Ryan Mullen shows mettle to mix it with big boys at European Games

Bilgah Beach. There may not be a better spot to sit in all of Baku. Soft sand and sunshine in front of the gently lapping Caspian Sea. No wonder the Jumeirah crowd also chose this spot to build the latest edition to their five-star resorts.

Except there may not be a worse spot to sit on an all-carbon bike during a time trial, riding 51.6km flat out. No wonder Ryan Mullen looks so utterly exhausted at the end of it.

“Oh, my arse,” he says, not long after getting off his bike from what would prove to be the eighth best ride of the day. For Mullen, still only 20 and mixing it here with competition of considerably greater experience, it was another of the rides of his young life.

Mullen won Ireland a silver medal in the under-23 time trial at the World Championships in Spain, last September, although he was definitely moving up another gear here: victory went to Vasil Kiryienka, the Team Sky rider from Belarus, who just last month won the time trial at the Giro d’Italia, with Stef Clement of the Netherlands taking second, and Spanish time trial champion Luis Sánchez Gil in third.

“Definitely the hottest time trial I’ve ever ridden,” said Mulen of the searing 30 degrees. “And the longest one, too. Most of the time trials I’ve done would be 30km-40km, maximum. So it was another half an hour on the bike. And it was getting hotter, and then with the wind coming off the sea, it was very, very difficult. You certainly had to concentrate hard.

“I came here hoping for the top-10, top-12, and was hoping I could hang on for that. There were a lot of good guys to come, after me, but thankfully I did. And I left everything out there, pushed it has hard as I could. It’s also so new for me, competing in a field and competition like this.”

Endorsement

In saying that, Mullen gives these European Games a worthy endorsement. The first time he ever rode for Ireland, as a 15 year-old, was at the European Youth Olympics in Tampere, Finland, in 2009. Baku, he says, is another perfect stepping stone to riding in the Olympics proper, if not in Rio 2016 then certainly Tokyo 2020.

“Those Youth Olympics were really good for giving young riders, like I was, some experience of what the Olympics were going to be like. And this has just moved that experience on again,” said Mullen.

“Of course, the Olympics can only be bigger and better again. But it feels like half an Olympics, and that’s been great.”

Kiryienka was the only rider to break the hour (with his 59:36), with Mullen less than three minutes slower – and quicker than several seasoned professionals, including Italy’s Manuele Boaro, who last month helped Alberto Contador win the Giro d’Italia, with team Tinkoff-Saxo.

“Just to race against Vasil Kiryienka . . . It’s the first chance I’ve had to gauge myself against a really top rider like him.

“So much of this experience is also meeting other Irish athletes in the village. Like the boxers, who have been very cool to see, how they train and prepare. Although I wouldn’t mess around with them.

“Cycling is a pretty selfish sport, and most of the time we only really care about ourselves. So it’s great to be part of a much larger team and sharing the experience.”

Mullen jokes about being the “weak link” in his family as he was the only one not born in Ireland, growing up in Colwyn Bay in Wales, where his father still lives. Although these days, home for Mullen is wherever he lays down his suitcase.

As part of the An Post Sean Kelly team, he spends several months of the year at their training base in Belgium, and is otherwise mostly based close to Navan.

Few spins

“I really do live out of a suitcase, like most cyclists,” he confirms; and he still credits his dad for getting him into the sport.

“He raced as a junior in the 1980s, then took it up again around 2004. I followed him out on a few spins, and that’s how it started, really. I decided around 2008 I wanted to try to do it, and the following year I was riding for Ireland.”

Mullen is back at Bilgah Beach on Sunday for the road race, in what will be an even more testing field; then he’s straight home for the Irish Championships in Omagh.

Last year, he became the youngest ever winner of the road race title, and the plan this time is to add the time trial title. What is certain is that the Baku experience will stand to him. Mullen’s enthusiasm for cycling shows no limits, and he’s putting no limits on how far he wants to take it.

“The goal is to make that top tier, a full professional, with a World Tour team. And events like this can only help me to get there. So I definitely feel these games have a future.”

With Caroline Ryan also finishing 15th in the women’s time trial, it certainly felt like the trip to Bilgah Beach was worthwhile – not just for the sunshine, but for the future of these European Games and for Irish cycling.