Ryan Mullen (An Post-Chain Reaction) on his way to victory in the U23 category and fastest time on the night at the National Time Trial Championships, Rochfortbridge, Co. Westmeath (Photo: Stephen McMahon-Sportsfile)
By Gerard Cromwell
Although he was one of the pre-race favourites for tonight’s national time trial championships, even Ryan Mullen was surprised by his winning margin of 46 seconds over defending champion Michael Hutchinson in the title race.
“I thought it would be pretty tight between myself and Michael,” said Mullen afterwards.
“I’ve done a good bit of work on the time trial bike in the last few weeks. I’ve had it out in Majorca and I got my position sorted out properly. I’ve also upgraded a few parts on it so I’m quite happy.
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"But I’m a bit surprised to get the fastest time by quite so much."
Although the 37km test was held in wet conditions, Mullen admits the race profile played to his strengths against the clock.
“The course was really well suited to me. It was a little bit rolly, with a few bits where you had to press on and a few bits where you could recover.
“The road surface was really good. The bad weather made the roundabouts very slippery but other than that it was really good for me."
Having come close to setting the fastest time last year in his first season as an u23 rider, Mullen beat all comers this time around but still had to settle for the U23 title, with second placed Hutchinson taking gold in the elite championships.
“It’s a technicality of the UCI,” said a philosophical Mullen afterwards.
“It would have been nice to get the elite title and get a nice jersey made up but you can’t be too greedy.
“I’m another year stronger. I’ve pulled a few more watts out of the bag. It’s a good bench mark to start working towards the worlds now; a good test to see where I’m at so I can’t complain with the U23 win.”
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Class Act: Ryan Mullen made very short work of the championship course, absolutely romping home for the U23 title on the night (Photo: Stephen McMahon-Sportsfile)
Active early on in last year’s road race championships, Mullen will now line out alongside Conor Dunne, Jack Wilson and Sean Downey for An Post-Chainreaction squad in the Elite-U23 road race in Mutyfarnham on Sunday.
After a decent ride at the recent Boucles de la Mayenne stage race in France with the squad, he is hoping to be in with a shout of another medal there.
“I was riding really well in Mayenne, which is a 2.1 race; so hopefully I can carry a bit of form from that into it. Hopefully between the four of us we can have a good go at it.
“From tonight’s ride it’s pretty obvious I’ve got okay form. We’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be a pretty tough circuit and it’s going to be whittled down to a few guys in the end.
“I’ll just see how the race pans out and do what I can. Last year it just didn’t work out. I did a bit too much too early and had no legs in the end. I just paid the price for it really.
“But I learned my lesson last year, so hopefully it will go a bit differently this year.”
Ryan Mullen on his way to 7th place in the U23 TT at the World Road Championships in Florence, Italy, last year. He said this evening's ride in the National Time Trial Championships was a good benchmark towards working for this year's Worlds in Spain in September (Photo: Sean Rowe)
