Ryan Mullen, like all young pros, has a steep learning curve ahead. But having tested him fully in recent months, his team say he is a class athlete not limited to success in time trials (Photo: Luc Van Der Meiren)
By Shane Stokes
It’s already known that Ryan Mullen is an extremely fast time trial rider; second in the 2014 under 23 world time trial championships and his current national title attest to that.
But now his Cannondale team coach Sebastian Weber has given his own assessment, suggesting that the 21-year-old has the power and aerodynamics to go far in the sport.
Weber, who for many years has been the coach of multiple world time trial champion Tony Martin, first commented on Mullen in January.
“I am trying to put together the puzzle,” he said then, speaking at the team’s training camp. “When I started working with him, I looked at all the training and performance data I could get.
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“I tried to get hold of some aerodynamic data and did some lab testing with him just recently, a month ago, to assess anaerobic and aerobic capacity.
“I am happy. I really enjoy working with him. Working with time trialists is one of my specialities and I was excited when he came to the team.
“Aerodynamics is definitely a bit unclear. It is the only thing I don’t know yet about.
“Looking at photos from the side, he looks pretty aero but then he is pretty big also. That is never good aerodynamics. It is going to be interesting.
“But power-wise, I am pretty excited about him and how it looks.”
Mullen has made his name against the watch and will have another chance at the U23 TT at the World Championships this year. But his team says he is about more than the time trial (Photo: Luc Van Der Meiren)
Indeed Weber was sufficiently impressed by Mullen’s power output to say that he should not be pigeonholed.
“Obviously everyone sees him as a pure time trialist. This is where he came from. His main success comes from the TT.
“But power-wise, he should be able to do much more than this, and from his metabolic profile he is for sure not limited to doing only time trials.”
Weber has since been able to get a full picture of Mullen’s aerodynamic profile, or CdA value.
Cd is the coefficient of drag, while A is the frontal area a rider presents when he or she moves forward.
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Despite his size, being a tall rider with wide shoulders, Weber is excited by what he sees.
“Ryan’s CdA values looked very good, looked very solid especially for the size of the rider he is,” he told stickybottle.
“That was good. He did some decent testing hours in Mallorca in the velodrome. We got all the testing done that we wanted on different bike setups and skinsuits and stuff like that. It was good.”
Mullen is only in his third month as a pro rider but he’s ridden solidly thus far. He was 15th in the prologue of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen last week, his first time trial of the year.
His first races were held in Majorca back in January. He was 33rd in the Trofeo Felanitx, 42nd in the Trofeo Pollenca and 35th in the Trofeo Playa de Palma.
Mullen went from the junior ranks to Continental level with IG Sigma Sport in the UK and then onto the Belgian-based An Post-Chainreaction team before securing a two-year contract with WorldTour outfit Cannondale which he has just started (Photo: Luc Van Der Meiren)
More recently he competed in the Tour du Haut Var-Matin, and tried to help his team-mate Tom Jelte Slagter take the overall classification.
Slagter took the opening stage, but the team were unable to maintain control of the bunch on day two and he slipped back.
“I think Ryan is going pretty stable,” said Weber.
“For the beginning of this season we didn’t really focus on a specific race or tune his training to something super-specific.
“It’s just about building a strong, good base and getting him to get some experience and some race kilometres. We are not really trying to do something in particular with him at the moment.”
The aim at this time of the year is to help him gain momentum and strength.
“What we basically want to see is solid performances, not going too deep in the races, not being too tired afterwards.”
However there will be a real target later this month.
“He will aim for De Panne,” said Weber, referring to the 2.HC Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde.
It runs from March 29th to 31st, and was won last year by Alexander Kristoff.
“Because of the time trial, that would be a really good race for him.”
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