Olympic debutant Ryan Mullen gets Irish cyclists underway in Paris

Ryan Mullen, a multiple national TT and road race champion, gets Ireland’s cycling campaign at the Olympic Games underway in Paris this evening, on a day when rain looks like it will be a factor in the French capital.

The 29-year-old, who plies his trade as lead-out man with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, is selected for both the TT and road race at the Games and it’s that TT ride that will open the cycling campaign at the 2024 Games.

Mullen is one of just 34 riders taking to the start line and he will be up against some of the biggest names, and best TT riders, in the sport including Belgian duo Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel.

Also gunning for gold as Great Britain’s Josh Tarling; the 20-year-old Ineos Grenadiers rider a real contender to be crowned champion despite his youth. Though his trade team team mate Filippo Ganna, riding for Italy, goes into today’s TT also as a gold medal prospect.

Mullen has not put as much preparation in his TT riding in the last few years of his career, as his team role has taken over his career. But he has known for quite some time he was going to Paris and with a less busy time of it of late for his trade team, he will hopefully be well prepared.

Mullen took a silver medal at the U23 Worlds back in 2014 before winning 5th in the elite Worlds TT in 2016 and winning bronze at the Europeans the following year. And though those performances all came in the earlier years of his career, with his TT was a more central part of his approach, they demonstrate he is more than capable of performing on the big stage.

A medal this time around may be just out of reach for Mullen but placing anywhere from top five to 10 would be a good return for him over the 32.4km course, though even making the top 10 will be very difficult given the line-up and Mullen will need to be on a good day.

That course looks fast as it is a flat out-and-back route, taking the riders from from Invalides to Pont Alexandre III via the Bois de Vincennes. That is the kind of territory that can suit Mullen. The first rider – Amir Ansari (Olympic Refugee Team) – is off at 3:32pm Irish time with Mullen off at 3.44pm Irish time.

Olympic Men’s TT | Start Times, Irish Times

• Amir Ansari (Olympic Refugee Team) 3:32:00
• Jan Tratnik (Slovenia) 3:33:30
• Gleb Syritsa (Individual Neutral Athlete) 3:35:00
• Alberto Bettiol (Italy) 3:36:30
• Laurence Pithie (New Zealand) 3:38:00
• Achraf ed Doghmy (Morocco) 3:39:30
• Rui Costa (Portugal) 3:41:00
• Oier Lazkano Lopez (Spain) 3:42:30
• Ryan Mullen (Ireland) 3:44:00
• Mathias Vacek (Czech Republic) 3:45:30
• Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) 3:47:00
• Felix Grossschartner (Austria) 3:48:30
• Attila Valter (Hungary) 3:50:00
• Jambaljamts Sainbayar (Mongolia) 3:51:30
• Biniam Girmay (Eritrea) 3:53:00
• Kevin Vauquelin (France) 3:54:30
• Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark) 3:56:00
• Soeren Waerenskjold (Norway) 3:57:30
• Derek Gee (Canada) 3:59:00
• Daan Hoole (Netherlands) 4:00:30
• Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) 4:02:00
• Magnus Sheffield (United States Of America) 4:03:30
• Maximilian Schachmann (Germany) 4:05:00
• Wout van Aert (Belgium) 4:06:30
• Yevgeniy Fedorov (Kazakhstan) 4:08:00
• Lucas Plapp (Australia) 4:09:30
• Tobias Foss (Norway) 4:11:00
• Mikkel Norsgaard Bjerg (Denmark) 4:12:30
• Nelson Oliveira (Portugal) 4:14:00
• Josh Tarling (Great Britain) 4:15:30
• Stefan Kueng (Switzerland) 4:17:00
• Brandon McNulty (United States Of America) 4:18:30
• Filippo Ganna (Italy) 4:20:00
• Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) 4:21:30