Ryan Mullen is world class against the watch on track and road, but he says he needs to up other areas such as road racing to break into the big time.
By Brian Canty
The youngest member of the An Post Chainreaction team, Ryan Mullen is fast becoming one of the most talked about riders in the world following a fantastic showing at the UCI World Track Championships in Cali, Colombia, last week.
The 19-year-old qualified for the bronze medal ride-off in the 4km individual pursuit courtesy of setting the fourth fastest time in qualifying.
And though he narrowly missed out on a medal he enjoyed every minute of the experience and knows it will stand to him in the future.
“I was gaining and gaining on him,” he said of bronze medal opponent, New Zealand’s Marc Ryan.
Advertisement
“But I just popped with about three kilometres gone. I don’t really have any complaints.”
The Kiwi is more than 10 years Mullen’s senior and has medals from both the Beijing and London Olympic Games. So the Irishman is not beating himself up having been bested by him.
“It is what it is. The Worlds were great to be part of and hopefully if I continue progressing there’s plenty more events like that for me in the future.”
It's not two years since Mullen was in Junior Tour yellow and yet he has gone very close to a medal at an elite World Track Championships and now harbours aspirations of U23 time trial gold at the World Road Championships
Aside from his long term track goals, also on Mullen’s radar is improving on his 7th place in the U23 time trial at the World Road Championships in Spain next September.
“I’m looking forward to this year already,” he says of the championships, still some six months away.
“What happened last year happened. The course this year in Ponferrada will suit me from what I’ve heard. It might involve me shifting a kilo but I’m definitely up for it.
“It’s my biggest objective for the year, to win the World Championships. Pretty much every guy who beat me is gone so we’ll see how it goes.”
Several of those riders who did get the better of Mullen in Florence were snapped up by some of the world’s biggest teams, the likes of Australia winner Damien Howson went to Orica GreenEdge while US rider Lawson Craddock has gone to Giant-Shimano.
However, Mullen insists there is more to gaining a place on a major team than popping up and doing a quality test, even at the Worlds.
“Those guys have been around at U23 level a while now and they’ve got their own results. So I can’t really bank on one result in a time trial to move me on. I need to up it a gear in other things like road racing.
Related News
“The track is a big billboard where you can advertise yourself and hopefully with the result I got last week and any more results I get on the track can help me.
“The track season is pretty much finished now for the year except for the U23 Europeans and the Irish nationals before the World Cups again next winter.”
The U23 Nations Cup series was not a happy experience for Mullen and the rest of the Irish team last year, resulting in their failure to qualify for the road race at the Worlds. He is looking to put that right this year.
With road racing now occupying his thoughts, it’s hardly surprising that the U23 Nations Cup series is on his mind.
“We didn’t quite get it together at the Nations Cups last year because we were a young team and for most of us it was our first outing. But this year with the harder programme, naturally we should be able to get up there and qualify a spot for the Worlds and Tour de l’Avenir and races like that.”
He says he is also “100 per cent” committed to the Rás.
“I wanted to ride it last year but for whatever reason I wasn’t picked for it; maybe they thought it was too hard for me as a first year U23,” he says of his then IG Sigma Sport team.
They were plagued with bad luck in the race, finishing with just two riders after three of their charges crashed out, including Irishman Peter Hawkins who was in the yellow jersey when he came down.
“By the sounds of the luck the team had last year I’d have broken something anyway. If I can ride this year I’d be really happy with that and if I could try and feature in the race that’d be even better.”
Looking ahead long term, he seems keen to work hard and stick to the job at hand.
“I don’t set myself unrealistic ambitions, it’s more what I think I can achieve based on my training,” he says.
“I’m dedicated and I’m ambitious and I always have been. Races don’t always go to plan, there’s always other factors to deal with that you can’t control. But I know what I need to do to move on and I’ll be doing all I can this year to achieve my goals.
“Seeing Sam (Bennett) move on has given us inspiration. Now, I can’t sprint like him so I’ve got to get my results a different way. And that’s where the track and the time trial comes in.
“I’m very lucky to be with An Post Chainreaction because they offer a programme that suits me and they’re lenient with my track commitments.
“If I can work on my climbing a bit I could even become a general classification rider in the future, maybe. But seeing Sam move on from this team is the reason I’m here; to try and move on.”
Topics
