First Irish track gold medallist in over 100 years speaks, Cycling Ireland’s president gives velodrome update
One day after he took Ireland’s first track world championship gold medal in 117 years, Martyn Irvine arrived back to a warm reception yesterday evening in Dublin airport, where a group of supporters waited to welcome him back.
Walking out in the white jersey of world champion and initially looking a little embarrassed by the attention, the Newtownards rider was greeted by the fans, had photos taken and did a number of interviews about Thursday’s successes. “I knew I had the legs of being on the podium, but I never dreamt of winning it outright. You kind of know where you are in the pursuit and I knew it would be hard to win, but the scratch is a lottery,” he told VeloNation in the video interview below. “It is just a bonus. I don’t know how I had the legs but they were there somewhere…it is unbelievable.”
Less than an hour after taking silver against Michael Hepburn (Australia) in the individual pursuit, Irvine was up again in the scratch race. He initially played things cagey, but then he attacked ten kilometres from the end of Thursday’s scratch race and held off Andreas Mueller (Austria) and the Australian Luke Davison, ending up best out of 23 of the world’s top track riders for the discipline.
“I just feel disbelief,” he admitted after that race. “It just hasn’t hit me yet. I am just sitting here laughing and chuckling about it…this doesn’t happen to me, it is kind of a dream, you never really expect things like that to happen.”
In following in the century-old wheeltracks of 1896 world amateur sprint champion Harry Reynolds, Irvine has put his talent beyond any doubt. His fiancée Grace McNally speaks about his gradually growing confidence in the video below, while Cycling Ireland president Rory Wyley discusses the significance of the achievement and also gives an update as to where Ireland is at in terms of the push to try to get its first indoor velodrome.
Meanwhile Irvine talks about his campaign, his successes, how that will affect his self-belief in the future and also his pro road career with the UnitedHealthcare team.
Also see: Feature: Irvine in disbelief after making history with Minsk world championship scratch race win
Click below on the first image to see a gallery of photos by Stephen McMahon