Ryan Mullen in the national road champion's jersey at a freezing cold Étoile de Bessèges in France (Photo: Sirotti)
Ryan Mullen was the sole Irish finisher in the An Post-Chainreaction squad in the first European professional stage race of the year.
The national road race champion and U23 time trial title holder came home in 42nd place in today’s stage 5 time trial at Étoile de Bessèges.
The 11.9km test starting and finishing in Ales was won by Trek Factory Racing's Bob Jungels from Luxembourg.
He was in a class of his own, taking the win in a time of 17:40, some 19 seconds ahead of France’s Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) and Italian Fabio Felline, who also rides with Trek Factory Racing and was a further one second adrift.
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Mullen conceded 1:07 to the winner and finished the five-stage 2.1-ranked race in 87th place, 9:39 down. He was 11th in the young rider classification.
Mullen was one of three Irishman to start for An Post-Chainreaction, alongside Eoin McCarthy and Conor Dunne.
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However, McCarty was listed as a non finisher on stage 3 after his breakaway heroics at last Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise season-opener in France.
Dunne crashed on stage and while he started yesterday he was listed as non finisher.
Feb 4th-8th: Étoile de Bessèges (UCI 2.1)
Feb 8th: Stage 5, Ales – Ales 11.9km
1 Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing 0:17:40
2 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:00:19
3 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 0:00:20
4 Riccardo Zoidl (Aut) Trek Factory Racing 0:00:21
5 Pierre-Roger Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:26
6 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:27
7 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:30
8 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement 0:00:32
9 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:33
10 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:00:34
42 Ryan Mullen (Irl) An Post - Chainreaction 0:01:07
Final General Classification
1 Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing 15:43:21
2 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:00:09
3 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:10
4 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:17
5 Edward Theuns (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise 0:00:20
6 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:22
7 Pierre-Roger Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:30
8 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:31
9 Eliot Lietaer (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
10 Pim Ligthart (Ned) Lotto Soudal 0:00:35
87 Ryan Mullen (Irl) An Post - Chainreaction 0:09:39
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