Ryan Mullen has offered up no excuses for being beaten in last night's national elite/u23 time-trial championships in Kilcullen, Co. Kildare. The Cannondale man said he was simply beaten by better men on the night (Photo: Ian Anderson)
By Brian Canty
Ryan Mullen has said he was simply beaten by better men last night when he relinquished his U23 and elite national time-trial titles to Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) and Eddie Dunbar (Axeon Hagens Berman) respectively.
The Cannondale man came into the race as the defending champion and favourite and he had cause to be optimistic when he took to the course and proceeded to hammer out a monstrous effort.
In fact, his power for the 48 minutes he was on the course was a personal best for that time – but not quite good enough to win.
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“It’s kind of a miss but I was beaten fair and square,” he said.
“It’s hard to take but it wasn’t through a lack of trying, I gave it everything. I did my best ever watts for that time.
“And I’ve made a fair improvement in six or seven months… it’s not my lack of effort why I didn’t win.”
He was keen to play down the injuries he sustained in a crash at the ZLM Toer recently, despite them hampering his ride.
“Maybe the crash didn’t help but even without it I don’t think the result would have changed an awful lot.
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“It’s a time-trial, the fastest guy on the day wins, there’s nothing to it; whoever can push the most power wins.
“Having said that, it’s the first national (time-trial) title I’ve lost in Ireland since I’ve been doing them so it’s hard to take but it wasn’t through lack of trying, I gave it everything.
“I was in a good place and I felt pretty good on the night so it’s just one of those things. We go straight onto Sunday.”
Mullen recalled the moment Cycling Ireland technical director Brian Nugent came up beside him in the car and gave him the index finger signalling a one minute difference between himself and Roche.
“I got a time check off Nugent with 10k to go; we’ve worked together for two years and he signals a minute down or a minute up,” he said.
“And I didn’t quite understand how I could possibly be a minute down after doing 430 watts for the best part of the race. ‘Hopefully it will all be clear in 10 minutes’ I said to myself.”
Alas, his worst fears were confirmed and he could only shake his head.
“I said to the guy ‘are you serious?’ when I heard I was third. I didn’t quite understand how it happened but it is what it is.”
It’ll already forgotten about today and the silver lining on it all is his awesome power output means he’s in serious shape for Sunday, though many variables make the race a lottery.
“It’s just about being vigilant and keeping out of trouble,” he said of the road race which he won two years ago when riding with An Post-Chainreaction.
“If I move the race is on me and the same for Nico and it’s a case of trying to be intelligent and just sneaking off, waiting for a really hard part and making a move then.”
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