Interview – Ryan Mullen of An Post

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From North Wales and riding in the Irish Champions colours, Ryan Mullen’s next race after the 10 champs is the Tour of Britain no less

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Interview – Ryan Mullen of An Post

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It wasn’t that long ago that the name Ryan Mullen would feature in the results here in Britain but the talented 20 year old has moved up several levels in the world cycling ladder and doesn’t get to race here much now that he’s in the An Post team in Belgium.

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Racing to second in the 10 champs, Ryan Mullen will be one to watch in the Stage 8a time trial in London.

He did get back to the UK last weekend to ride the RTTC National 10 Championships where he was second to Matt Bottrill by only two seconds. VeloUK took the opportunity to have a word with the rider who has won no less than three Irish championships in 2014 and so gets to wear the jersey a lot!

The last time I saw that jersey was in RideLondon when he was, as An Post riders normally are, very aggressive and attacking the hell out of the race.

Now he gets to ride the Tour of Britain which will be on his home roads in North Wales on stage 2. Ryan explained that the first opportunity he would have had to ride the race was last year when he was with Sigma but that edition clashed with the Under 23 Time Trial Championship at the Worlds where he was 7th”.

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Off the front in RideLondon, 20 year old Ryan Mullen was having his first race back after a break for some track racing.

“This year though it is going to be really good riding with AN Post who had a lot of success last year and hopefully I can be part of a successful team this year. I am really looking forward to it and it should set me up for the worlds.”

“I had a pretty slow start to the season but I never expected to win three Irish titles. I started the year off with the track worlds in Columbia and was fourth in the Pursuit there and had taken a month to prepare for that. Then the focus moved to the road where I used a few races to prepare for the nations cups.”

“I had some okay rides in some of those and qualified Ireland a place at the World Championships in the road race which is a step up from last year because we didn’t qualify anyone. After that I had a good road programme riding a load of one day races and some stage races top prepare for the Nationals. There I ended up winning three titles in four days!”

“I took some time off after the nationals to prepare for the Under 23 European Track Champs and I have been back on the road for three weeks building up for the Worlds.” Asked does he have a favourite discipline, Ryan replied “I’ve probably won a time trial title every year for six or so years so probably the Time Trial. It has just turned out to be something I am quite good at and something I can achieve success at.”

“I am still learning with the road racing and with this team, I am learning loads. I spoke a lot to Sean Kelly at the start of the year and he gave me a lot of good advice which I have taken on board”.

Ryan is already pretty learned at the time trial and going into the 10 champs, had only done two or three time trials to prepare. One that stood out was a ‘17’ on his local course.

“That was my third training day back since I had some time off. I’d done two five hour rides the days before and then a three hour rider that morning. Then I rode out to the 10 and rode home and I think I’d done 130 miles at the end of the day. The course in North Wales isn’t that quick so I don’t know how I did it. There’s a bit of climbing on it and the last mile is pretty slow so I was happy with the ride.”

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Ryan in his Irish champions skinsuit he gets to wear in road races and time trials….

Stage 2 – Home Stage for Ryan
Stage 2 of the Tour of Britain comes within two miles of his house and the last 50 or 60 miles are on roads he trained on everyday. “I know the course like the back of my hand” he says so Ryan is expecting plenty of support by the side of the road and hopefully some success as well.

“Every race I have done recently has been 1.1 or 1.hc so we have a really good programme at An Post. RideLondon was my first race back and even if I had been racing a 1.2, I would have only lasted three hours. I find I lose form really quickly but I get it back fast too. I have had six days of racing in ten so I am back to where I should be”.

Talking about why we see An Post riders being so aggressive in races, Ryan says that’s just the style of racing they do in Belgium. “It suits an aggressive rider and is something they we have all adapted to and take it to every race” he explained. “If we’re not aggressive, we see that as a failure. So we always try and do something”.

Ryan’s long term goal is to go World Tour so he can race with the likes of Alex Dowsett and so on and he’s hoping there will be some opportunities for him to show the teams his potential in the final races of the season.

Good luck to Ryan …

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