Irvine Lying 15th Going into Round 3 of Omnium

SESSION ONE REPORT: Irvine15th Omnium at Track Worlds in Paris

After two events in the Men’s Omnium Ireland’s Martyn Irvine is lying in 15^th place at the 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris, after a personal best in the Individual Pursuit of 4.26.814 boosted his overall position, following his 20^th finish in the Scratch Race earlier in the day. His individual pursuit time was the 9^th fastest on the day. Going into tonight’s Elimination Race Colombia’s Gaviria Rendon is leading the Omnium, followed by Belgium’s De Buyst and Italy’s Viviani. The Omnium is a six event competition, with riders being awarded points depending on their finishing position in each event. The overall winner in this Olympic class event is the rider with most points at the end of the six events. The World Championships run from the 18-22 February.

The first event for Martyn Irvine was the Scratch Race, a 15km bunch race. Irvine’s 20^th place does not reflect his exceptional performance, where shortly after the halfway mark the Newtownards man made his mark, attacking the group and getting a significant gap. The bunch chased hard, but could not reel him back in, and with five laps to go, it looked like the maximum points for the event would be awarded to the Irishman. However, Leung from Hong Kong jumped across to Irvine, bringing the bunch with him, and with three laps to go, the gap decreased. With two laps to go the accelerating bunch passed Irvine, leaving him in 20^th place.



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Speaking after the first session of the Omnium Irvine said “In the Scratch 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 are either in the thing, or you finish last, and today I pretty much finished last.”

The second round of the Omnium bode better for Irvine, when he finished with a personal best in the Individual Pursuit in a time of 4.26.814 putting him in 9th place. This result means that Irvine will be starting in the Elimination Race in 15^th place. Irvine paced his 4km effort very well, and was happy with his race saying “I’ve done a PB in the pursuit, I’m not a million miles away, and I dunno, maybe it’s bunch race grit I’ve lost a bit of that suffering edge.”

Irvine was philosophical reflecting on the year that he has had, saying “It’s certainly not the year I wanted, but I suppose I’ve had a good few good years, so I have to take it.”

With the Omnium consisting of six different races, it’s a different beast of a race; he said “Even the winner will be feeling useless at some point in the race. There’s no one gets it sweet the whole way through. That’s the element I’ve always struggled with, I’m my worst critic. We will see what happens, there’s still four races to go.”

Tonight at approx. 20.15 Irish time Irvine will race in the Elimination Race, round three of the Omnium. In this event every second lap the last rider over the line is out, once there are two riders left, the winner is the person who wins the last sprint. “This is a race I don’t sleep over, a good lot of training we did for it in the last few months, so will see how it goes. I finished fourth in it in the Europeans, believe it or not, I have no idea how I did that, I just need to find a bit of edge for tonight.  

The UCI Track Cycling World Championships take place in the Velodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in Paris from the 18-22 February.