Ryan Mullen: “A crash can bring down half the bunch at any given moment and with the nature of the Flanders course; it’ll make it hard. We’ll see how it works.”
By Brian Canty
Reigning national road race champion Ryan Mullen is targeting a top 10 in one of the upcoming Nations Cup events.
The An Post Chainreaction man will spearhead the six-man Irish team at the Tour of Flanders tomorrow before doing likewise on Wednesday at La Core de Picardie in France.
Tomorrow week he’ll also lead the team at the ZLM Tour in the Netherlands.
The 20-year-old was sixth in the ZLM Tour 12 months ago but isn’t looking beyond tomorrow’s 165-kilometre gruelling Flanders outing in Belgium.
“I rode the course a couple of days ago with Nico (Eeckhout) so that was 160-odd kilometres in the legs,” he said, referring to his trade team manager and former Belgian professional champion.
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Mullen on his way to 6th in the ZLM Tour last year, a result that qualified Ireland a team in the U23 road race at the World Championships (Photo: JMarc Hecquet)
“I’m not feeling too bad, I had a crash in Normandie last month and it’s taken me a while to recover but I’m hoping I can do something,” he added.
Mullen came down with 10 kilometre to go on stage five of that stage race and suffered road rash as well as a deep wound.
His injuries also warranted a trip to the osteopath to get straightened out.
“Normandie was my first race back from the track so I wasn’t expecting much there,” added the man who has ridden for the elite international track team during the road racing winter break.
“I was hoping to use it to get some race kilometres in my legs for all these (upcoming) races.
On his way to winning the combined U23 and senior national road race title in Co Westmeath last June (Photo: George Doyle)
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“I was getting better every day and on the fifth day I was in the front echelon in the crosswind and I crashed with 10k to go.
“I still don’t know what happened. I think my jacket got tangled in the bars of a guy next to me and we both came down.
“I got some road rash and I was feeling a bit crooked and had a tender hip for a week.
“I had a deep wound as well and I needed a few osteopathy sessions to get sorted. Obviously it was a bit more serious than I thought.”
However, he said it was hard to say how he and his Irish team mates would do tomorrow, saying the intensity of the competition and the tough nature of the course meant "anything can happen".
Mullen is a class act against the watch, but he is gaining ground in road racing too. And his competing against the best U23 riders in the world in the three Nations Cup races starting tomorrow can yield big results if he gets a bit of luck (Photo: Sean Rowe)
“A crash can bring down half the bunch at any given moment and with the nature of the course it’ll make it hard, we’ll see how it works.
“It’s always pretty hilly,” he continued. “There are around 14 categorised bergs and we finish on a circuit which is really difficult.
“If you’re not in the top 10 going onto some of the bergs you’re walking up them!
“But I’d like a top 10 in one of these races, I’d be happy with that and I think that’s possible.
“It’s important because we want to qualify points to get into the Tour de l’Avenir and qualify points to count towards getting riders into the World Championships in Richmond in September.”
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