The life of a pro cyclist in the WorldTour has been a baptism of fire for Ryan Mullen with plenty highs and lows. There was the glory of taking the race lead at the Czech Tour - thanks largely to his pulling in the team time-trial, but moments such as last weekend at the Bretagne Classic...
By Brian Canty
Ryan Mullen is gearing up for arguably the busiest month of his cycling career next week where he’ll chase a top result in the time-trial at the Tour of Britain as well as the European Championships time-trial in France (September 14-18).
He’s been on the road a lot the last number of weeks with his Cannondale-Drapac squad enlisting him for duty in the UK, the Czech Republic, Germany and just last Sunday he was in France.
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He’s back in the UK since Monday now and counting down to a race he’s targeted from a long way out this year, or more specifically, one particular day.
Stage 7a in the UK’s biggest stage race today week sends the riders on a 15-kilometre blast around Bristol and with many of the world’s top testers knowing it’s their best chance of victory, the competition will be fierce.
Mullen, of course, is in that bracket alongside Alex Dowsett (Movistar), Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing team), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Bradley Wiggins (Team WIGGINS) but knows he can challenge for a top 10.
“Yeah, definitely, the last time I did a TT in the Tour of Britain I did a top 10 so I’ll be trying for another one,” he said.
“Two years ago one of the stages finished in the same place where the TT finishes, it goes up over the Downs and finishes on the top.
“There’s a 1-1.5k rise and a 1k flat at the top. It’s pretty technical but it’s a perfect distance for me and the winner will do it in 20-21 minutes, I’m good at that sort of an effort,” he added.
Mullen, who was reared on 10-mile time-trials said he always goes off a little bit too hot but with the weight of expectation he can’t be overlooked to pull out something amazing.
Ryan Mullen raced the Bretagne Classic last Sunday and stayed with the peloton until he popped with 30 kilometres to go. Racing hard in the wind in the service of his team will stand to him over the next weeks and months, however.
“It will be a good one to get my name up there for sure, it’ll be a goal for the week," he said.
“If I can get to there, it comes at the end of the week so if I’m having a shitty day I’ll just persevere and say ‘okay in two days I get my chance to shine’ and I’ll try to get there and score a result.”
His season has been less than perfect and in his own words it’s only getting started because he simply hasn’t been healthy.
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Combined with that were the effects of his ZLM Toer crash that persisted for longer than he’d have wanted, though he never used it as an excuse when he easily could have.
“I haven’t had blood tests because I don’t want to; I’d rather keep doing what I’m doing and assess the damage at the end of the year because I’ve lost so much. I’ll try and make the most of something,” he chirped.
Mullen has had a season blighted by low iron levels which prevented him from giving a true account of himself. However, he seems to have got to the bottom of that and looks to be coming into some very good form as the Tour of Britain looms.
“My season’s just started, really. I’ve had Ride London, the Czech Tour, Hamburg, GP Plouay and now I’ve Britain.
“I’ve the European Champs TT four days after it finishes, Eneco Tour three days after that, pre-worlds training camp in Girona, the worlds in Doha and if I’m still mentally fresh I’ll hit up the Chrono des Nations.”
Last Sunday he was in the trenches for much of the 247-kilometre Bretagne Classic where his teammate Albert Bettiol took a superb third.
The Irishman, however, had a less than glamorous role; ride at the front and cover any moves going across to his teammate Jack Bauer in the break.
“Death…it was death,” he summed up of the day.
“Pissing it down, racing these narrow little French roads...I lasted about 220k and then my lights blew.
“I got dropped with Dowsett and Tommy Voeckler (Direct-Energie) and 30 others. Voeckler knew the roads and he was like ‘this way’ and we were just following…”
There will be warmer days, mind, and none more so that at the world championships in Doha in October.
The likelihood of WorldTour teams taking their place at that was thrown into doubt recently when the participating WorldTour teams – Cannondale-Drapac included – threatened to withdraw, citing the organiser's refusal to cover certain costs.
But the 22 year-old multiple national champion isn’t getting side-tracked on that just yet.
“There’s still uncertainty so we’ll see but I’m game for it.
“I’ve already made my call what I’m doing and I’ve my head set on that. It would just piss me off now to switch focus…”
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