Ryan Mullen, who has just turned 20 years, on his way to his eye-watering 10 mile TT time in his local club's test in the Irish champion's skinsuit.
Ryan Mullen has joined a very small and exclusive club of riders to have broken the 18 minute mark for a 10 mile time trial.
The UK-based Irish international, who has had a magnificent run of late, recorded a time of 17 minutes and 51 seconds in a local time trial run by his home club Rhos On Sea CC in north Wales on Thursday evening.
His effort was the third quickest time for a 10 ever recorded on British roads; besting such legendary figures as Chris Boardman and Bradley Wiggins.
Only Movistar professional and time trial specialist Alex Dowsett and Irish international Michael Hutchinson (InGear) have gone faster on British roads than Mullen did this week.
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Dowsett set a new record for British roads of 17:20 a few weeks ago, beating the previous marker of 17:45 set by Hutchinson. Wiggins previously held the record, with a time of 17:58, seven seconds slower than Mullen’s on Thursday night.
When contacted by stickybottle, Mullen appeared to play down the achievement, saying the event was simply a “fun night out” at a small local event and “wasn’t a proper race”.
However, he was delighted with his form and his time; recorded wearing a pretty smart new Irish U23 TT champion’s skin suit created for him by his An Post-Chainreaction team.
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He also revealed he trained for 3½ hours on the morning of the event, and clocked 25 hours in the saddle this week.
“The ride went well for me, I felt good and was on top of it all race,” he said.
“I had a hard week training and did a big ride the morning of the race too. So I'm really happy with how I rode and the time I set.
“I was really surprised at the time. I thought I'd go okay but I didn't think I'd break the 18 barrier. My name is up there with a few fast guys so I’m delighted about that.”
Having already qualified the Irish U23 team for the road race at the World Championships by placing in the U23 Nations Cup earlier this season, and also taken the U23 TT crown and national senior road race crown six weeks ago, Mullen turned 20 years this week and is now looking forward to a big goal.
“I'm training for the Worlds now,” he said of the battle for the U23 time trial rainbow bands to come next month in Spain.
“And the time I set the other night is a good benchmark for me to continue working off and building on. There's a lot of work still to be done yet though.”
Mullen's new skinsuit looks pretty cool, but given the dearth of U23 races he rides, he will rarely get to wear it on the international stage, if at all.
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