Jack Wilson and Ryan Mullen have gained hugely from riding the Tour of Britain this week. Seen here on the final stage in the centre of London today, Marcel Kittel celebrates victory.
Having gone into the Tour of Britain among the youngest riders in the race and rarely ridden against WorldTour opposition in stage races, the An Post-Chainreaction duo of Ryan Mullen and Jack Wilson have banked some great experience since last Sunday when the race began in Liverpool.
Wilson had a nasty crash and sustained a bruised shoulder in the week, while Mullen picked up an excellent 7th place in this morning's time trial in London.
Aside from those two major events, both riders have enjoyed and endured the type of week so invaluable to the development of young talent, not to mention having gotten some very hard racing into their legs ahead of the World Championships the week after next.
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Assuming he can recover in time, Mullen stands a great chance of taking a medal in the U23 time trial next Monday in Spain.
His performance this morning was an excellent result of itself; but was especially impressive coming as it did at the end of a very tough week when time trial specialists can sometimes be left wanting.
It was a tough week for Jack Wilson, but one that will hopefully top up his form for the U23 road race at the World Championships on Spain on Friday week.
Wilson and Mullen, who ride the U23 Worlds road race with Conor Dunne on Friday week, will now look to make an impression in that event Spain.
Getting into a breakaway, or at least trying to, and showing the Irish jersey and what they can do has to be the order of the day against much bigger teams who will be hard to beat in the finale. This week has been excellent preparation for the challenge ahead.
On today's final stage in London, Marcel Kittel (Giant Shimano) won the bunch sprint that settled the 88.8km speedfest around the streets of London, just as he had done in Liverpool on the opening day.
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Wilson and Mullen, along with Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), finished in the main.
There was no change in the overall, with the little fancied Dylan van Baarle rounding out a surprise win for Garmin-Sharp. Roche was best of the Irish overall in 5th place.
Mark McNally rode a great race all week; doing everything he needed to to gain points each day towards what was a very impressive overall win on the climbers' classification.
Stage 8b London-London 88.8km
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Team Giant-Shimano 1:50:33
2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
3 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF
4 Enrique Sanz Unzue (Esp) Movistar Team
5 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team
6 Ian Wilkinson (GBr) Team Raleigh
7 Daniel McLay (GBr) Great Britain
8 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo
9 Adam Blythe (GBr) NFTO
10 Shane Archbold (NZl) An Post-Chainreaction
11 Markus Barry (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
12 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling
13 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
14 Jon Izagirre Insausti (Esp) Movistar Team
15 Morgan Kneisky (Fra) Team Raleigh
27 Ryan Mullen (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction
39 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo
68 Jack Wilson (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction
General Classification
1 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Garmin-Sharp 32:22:50
2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:00:10
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:22
4 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:37
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:42
6 Jon Izagirre Insausti (Esp) Movistar Team 0:00:46
7 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling 0:00:50
8 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Movistar Team 0:00:54
9 Jan Barta (Cze) Team NetApp-Endura 0:01:09
10 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:01:10
11 David Lopez Garcia (Esp) Team Sky 0:01:11
12 Sébastien Reichenbach (Sui) IAM Cycling
13 Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu) MTN-Qhubeka 0:01:19
14 Christopher Juul Jensen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:01:24
15 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Great Britain 0:01:52
85 Ryan Mullen (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 0:51:04
103 Jack Wilson (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 1:26:44
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