Teen star Mullen out on his own

One of the country’s most exciting prospects, Ryan Mullen, took the biggest road race victory of his young career when he soloed to a stunning win at the National Championships at Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath yesterday.

The An Post-Chainreaction man is more known for his exploits on the track and has already medalled at the World and European Championships but he has now added a very significant road race win to his name.

Mullen was 7th in the U23 time trial at the World Road Championships in Florence last September, a fantastic ride considering it was his first season out of the junior ranks.

And he also picked up two bronze medals – in the pursuit and scratch race – at the U23 European Track Championships in the summer, despite spending the vast majority of his season riding on the road with UK-based pro team IG Sigma Sport.

He won the Chrono de Nations TT in France in October, taking the U23 event by a margin of 1:16 over the 43km course and during the summer bested the 4km pursuit stadium record at Sundrive Road track in south Dublin by 10 seconds.

Having won the National time-trial last Thursday night, blitzing the entire field, the 19-year-old is now setting his sights on the European U23 time-trial championships next month.

Mullen laid the foundations for victory yesterday when he made it into the breakaway that included Dominic Jelfs (Madison Genesis), Paidi O’Brien (The Edge-Osbourne Meats), Sean Downey, Mullen and Jack Wilson (all An Post-Chainreaction), Bryan McCrystal and Neil Delahaye (Aquablue), Ali Macauley (Phoenix CC), Stephen Clancy (Novo Nordisk) and Roger Aiken (Banbridge CC).

And nearing the end of the second last lap of nine 19km loops, Mullen attacked that group and broke clear. He went out onto the final lap solo with around 25 seconds of a gap and 10km later that had grown to over one minute.

He remained incident-free in the run-in and took a great solo win, with team-mate Downey taking the sprint for second from O’Brien (The Edge-Osbourne Meats).

Meanwhile, the organisers of the National Championships have said they will run the vets’ and women’s events once a date is decided and ratified by Cycling Ireland.

Following the decision to call off Saturday’s events because of the tragic road collision that claimed four lives just off the Westmeath course, the promoting club said they were left with no alternative but to cancel the races.

“It was not in our control to run those races,” said a spokesperson.

“We spoke to the Gardaí at a high level and while they tried to be accommodating as much as they could, the scene of the accident could not be cleared.

“Initially they told us they’d have it cleared by 4pm and we were confident that that could happen. However, that has not been the case as it took longer than expected.

“We will be in consultation with Cycling Ireland about when the cancelled races can be rescheduled and our club will stand up and ensure they are run and we will run a very good championships.”