Ryan Mullen on his way to winning the national TT title in Derry last year. The reigning champion will be absent from the National Road Championships in coming days due to trade team commitments (Photo: Toby Watson)

Ryan Mullen has been forced to withdraw from the National Road Championships in Co Limerick, meaning he relinquishes the Irish elite men’s TT title he has claimed for the last three years.

The Trek-Segafredo rider is currently in Belgium competing in the BinckBank Tour, where today’s stage 2 TT – which was due to go over the border into Holland – was cancelled as a result of new Dutch Covid-19 lock-down rules.

However, the race was due to resume tomorrow and was not set to conclude until Saturday and that means Mullen’s trade team commitments clash with the National Road Championships in Ireland.

The TT title races for all categories will take place tomorrow in Knockaderry, Co Limerick, and the men’s combined elite and U23 road race takes place on Saturday.

Nicolas Roche has won the TT title twice in his career including in Kilcullen in 2016, above. He is the favourite for elite men’s gold tomorrow but may be carrying fatigue from a heavy schedule of racing and travel in recent weeks (Photo: Sean Rowe)

Mullen’s absence from proceedings in Ireland will break his remarkable run at the road championships since his junior days, when he was road race and TT champion.

Since then he has been U23 and elite champion in the road race and TT a total of 10 times, including doing the elite road and TT double twice.

If he had ridden tomorrow’s TT he would have started the race favourite to win, though Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) would also have counted himself into the battle for gold.

Roche first won the elite TT crown in Dungarvan in 2007 and last won in Kilcullen four years ago. He will go into tomorrow’s race as favourite, but with a lot of racing and traveling under his belt in recent weeks he goes into these championships far from rested.

Conn McDunphy has been riding well against the clock and will be aiming for a championship TT medal (Photo: Sean Rowe)

Aside from Roche, there are others who will count themselves into the reckoning for a medal tomorrow in the 22.4km elite men’s test.

Bryan McCrystal (Bellurgan Wheelers) may have been away for road racing for some years but he has never been away from TT riding as it has been part of his Ironman career in recent years and he will definitely have his eyes fixed on a medal.

Conn McDunphy (CC Nogent Oise) has been riding well in France of late and taken some very good results against the watch while Rory Townsend (Canyon dhb p/b Soreen) has developed into a top rider in recent seasons and can also impress.

Marcus Christie (Performance SBR) has been one of the best Irish testers of the last decade, and has ridden the Worlds and Commonwealth Games, meaning he can handle the big occasion.

Ben Healy Innsbruck Worlds
Ben Healy is a former national junior TT champion and having taken a stage at Ronde de l’Isard and ridden the elite men’s road race at the Worlds he is very much on the up

Paul Kennedy (Spellman-Dublin Port) has won a number of TTs on the domestic scene of late and the former GAA man also medaled in the nationals two years ago when he took TT bronze.

Lindsay Watson (Powerhouse Sport) is one of the best testers and road race riders in the country of recent seasons and he will also be reaching for the podium and will feel it’s achievable.

It is also not impossible that one of the riders in the U23 field could take an elite medal, including the inform Ben Healy; the Trinity Racing rider who rode the elite men’s road race at the Worlds – with Roche and Mullen – last Sunday.

Other notable U23s in the field include: Ben Walsh (EvoPro Racing), Kevin McCambridge (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Cian Keogh (Spellman-Dublin Port).

All in all, while Mullen’s absence from the championships are unfortunate and means the defending TT champion will be missing, it also opens up the race for medals even if Roche will be hard to beat for gold.

The elite and U23 men’s TT, promoted by Newcastle West Wheelers under race director Liam Collins, should be very exciting.

Women’s race preview to come.