Ryan Mullen wants a world title this year and wants to medal at both the road and track World Championships, starting this weekend in Paris (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
By Brian Canty
Ryan Mullen has stated his five main goals for this year, with a medal at the UCI Track World Championships this weekend in Paris on his wish list.
He also plans to target the U23 Nations Cup series of international road races, to retain his national elite road race title and add time-trial gold to it and to win the gold medal in the U23 time trial at the World Championships in September in Richmond, US.
It's a mark of his talent that he has already achieved two of his goals - at the national championships - and has come very close to the others.
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He won TT silver at the road Worlds last year and finished 4th in the pursuit at the World Track Championships 12 months ago.
Winning the combined senior and U23 national road race championships in Westmeath last June. Mullen took the U23 TT three days earlier and was fastest in the combined elite-U23 field. But under championship rules he was not entitled to be awarded the senior TT title (Photo: Toby Watson)
The An Post Chainreaction rider is now starting his second year with the Belgium-based Continental team.
And he is bracing himself for a hectic schedule that really has seen no let-up since he entered the senior ranks.
But he’s not complaining and has welcomed the challenge facing him this year.
“Obviously a medal would be nice but if I could get a ride-off that’s my goal,” he said of the individual pursuit event in Paris this weekend.
“It’s a bigger, harder field this year so we’ll see. But my numbers are better than last year; you never know… anything can happen.
Leading the breakaway in the ZLM Tour in Holland in April; the event is part of the Nations Cup. Mullen took 6th on the day (Photo: JMarc Hecquet)
“The U23 Nations Cup are another goal,” he continued.
“I got a top 10 in the ZLM Tour last year (6th); there’s a time-trial this year so I want to win that.
“I think there’s a road race first and a time-trial after so if I can finish in the bunch on the same time then the time-trial will decide the whole thing. That’s my aim.
“But they’re a total lottery; you can’t judge how good a rider is by where he comes in a Nations Cup.
"There are so many variables like crashes; the strongest guy usually never wins because of mishaps.
“I’ll try to retain the road race title and win the elite time-trial; that would be special for me and after that then will be the Worlds in September in Richmond, Virginia.”
To his way to missing the gold medal in the U23 TT at the World Championships by 48 hundredths of a second in Spain in September.
The Irish men’s track team have taken a battering this season but Mullen defended their performances.
He reasoned that for such an inexperienced squad, with the exception of Martyn Irvine, they’re due a lot of credit.
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“I don’t think people understand what we’re doing and they’re very naïve to what we do,” he said.
“They see a result and they don’t understand it. In Cali at the last round of the World Cup, we got unlucky with the wind.
“I’m not making excuses; we were never going to win, we were never going to get a podium.
On stage 4 of the recent Etoile de Besseges stage race in France. Mullen endured a very tough week of racing in freezing temperatures. But hopefully those miles will bring a medal on the boards in Paris this weekend.
"If we had the same conditions the guys in the last five got but we’re certainly good enough to get in the top 10.”
In fact, only for the crash at the European Championships back in October- which Mullen took the blame for - he said they could have been sixth best.
“We’ve been doing this (team pursuit) for six months and we’re already biting at the heels of the guys who’ve been doing it for 10 years.
“Look at the GB track history and how the pursuit is drilled into them; the talent teams they have from 13, 14, 15 years old, the academies, the full programme.
“They have a full programme drilled into them so as far as our performance goes, I think it’s certainly about progressing every time we race."
Mullen has remained within the An Post-Chainreaction fold this year; a team that facilitates his goals on the track and with the national team (Photo : Joolze Dymond-An Post-Chainreaction)
Mullen is a modest rider who is always honest when he appraises his performances the big steps he will have to take if a top flight career on a WorldTour team is to become a reality.
And he conceded some of the ill luck that has befallen the Irish team pursuit line-up was his doing.
“We haven’t had the best of luck and half of that has been down to me and I take full responsibility for that.
“For the crash in Guadeloupe; I was swinging and when you come to the finish of a team pursuit you all fan across the track.
"I had come to the end of my form. After the worlds I was mentally and physically tired.
Mullen was a very talented youth rider and excelled through the junior ranks, above. And while everything has to go his way this weekend in order to take a medal, few would doubt his ability to achieve that goal (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
“I didn’t want to swing up too much because I’d get dropped by the two lads who were slightly behind me and would come through.
“I didn’t swing up too much; I have a tendency to drop my head to get more aero so I dropped my head a little bit because I was fucked.
“I drifted down the track a little, clashed into Cormac (Clarke) and tumbled down the track, so it was completely my fault and I was to blame.
“We were more annoyed because we would have come sixth in Europe as a first ever ride with the team.
“If that doesn’t show promise then I don’t know what does. We’d beaten Denmark, the Netherlands and were only 10 seconds behind GB.
“For a first time racing together, spent three weeks together before it, it was good.”
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