Mullen doubles up on Irish national titles

Three years after he did Irish time trial and road race double as a 19-year-old, Ryan Mullen has repeated the feat in Wexford. The Cannondale-Drapac rider made a race winning attack in the closing kilometres for the win, explaining he rated it better than his time trial success.

Amateur rider Christopher McGlinchey claimed the silver medal while Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport) was third. Defending champion Nico Roche (BMC) was fourth at 58 seconds.

"This one means a lot more than the time trial title. I fought so hard for it. The time trial is a pride thing. I expect to win. I'm angry at myself if I don't. The road race, nationals are not your typical race. I'm just really happy I won it," said Mullen.

"It was such a hard race and it was really negative. That's how it goes with nationals. The amateurs sit on the pros and hope if they chase everything down, we'll tow them to the finish and give them a chance at the victory."

Mullen had Christopher McGlinchey (Chain Reaction Cycles) and Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport) for company in the finale and made his move on the final climb of the course with 4km to race. Mullen explained that once solo, he confident he would hold off the chasers but first had to check no one had previously escaped up the road.

"I remember just looking down at my Garmin and thinking: 'Hold 450. Hold 450. You can hold 450 for four kilometers.' And I did," said Mullen. "When I got closer to the finish line, I started thinking: 'Hang on a second. Is anyone up the road? Could I have missed someone?'

"I would have been happy to sprint those guys.I was confident I had the best sprint. It didn’t happen that way, so I had to play the card I was dealt. I had no idea how far behind anyone was after I attacked on the climb. I was just emptying myself, hoping it was enough," said Mullen who will debut his national champion jerseys at the Tour of Austria this week.

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