Against top flight international pro competition, Ryan Mullen has taken arguably the best result of his career to date at the Tour of Britain (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
While a medallist at major championships twice and having captured the national senior road crown this year as well as finishing seventh in the U23 time trial at the World Road Championships last year, Ryan Mullen has taken arguably the best result of his career at the Tour of Britain today.
Most of the 20-year-old’s accolades to now have been in junior or U23 races. But against some of the very best professional cyclists in the world today, Mullen put in an excellent ride to take 7th on the stage 8 time trial over 8.8km in London to properly usher himself onto the world stage.
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In a time of 10:10 he was just 20 seconds off the winning time of Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky).
The Irish U23 TT champion riding for An Post-Chainreaction clocked exactly the same time as Alex Dowsett, who won a time trial stage in the Giro d’Italia last year for Movistar and took the TT gold for England at the recent Commonwealth Games.
Today’s ride by Mullen comes just over a week before he lines out for Ireland in the U23 TT at the World Championships in Spain, and will also have fixed his name squarely in the minds of the world’s biggest professional teams as he looks to progress to ProContinental or WorldTour level.
Nicolas Roche slipped one place in the general standings but is still 5th going into the final stage.
While Wiggins won today’s test, neither he nor the other pre race favourites for the overall were quick enough to dislodge young Dutch rider Dylan van Baarle (Garmin Sharp) from the yellow jersey he took after making yesterday’s winning escape and finishing third on the stage into Brighton.
Nicolas Roche began today’s stage in 4th and was 22nd into today’s test, some 32 seconds down. He slips one place to fifth overall with just this afternoon’s London circuit race to come.
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Jack Wilson (An Post-Chainreaction), who has been injured since crashing earlier in the week, eased around the course today and when this afternoon’s final stage is done, he will have almost two weeks of recovery before he lines out in the U23 road race at the World Championships with Mullen and another An Post man Conor Dunne.
Van Baarle leads the race by just 10 seconds from Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who was tipped by many to take the yellow jersey today but finished the stage in 6th just nine seconds up on the leader.
As the fastest man for a long time, Ryan Mullen spent some time in the hot seat; where the fastest rider in the TT sits unless and until somebody who starts after him sets a quicker time.
Stage 8: London 8.8km TT
1 WIGGINS Bradley (Team Sky) 09:50.710
2 CHAVANEL Sylvain (IAM Cycling) 08
3 CUMMINGS Stephen (BMC Racing) 09
4 BARTA Jan (NetApp-Endura) 14
5 BRANDLE Matthias (IAM Cycling) 15
6 KWIATKOWSKI Michal (Omega Pharma-Qucikstep) 16
7 MULLEN Ryan (An Post-Chainreaction) 20
8 DOWSETT Alex (Movistar) ST
9 JUUL JENSEN Christopher (Tinkoff Saxo) 24
10 KOHLER Martin (BMC Racing) 25
11 VAN BAARLE Dylan (Garmin Sharp) ST
12 BOARO Manuele (Tinkoff-Saxo) 26
13 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Jon (Movistar) ST
14 HANSEN Lasse Norman (Garmin-Sharp) 28
15 CAVENDISH Mark (Omega Pharma-Qucikstep) ST
22 ROCHE Nicolas (Tinkoff-Saxo) 32
103 WILSON Jack (An Post-Chainreaction) 02:25
General Classification
1 VAN BAARLE Dylan 30:32:17
2 KWIATKOWSKI Michal 10
3 WIGGINS Bradley 22
4 ZARDINI Edoardo 37
5 ROCHE Nicolas 42
6 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Jon 46
7 CHAVANEL Sylvain 50
8 DOWSETT Alex 54
9 TEUNS Dylan 01:10
10 LOPEZ GARCIA David 01:11
11 BARTA Jan ST
12 REICHENBACH Sébastien ST
13 KONOVALOVAS Ignatas 01:19
14 JUUL JENSEN Christopher 01:24
15 GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 01:52
86 MULLEN Ryan 51:04
105 WILSON Jack 01:26:44
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