Standing in a carpark by the Sultan Qaboos University, Martyn Irvine can only watch as the Aqua Blue Sport riders head to the start of stage 2 of the Tour of Oman. Having ridden for the team last season, he is now a directeur sportif for the Irish squad and will be looking after the team along with lead DS Bob de Cnodder.
After competing professionally for a decade in a career that included gold in the scratch race at the 2013 Track World Championships, being on the other side of things is an alien experience for the Irishman.
"It feels like I'm doing my apprenticeship again, back to school. It's good," Irvine told Cyclingnews. "It is a bit of a foreign feeling. I'm on the outside looking in now. It's good. I'm not missing the stuff that the guys go through. I think my time has come for that. I'm looking forward to this challenge."
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This is not Irvine's first go at retiring from cycling after he walked away from the sport at the start of 2016 after struggling with the knock-on effect of several injuries, which had hindered his attempts at qualifying for the Olympic Games in Rio. After initially trying to ignore cycling completely, he found himself drawn back into the sport and decided to race again when the nascent Aqua Blue team came knocking.
The comeback wasn't what he would have wanted as he fractured his hip at the Baloise Belgium Tour after making a late start to the season due to other injury problems. Despite the challenges he faced last season, Irvine doesn't regret racing on for another year.
"I needed to do that. I left really quickly after the Rio disappointment. I just cut the strings, and I didn't want anything to do with cycling," said Irvine. "I just found myself watching cycling. I had no need to be following it but I was, and that's when I wanted to go back and go out on my own terms. When you're away for a while you think I can't do this and I can't do that, and then you forget certain reasons why you were off. I forgot how bad my hip was in training and stuff so then when I came back I just had problems all year.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/back-to-school-for-irvine-as-he-begins-life-as-a-directeur-sportif
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