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Ryan Mullen and Matt Brammeier got so far but no further at the World Road Championships (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Irish team manager at the World Championships, Kurt Bogaerts, has criticised the decision to pull a group out of the men’s road race containing Matt Brammeier and Ryan Mullen.
The Irish riders were in the third group on the road some 10 minutes down on the leaders when they were prevented from going out onto the final lap by race officials.
Groups who have fallen behind are often prevented from continuing in circuit races.
However, there was no possibility the large group Mullen and Brammeier were in could be lapped or in any way interfere with the action up ahead.
And in those circumstances, and especially after such a hard race in horrible conditions in Qatar, the decision to stop the group for the sake of it seem mean spirited.
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Mullen certainly thought so, taking to Twitter after the race to express his disappointment at having battled so far only to be prevented from finishing.
Well that was fun... Rode 230k in the desert only to not be allowed to ride the final 25k. Cheers.
— Ryan Mullen (@ryanmullen9) October 16, 2016
And Bogaerts echoed those views, though believed Mullen had done very well at these Worlds adding Brammeier was very unlucky to puncture three times.
“Ryan has the strength to be in that first group, he missed a bit of road racing experience to get there,” he said.
“And (he) was maybe a little scared of the big names like Boonen and Van Avermaet, but he has learnt a lot from today.
“He knows now that with his kind of legs he can go with the big moves, he needs to go with them because today he ended up in a group that was too easy for him, even though it was a good group.
“It was pulled on the last lap even though it was only ten minutes behind the leaders, which is not normal, it would have been nice for him to be able to finish here.
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“Ryan trained specifically for the Time Trial, and when you look at his result, finishing 5th against the best riders in the world; he did the right thing preparing for that.
“More road experience and confidence will come with time. Matt was unfortunate to get three punctures today, so it really wasn’t his lucky day.”
Matt Brammeier's jersey caked in salt after his effort but he and Mullen did not have a finish result for their efforts (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Bogaerts said while Sam Bennett did well to make the split after about 75km when a group containing many of the main favourites pulled clear, he believed the Irish sprinter’s interrupted preparation had really held him back.
“We knew the move was going to happen at about 75km with the Belgian team, they were talking to the Belgian press during the week,” he said.
“Sam was in the right spot and went with it. Unfortunately a combination of factors meant he couldn’t stay there.
“He was sick two weeks ago, so in the dessert it was hot and dry, and he got overheated.
“He dropped to the second group which had the Germans in it, who were pushing up the speed because they needed to chase.
“But Sam got more and more problems with the heat – shivers and everything – I gave him ice, but it was not worth it to continue.
“We made the right decision to stop him, something bad could happen, and he had given everything to be in the first group but circumstance showed it was not possible to continue.”
However, Bogaerts believes Bennett has what to takes to make a big impact on the biggest of world stages.
“Sam is at the level to keep with that top competition, he has won two UCI races in the last month before the worlds, so he can take that with him,” he said.
“He was sick a couple of weeks ago and lost about ten days training, so when he was going into the red zone too early in that heat there’s nothing really you can do.”
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