Ryan Mullen looks in great condition and is enjoying some good form. He went very close to a stage win at Volta ao Algarve earlier today.
Having looked for a long time like he might win the Volta ao Algarve TT stage today, Ryan Mullen had to watch from the hot seat while his time was beaten.
First Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) nudged him into second quickest time.
And then Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) also went under the Irish champion's marker.
Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) had clocked a time of 24:41 for the 20.3km TT which started and finished in Lagoa.
While the parcours was slightly undulating, it was also one that favoured the powerful men like Ryan Mullen.
In the end the top four on the day were some way ahead of everyone else. But best of the rest was yesterday's stage winner and race leader Tadej Pogačar.
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The 20-year-old UAE Team Emirates rider is competing in his first season at WorldTour level having take outright victory in Tour de l'Avenir last year.
And having won yesterday's stage from Wout Poels (Team Sky) and Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) atop the cat 1 Fóia, he retained the yellow jersey today.
Indeed Pogačar came home in 5th place in the test and put quite considerable time into all of his rivals for the overall.
After yesterday's stage he had the race lead by just one second from Poels with Enric Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep) next at three seconds.
But after today's test the rising star from Slovenia leads overall from Mas by 31 seconds. Kragh Andersen is next at 36 seconds followed by Poels another second back.
In today's TT Küng improved on his 3rd place of last year to win; by two seconds from Kragh Andersen. Lampaert was next some five seconds down followed by Mullen at eight seconds.
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Then came the race leader; in 4th place and at 17 seconds. He was followed, in 6th place, by French sprinter Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) at 31 seconds.
¡BRUTAL Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates)!
Termina 5º en la etapa pero en la general distancia a todos.#VAlgarve2019 pic.twitter.com/TKdaRn4WqJ— Alpe d'Huez B&T (@Alpe__dHuez) February 22, 2019
Que elegancia. Stefan Küng nuevo mejor tiempo, 5 segundos mejor que Lampaert para el de @GroupamaFDJ. #VAlgarve2019 pic.twitter.com/Mx3ylVZ4zs
— Alpe d'Huez B&T (@Alpe__dHuez) February 22, 2019
Eddie Dunbar (Team Sky) was Ireland's only other rider in the race apart from Mullen when it started.
However, a huge crash with 7km to go on Wednesday's opening stage forced him out of the race.
Volta ao Algarve continues tomorrow with what should be a stage for the sprinters or a breakaway before a hilly day out to conclude on Sunday.
And it looks like Dan Martin’s newest and youngest team mate Tadej Pogačar has a great chance to win overall; though there is plenty of racing still to be done.
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