Ryan Mullen is happy with his 7th place in the U23 TT at the World Championships yesterday but feels he could have gone a little better.
By Brian Canty
Ryan Mullen has admitted he had hoped to break into the top five in the U23 World Time Trial Championships in Florence yesterday, Monday.
The IG-Sigma Sport rider was seventh competing for Team Ireland; less than six seconds off his stated goal but said the heat mitigated against him getting a better time.
“It was a good result but I’m a bit disappointed at the same time, seventh is great but I just think I didn’t fare out too well with the heat,” he told stickybottle after returning home today.
“I’m capable of a better ride but I gave it everything on the day and I’ve no regrets. I did everything I should have done but the watts just weren’t quite there,” he added.
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“I had aspirations of a top five and I was nine seconds (six - Ed) off that. So yeah, I’m very happy with a top 10 and I’ll take that but it’s frustrating knowing that perhaps a better result was in me."
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“I had a schedule to stick to, me and Brian Nugent (Head Coach) went over the course several times, we split it into sections and I knew what watts I needed to hold in every section. The first section went great, I held my target watts, I was feeling good and everything was under control but the heat got to me a bit, and then, I just suffered a bit in the middle and I faded a bit towards the end but it was still a top 10.”
Mullen, still only 19-years-old, is clearly an extraordinary talent, and said that going so well will only motivate him to do better in his remaining years in the U23 grade.
“I’ve improved a lot over the last year, the step-up in the road racing definitely brought me on in my time trial and I think with another year of hard road racing on the Continent I can hopefully go even quicker again, that’s the plan anyway.”
The U23 event has always been, and still is, a very good shop window for managers of top teams to assess what talent is out there.
Winner Damian Howson of Australia had already signed for WorldTour team, Argos-Shimano for the coming year, while Danish star Lasse Norman Hansen, who got third has been snapped up by Garmin-SHARP.
Mullen admitted he will be leaving IG-Sigma Sport but wouldn’t say any more about where he’ll be for 2014.
“I’m not staying with Sigma, that’s a definite, but I’m not at liberty to say where I’m going, not yet anyway.”
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