By Shane Stokes
Ryan Mullen has said that the motivation of leading Sam
Bennett out while wearing the Irish national champion’s jersey drove him on at
the end of the elite and under 23 road race championships on Sunday, helping
him to unleash very impressive numbers in his finishing sprint.
The WorldTour rider joined forces with domestic-based
Daire Feeley (All human/VeloRevolution Racing Team) towards the end of the 160
kilometre race, going clear after an earlier move by Nicolas Roche (Team DSM)
and Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) fizzled out after Dunbar crashed.
They worked well together to the finish and then sprinted
it out for the gold medal, with Mullen finishing comfortably ahead.
“I was quietly confident,” he told stickybottle. “I mean,
if I am ever going to win a race I like to try and win it solo. But I do have a
really good sprint, it’s just something that I have. I am an 80 kilo guy
pumping out 1,600 – 1,700 watts.
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Mullen continued: “I’ve never actually really sprinted after a race so hard, but the motivation of getting the jersey and bringing it across next year to Bora was a huge incentive. I actually put out some big numbers and I was pretty happy with the outcome."
“I didn’t know how fast Daire was. I know he’s not slow and he’s a good rider. When we kicked he kind of stayed at my hip for three or four seconds, and then I pulled away a little bit.
"But it could also come down to just the endurance of being in the WorldTour for a number of years. We do longer races, so maybe I just had a bit more in the tank at the end.”
Earlier on it looked like Mullen, Feeley and the other
riders in the race had lost out on the chance of victory. Roche and Dunbar are
both very strong riders and when they were over fifty seconds clear and working
well together, some of those behind believed that the race was over.
Mullen said that he was concerned, but believed that the gold medal was still up for grabs.
“It definitely wasn’t ideal [that they were clear]
because they are both strong guys,” he said. “But there was still a big group
left behind so I kind of knew if we cooperated well enough, even if we didn’t
catch them, we could keep them in sight.
“I mean, eight guys rolling through, albeit not 100 per
cent cooperatively, will still be more efficient than two guys rolling through.
Especially with the nature of the headwind on half the course.
“And even if it didn’t come back, my plan B was just to bridge across after the steep climb, if I could get over it, and then whack it on the downhill tailwind. That was my plan. But yeah, unfortunately, Eddie crashed."
Mullen continued: “I do think those lads would have made a really, really hard race had that not happened. So it kind of played into my hands a little bit, unfortunately. I spoke to Eddie after the finish and he is all right. He hurt his shoulder, but he will come back.”
Rediscovering the mojo
Mullen is moving across to Bora-hansgrohe in 2022 and
will be part of Sam Bennett’s lead-out train there. Thinking about filling that
role is something that excites him, and even more so in the white and green of
Irish champion.
“It’s going to look great on TV leading out Sam in the
Irish champion’s jersey,” he said. “It is going to be insanely good [to race
with him]. I can’t wait. I mean, Sam is one of the best sprinters…in my eyes
the best sprinter in the world. He’s a lot more versatile than the drag strip
sprinters. I’m really looking forward to it, it should be great.”
Mullen’s success on Sunday and earlier this week in Thursday’s time trial – where he won the national TT title for the fifth time in his career – are a big boost for the 27 year old.
He highlighted his promise in 2014 when he finished second by fractions of a second in the under 23 world time trial championships and while he has clocked up strong performances in the WorldTour, he has not approached that level in recent years.
Following his time trial success he acknowledged that the
season hadn’t been good up to this point, and he reiterated that after the road
race.
“I didn’t really expect to have these legs this week. It’s pretty common knowledge that I’ve not had the most fantastic of seasons with back injuries and crashes and allergies, whatever,” he said.
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“I’m really happy with how the weekend has gone, it’s been a big turnaround, especially seeing as I missed out on the Roubaix team for not going well enough. I really needed that for my own self-confidence going forward into next year with Sam and Bora.”
Mullen explained to Sticky Bottle what had gone wrong and how things were turned around in recent weeks.
“To be honest, I got back in touch with my old coach Sebastian Webber from INSCYD. We have a pretty good relationship. I did some testing with him, because I just knew in myself that something wasn’t right. I wasn’t feeling great," he said.
"He went through my data, went through the lactate test and then it was just like, ‘what the f** have you been doing?’ He was honest with me, saying we can’t turn things around in two weeks, but three, three and a half, four weeks, yeah, we can.
“He said that by now I should be going back well again.
And, lo and behold, here we are. So the man knows his stuff, that’s for sure.”
Asked to elaborate on what Weber is doing differently, he
said that it was down to knowing how Mullen responds to certain workloads and
the best way to get him to training.
“Every physiology is different. What works for me doesn’t work for everyone else. But what does work for me is just riding my bike slowly, rather than flat out all the time.
He continued: "It’s just the case of killing the glycolytic engine in physiological terms, because it was too high. I was just generating too much lactic acid from a single effort.
“For example, in the time trial, I have not done those
numbers in three years. In fact, the last time I did those numbers was with
Sebastian.
“It’s unfair to point the finger at my previous coach,
because obviously it was in his interest to help me. But yes, some things don’t
work for certain riders. And unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out. But
there’s no bad blood. I mean, it’s just it’s a learning curve.
“I just wish I’d had realised a little bit sooner in time
for Europeans and worlds because I’m pretty sure if I had the legs I had this
weekend and in the TT on Thursday, my Watts to Cda [a measure of a rider’s
aerodynamics] would have put me top ten in the worlds, which is what I was
aiming for.
“That was a bit of a blow to the conference, especially the Europeans. But yeah, [you’ve got to] move on. I’ve turned things around and I am happy.”
In terms of the future, Mullen is pleased to be riding
well again in the time trials, but doesn’t quite believe he can challenge for
world championships medals.
“The level of time trialling now is very, very high. I
mean, you have this guy from the UK breaking rules every time he sets foot on
the TT bike now. This Dan Bingham guy is basically turning donkeys into race
horses through aerodynamics.
“It’s kind of annoying, but I mean…What is it he says?
‘Innovate or die,’ in his terms. So, yeah…everyone has got to step up their
game in terms of aerodynamics and try to squeeze them out again.
“Everyone’s getting stronger. It’s just a case of doing
what you can to stay where you are. I do know, with the numbers I can produce
and with my Cda, on the right day… It would be hard to beat [Filippo] Ganna and
[Wout] Van Aert and Remco [Evenepoel], but I have been fifth before and I am
pretty sure I will be fifth again.
“It’s not a win, but it is self-motivation. It is
something for me. I’m obviously not a protected rider, I’m a workhorse, so I’ve
got to take the little perks where I can.”
Still, there is another area in the sport where he hopes to get opportunities in the future. Asked if he would like to target the Classics, he is unequivocal. “Yeah, absolutely. The Classics are hard.
"They are suited to me, and today was very Classics-y. Just punchy, hang on. It was savagely hard. But yeah, the Classics are where the heart lies. I was originally supposed to be at Roubaix today…but having seen the weather there, I am a smidge grateful I wasn’t there.”
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