went wrong.
“Afterwards, I was coming back when everyone was at their peak and I was just getting a kicking. It was just not nice. It got me in the head. I don’t like to be just pack filler, I like to be racing. I hated being a donkey last year.
“I didn’t lose the love, but felt that something is gone in my head and I am just not enjoying it.”
Another setback
Irvine had another setback to contend with too. His longtime coach, the American
Andy Sparks
, took up the role of head coach of the USA’s paracycling team. That brought their long association to an end and added to the complications.
He needed to be at his very best, but the person who helped him unlock his full potential was no longer around.
“I just hate to turn up every race and not perform as I should,” he said. “I’ve had my run, I reckon. My own standard wasn’t up to what I was used to.”
Missing out on Olympic qualification was a big blow to Irvine, but the big engine showed itself again in November. He and the Denmark’s Marc Hester finished second in the Revolution Series race in Glasgow.
However, rather than rekindling his motivation, that resurgence – or, rather, his reaction to it – confirmed to him that the magic was gone. “On the night I was like, ‘flip, that was cool.’ I felt good again. But the next day it was like ‘ah, I couldn’t be bothered going training again’.”
Even if things have ended in a very different way than many imagined in 2013, Irvine has been a huge force for Irish cycling.
“I know it sounds daft, but being nominated for the RTÉ Sports Awards and those of BBC NI are highlights. I look back on that and think it is pretty cool, as there haven’t been many cyclists up for RTÉ Sports awards. It was great to get the sport into the mainstream news.”
He’s also furthered the country’s push for its first indoor velodrome, a project that is expected to be completed prior to the 2020 Games.
