Kurt Bogaerts says his team needed tougher climbs to win the Rás and believes Ryan Mullen now needs to contest more finals in races to step up another level.
By Shane Stokes
While Lukas Postlberger (Tirol Cycling Team) was clearly best in the An Post Rás, beating An Post Chainreaction duo Josh Edmondson and Ryan Mullen by one minute and five seconds and two minutes 19 respectively, the Irish team’s manager Kurt Bogaerts believes that it might have been possible to win overall.
He notes the flatter than usual parcours and believes this complicated things for the runner-up.
“Certain parts of the race played to our advantage, we were able to ride really strong as a team,” he said.
“But to take yellow we really needed some hard climbs where Josh basically could make the difference and these opportunities we didn’t get.”
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In addition to netting those second and third places overall, the riders clocked up four stages between Aaron Gate and Aidis Kruopis, and also took the points via Gate, mountains with Kruopis and best young rider jersey with Mullen.
With 3rd overall and victory in the U23 classification, the Rás brought Ryan Mullen's best result in an elite UCI-ranked road race. He had never won a classification in such an event before last week (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
It was also the clear winner in the team classification.
While the final yellow jersey eluded the team, Bogaerts is satisfied with the haul.
“I am very happy with the week, I am very happy with how we raced,” he said.
“I think it is one of the first times that we really took the race in hand in terms of team performance.
“We used the wind and tried to ride to all of our strengths. That means that we believed in ourselves.
While they failed to win the race outright, Bogaerts said he was impressed with the way his riders dictated the racing. He believed it was the first time his charges really took the event into their own hands (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
“I was really happy that I saw this week the team in a really good spot, riding together and choosing our moments. That was really good.”
Speaking about Mullen, Bogaerts said that he needs to get accustomed to aiming for high results in road races in order to evolve as a rider.
Talking at the end of the An Post Rás on Sunday, the Belgian hailed Mullen’s ride and said that being in a similar position in other races is crucial for his development.
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While Mullen’s time trial pedigree has long been known, he hasn’t had the same level of success in road races until recently.
His national road race title last June showed what he is capable of, and third overall plus the best young rider classification in the An Post Rás is another reassuring sign.
The team becomes a bigger and bigger set-up each year, with some great Irish talent and clearly some top foreign riders on the roster.
Bogaerts wants him to keep aiming high, putting himself in the position to contend for road races and trying to deliver where possible.
“Ryan needs to ride finals. He can only learn by doing that,” he said.
“I can give a lot of advice and probably influence the results a bit for him and I hope he can learn from it, but the more finals he does the more he is going to learn.
“It is basically doing the practice…that will make him a better rider.”
Injury and illness complicated the first months of the year.
Conor Dunne, right, won the opening Rás stage and took the first yellow jersey in 2013. This time he played more of a supporting role and it was Mullen, left, and Josh Edmondson who performed best in the general classification with 2nd and 3rd places (Photo: Wouter Roosenboom/An Post-Chainreaction)
"It’s taken Mullen a while to get up to speed but things are clearly firing now," Bogaerts said of the 20-year-old's growing road race form and confidence.
“Ryan had a difficult start this season, some bad luck,” said Bogaerts.
“We wanted to give him his confidence back. He grew in this race, he finished now third overall so that is a good result.
“Also he takes the under 23 jersey and he was a crucial member when we were doing the team efforts like with the wind.
“So I think he has a good boost in morale for the rest of the season.”
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