Words: Kenny Pryde
Images: Moving Still Images
Martin Lonie has been racing bike most of his life and he finally won a rainbow jersey in the Points race at the 2019 World Masters championships in Manchester.
It's safe to say that East Kilbride-based Martin Lonie has been chasing titles all his cycling career, which, given that his first competitive season was back in 1993, is a lot of riding and racing. From schoolboy competitions around Bellahouston park via Junior adventures with the GB squad at the World road championships in 1997 to the Masters world championships, Lonie has experienced sporting highs and lows. There was a brief pro career with the ill-fated Linda McCartney squad, followed by a cycling-halting, arm-mangling, nerve-damaging accident in France in May 2001 to his current efforts with the Nuun-Sigma Sports squad, Lonie has been been around the block and got the scars to prove it.
In fact, like many cyclists, Lonie packed up for a few years between 2003 and 2010 but – also like so many riders – he retuned to cycling when his weight became an issue. Thus it was a 15-stone Martin Lonie who hit the comeback trail in 2010. “I got dropped and lapped at an Ingliston crit,” he laughs, “but I started to get into breaks then won a race by the end of the season.” Lonie been a man on a mission ever since. “My target was to get selected for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. I won the Scottish Scratch title that year, but never got picked,” notes Lonie, “but I was enjoying racing and winning, so I kept going.”
At the 2019 UCI Masters track championships in Manchester, Lonie finally got to pull on a rainbow jersey, with a dominant and determined ride in the 40-44 year age category Points race, contested by riders from five different countries. Lonie was so much in control he was able to sit up and not contest the final sprint in the 80-lap bunch race, opting to raise two arms in the air in a traditional winner's salute.
The gold medal and the “stripey jersey” helped Lonie make up for the bronze he won in the earlier Scratch race and the team silver he claimed as part of the 'Manchester Masters' quartet who finished just over a second behind the Australians in the 35-44 year old category 4,000m team pursuit. “The Australians had been over here for a couple of weeks, training on Derby track and they were going quick,” explained Lonie, “we didn't have as much preparation time, but doing a 4-09 was a great effort.” Lonie was part of a foursome that also included Alistair Rutherford, an English-based Scot who rode the 2014 Commonwealth Games, finishing sixth in the 40km Points race.
In fact Lonie has had a good year – winning the British Masters criterium championship, the Scottish Madison title as well as a silver medal in the Scottish Veterans road race championship around the lumpy Stewarton course.
Add to that the British Masters Scratch title at Newport velodrome and the Scottish Criterium championship on the new purpose-built Lochgelly circuit near Dunfermline and a win in the race that bears the name of an early training partner, the Tom Anderson Memorial. All in all, Lonie has enjoyed one his best-ever seasons. What's the secret?
“I think there was an attitude in Scotland that if you got dropped in a road race you had to go out and train longer and harder. Whereas I started looking at the demands of a race. Like, if there's a climb that takes one minute or three or five – which covers most hilly races in Scotland really – then you need to be able to climb that at a certain power to get over it. Train for that, not for riding five hours, you need to cope with three minutes of really, really hard effort, or two or five minutes or whatever it is. That's much more my approach these days. Look at a race and see what you need to do.”
Lonie's training – 'look at an event and see what you need to do' – has stood him in good stead. It's worked for him in 2019 and who'd bet it won't work again in 2020?
Inspired to give track cycling a try?
The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow offers a full accreditation programme.
This article was written by Kenny Pryde, a Glaswegian journalist and author who has been writing about cycling since 1987. He edited Winning Magazine and Cycle Sport and has contributed to the Guardian, Scotsman, Herald and - for one week only in 1991 - l'Equipe.
