Mullen lost the Junior Tour yellow jersey after a crash on stage 2 into Westport this year
Having been Ireland’s strongest junior rider this year and taken a silver medal at the Junior European Time Trial Championships, Ryan Mullen is to ride in the pro ranks next year in his first season as an U23.
He has announced this morning, Thursday, that he will ride with UK-based IG Sigma Sport, where he will join fellow Irishman Peter Hawkins, who is entering his second season with the team.
Mullen’s ability had attracted a lot of interest from teams on the Continent and he had done tests with the Rabobank development team after the World Championships in September.
They had agreed to keep in touch with him during the coming season with a view to monitoring his progression. The sponsor then pulled out of the sport, though the team is continuing.
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Mullen also attracted attention from the Vacansoleil development team, to name just one other, but has opted to stay in the UK where he lives with his family.
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The move to the new team has the added bonus of allowing him maintain his UK home base while also making that step up into the pro ranks in his first year out of the juniors.
Perhaps the most exciting junior prospect to come out of the Irish set-up since former World Junior Champion Mark Scanlon, Mullen’s stand-out results this year were his silver medal at the Euros and his 9th place in the World Championships.
In British TTs this season he recorded the fastest times ever by a junior on Irish or British roads – 19:01 for the 10 mile TT and 48:48 for the 25 mile TT. However, he did not ride on restricted junior gears meaning his times were ineligible to be approved as national Irish records.
As well as his European and Worlds performances this year, Mullen took wins on the kermesse circuits in Holland and Belgium, won two stages and held the yellow jersey in the Junior Tour and also won the National Junior TT Championships.
He also enjoyed a number of wins in races on Irish roads, with perhaps the highlight being the Visit Nenagh Classic.
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