Ryan Mullen has been a professional rider for just a couple of months but his coach with the Cannondale team has said he believes the Irishman is faring well in the pro peloton.
Sebastian Weber has guided Mullen since he inked a deal with the squad and is satisfied with his showings thus far.
"I think Ryan is going pretty well," Weber told the Irish Times this week. "For the beginning of this season we didn't really focus on a specific race or tune his training to something super-specific. Instead, we just wanted to build a good, strong base and get him to build up some experience and some race kilometres."
Mullen made his pro debut in Majorca in January. He was 33rd in the Trofeo Felanitx, 42nd in the Trofeo Pollenca and 35th in the Trofeo Playa de Palma.
More recently he competed in the Tour du Haut Var-Matin, and tried to help his team-mate Tom Jelte Slagter take the overall classification. Slagter took the opening stage, but the team were unable to maintain control of the bunch on day two and he slipped back.
Still, Mullen built up important experience and also continued to build his form.
“What we want to see at this point is solid performances, not going too deep in the races, not being too tired afterwards,” said Weber.
Given that Mullen is just 21 years of age, the team wants to develop him gradually and not put pressure on too soon. That said, Weber says that Mullen will get an opportunity to chase his own result in less than two month’s time.
“His big focus will be the Three Days of De Panne,” he said, referring to the Belgian stage race in just over a months’ time. “It has a time trial and it should be a really good race for him.”
Mullen already showed his ability against the clock when he finished a very close second in the world under 23 time trial championships in 2014. He was just 0.48 seconds behind the winner Campbell Flakemore of Australia, and went on last year to clock up other good results.
In other news, Cycling Ireland has announced the establishment of a new High Performance sub-committee. Its aim is to advise CI’s High Performance Programme, and will comprise three former internationals.
These are Olympian Robin Seymour, formerly French-based road rider Aidan Duff and the international track competitor Stephen Barrett. CI director John Horgan will also be involved.
