Irish TT champion Ryan Mullen suffered a disaster in the TT at the Giro. He still took a great result but he was left to wonder what might have been. He had looked on course for a huge result.
With Sam Bennett having already ripped it up at the Giro and taken two stage wins, all eyes were on Ryan Mullen for the stage 16 TT.
The 34.2km test from Trento to Rovereto was on a flat course; a parcours that looked to be well suited to Mullen.
He had gone out too fast in the opening stage TT more than two weeks ago. But today he looked to be lighting up the stage.
However, having gone through the first two time checks quickest of the early starters, disaster struck.
On an incline Mullen cramped and could be seen easing off trying to get rid of that unmistakable spasm.
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He lost time and his rhythm and at the finish it, without any doubt, cost him a place in the top 10. How high up the result he would have come we will never known.
Mullen, having endured already the high mountains of his first Grand Tour appearance, was 13th fastest on the day. He was 1:09 off victor Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing).
But in 40 minutes of racing the Irish champion and Trek-Segafredo rider was just 15 seconds off Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) in 8th place.
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It was still a very strong result for him, but he would surely have been fancied to creep into that top eight, at least, but for his problems.
"I really did cramp up on the top of the climb,” he said after his effort.
“I don’t know; it’s just hard. It’s stage 16, I’ve never done a TT after so many days of racing. It’s not been easy. I think that I’ve done a pretty good ride considering.
"If I was fresh, I would have been licking my lips at this course. I don’t really come out of rest days very well. I rode the course yesterday and I felt better yesterday."
"I was really motivated to try and do a good ride today. It's stage 16 of my first Grand Tour so it could have gone the other way - could have been really terrible. It was somewhere in-between terrible and ok.
"It was one of those days where it was wet for the early guys and dry for the later guys, which does actually makes a difference in terms of cornering speed and overall average speed.
"That's just part of racing and it could have been the other way around, which is what I was hoping for. It is what it is.
"I got a bit of a terrible cramp with 10kms to go on top of the climb, and I kinda had to limp for a km after that until it went away.
"I hope I can make it to Rome and just use this race as a big stepping stone and develop some more."
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