Ryan Mullen goes into the U23 time trial at the World Championships as a hot favourite; what can he do?
By Shane Stokes
Having taken an excellent seventh against seasoned professionals in the individual time trial (TT) at the Tour of Britain, Ireland’s Ryan Mullen has said he is looking forward to the U23 TT at the World Championships.
However, the 20-year-old An Post-Chainreaction rider said he was unsure what to expect from the race tomorrow, Monday.
Mullen was seventh in Worlds TT last year, riding as a first-year U23. He is tipped by many as one who could be in the hunt for a medal, perhaps even the rainbow jersey.
However, he told stickybottle he did want to make any predictions or even talk about expectations.
“I don’t want to go making any assumptions,” he said.
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“But I am obviously hoping I can improve. The way I see it, I am a year stronger, my watts are higher, my position is better and I am lighter.
“It just depends on how it works out on the day. I could have a bad day, anything could happen, I could puncture.”
His approach is very much one of letting his legs do the talking. He knows making any predictions would just add to the pressure. Instead, he’s trying to keep things low key and wait and see how everything pans out.
“It would be nice to be considered a favourite, which I think I am," he said.
"But I don’t really want to put so much pressure on myself. I just want to ride like I ride every other time trial, not get too caught up in the whole Worlds pandemonium. I am just going to chill out.”
Taking the combined Irish senior and U23 road title on his own in Multyfarnham back in June (Photo: Kevin Monaghan)
Developing talent
Mullen’s performances this year have pointed to further development against the clock. A powerful rider with a superb TT position, he set the fastest time at the national championships but was limited to taking the U23 title due to UCI rules for the event.
He also took that strong placing in the Tour of Britain time trial, something which he admits surpassed his own expectations.
“I was really happy with the result. I actually performed better than I thought I would.
"I was getting pretty tired as the week went on. It is the first time I have every done a stage race over four or five days. Before that, the longest one I did other than that was Bessèges, which was four road days and then a TT. This one was eight road stages and then a TT.
“It was a big jump up, especially with the riders there and the distance of the race. At Bessèges we had 140, 150 kilometres a day. The Tour of Britain was 200 kilometres a day, pretty much. There was the final nail in the coffin, that 230 kilometre day; that finished me off a bit.”
Still, despite that, he was determined to do a good ride against the clock.
Mullen will be in his now familiar TT position at the Worlds tomorrow, Monday; but this time in the colours of Ireland rather than An Post-Chainreaction.
“I was really motivated for the time trial, and I ended up pulling out a pretty good result. I just had my routine going on, what I do before every time trial. I had good legs on the day and did pretty good watts. I was up there.
“I was kind of hoping for a top 15, top 20. I didn’t expect much more than that, but then I ended up coming in the top ten. So I was happy.”
Mullen went off early in the stage and consequently set the provisional best time. This led to him being required to sit in the hot seat and wait to see if other riders would go quicker.
Six eventually did, but giving up just 20 seconds to the stage winner Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was a fine ride, as was conceding just four seconds to Omega Pharma Quick Step GC specialist Michal Kwiatkowski and beating Commonwealth Games TT gold medalist Alex Dowsett (Movistar).
“There were a load of people taking pictures of me as I sat there,” he said.
“But it was a very weird hot seat, it was a rocking chair on top of a podium. I was too scared to lie back on it in case I fell off the podium! I have done enough of falling off of ramps this year, so I thought I’d better be careful…”
In the bunch during the early season Etoile de Besseges stage race in France this year; riding in the colours of An Post-Chainreaction and serving out his apprenticeship.
Learning curve
The 2014 season is Mullen’s first with the An Post Chainreaction team, and has seen him going from being based predominantly in Britain to racing in Belgium and the European mainland in general.
He has stepped up a level and riding races such as the Tour of Britain are part of his evolution into what many hope will be a top pro rider.
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Mullen may be Irish road race champion but it’s easy to forget that he’s still just 20 years of age. He’s still developing and knows that he has to be patient when racing against older, more experienced riders.
He said the Tour of Britain was a tough experience in places. He limited his losses early on in the race, then lost out due to misfortune.
“I was three minutes down after the third day. I was pretty happy with that, then on the fourth day it all went out the window,” he explained.
“It wasn’t actually my fault. I wasn’t dropped, I just punctured in a really unfortunate place. I just couldn’t get back onto the back of the bunch, and lost 20 minutes because of that unfortunate timing.
“That said, I wouldn’t have been too much higher overall as there were quite a lot of gaps in the GC. But it would have been nice to try to hang onto the top 50. After the Tumble stage, I didn’t lose too much time. I rode the climb pretty well that day, I limited my losses.”
Mullen stated that as the week progressed, he became a little worn out. He said he lost a minute or two each day, and ended up in the grupetto on seventh day.
While still young and still learning, Mullen has looked and ridden like a pro since he was a kid. Seen here at the Worlds as a junior two years ago (Photo: Sirotti)
“I was pretty much on my knees on that day. I was just really tired. I was generally quite fatigued.”
However he was also holding back in anticipation of the following day’s test.
“I purposely didn’t go into the red too much on that day. I was pretty happy to roll around in the grupetto because I wanted to try to save my legs for the TT. I wasn’t pushing myself to try to stay with the bunch, I just took it as it came.”
After his strong TT ride and then the final criterium stage, Mullen ended up 85th overall. He was fine with that result; as he said, he is still developing. He also took a lot of encouragement from the time trial.
As regards whether or not it will prove to be good preparation for the World Championship time trial, he admits to a little uncertainty about that, saying he would only know for sure tomorrow.
“It definitely brought me on as a rider. I learned quite a lot last week. Well, I learned how to chew stems for seven days, pretty much!
“I haven’t had a lot of stage races compared to a lot of guys on our team, so it was nice to get a big week of racing in.
"I was pretty grateful for the opportunity to ride it and I hope I didn’t let the team down too much by being young and inexperienced. But it was really good, I reckon it will bode me well for the future, definitely.
“As regards the worlds, I reckon it is touch and go whether I will come around in time for the time trial. But I reckon I will definitely come around before the road race anyway. I’ll be doing that with Jack [Wilson] and Conor [Dunne]. I’m pretty excited about that too.”
Track focus and 2015 plans
If Mullen had a final say in his 2014 race programme, he’d ideally like to ride to do the Chrono des Nations time trial. He dominated that last year, beating runner-up Bruno Armirail by one minute 16 seconds.
“The way I see it, it has kind of become a stomping ground for me, and it’s also a really good event. I also get to mingle with a few pros at the end of it, so it is kind of cool.
“However I'm going to be doing some track work and am due to go to Majorca after the worlds in order to build up for that. So I don't actually have an idea what my programme is. I think the Chrono des Nations classes with the track Europeans, so I might have to miss it.”
Mullen has also shown a lot of ability on the track and consequently wants to give that wing of the sport some attention.
He won bronze medals in the individual pursuit and scratch race at the U23 European Championships last year. In January 2014 he finished seventh in the individual pursuit at the Guadalajara World Cup, and then went on to take a superb fourth in the same discipline during his World Championship debut.
On his way to 4th place in the pursuit at the elite World Track Championships in Colombia in March.
Both those performances and his time trial rides on the road highlight what a strong prospect he is and, with time on his side, it is almost certain that he will have big teams chasing his name sooner rather than later.
That will become even more the case if the track worlds time trial goes well next week.
Right now, though, things are calm. He says he’s fine with that.
“I have not spoken to anybody other than Kurt about next season,” he said.
“I think at the moment I am going to stay with An Post. I have not had other offers and I am pretty happy to stay there for another year. They looked after me a lot this season and I have learned so much.
“I consider 2014 as an apprentice year. I wasn’t really exposed to UCI races last year with Sigma. This year, I have had 40 or 50-odd international race days. That is 40 more than I have had last year. It has been a case of learning the trade this year; hopefully next year will be more of a performance-type year.
“Personally, if a contract came along, I wouldn’t say I am 100 percent ready to take it. I don’t think I am mentally or physically ready to become a pro yet.
“I am not in any rush, I am still young.”
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