Analysis | How does Conor Murphy’s TT ride rate against best ever Irish and UK juniors?

Conor Murphy, the Irish first-year junior, set a blistering time for the 10-mile TT distance in recent days, dipping just inside the 18-minute marker. The 17-year-old rides for Caldwell Cycles at home and U19 Academy Région Sud powered by Giant abroad and won Eroica Juniores-Coppa Andrea Meneghelli (1.1) in Italy in May.

His 10 mile TT time from last week is a new national junior record and, unsurprisingly, it also secured him victory in the Ernie Magwood Super 6 TT Series on the night. It was not the first time Murphy had broken the national record this year, with the 17-year-old apparently getting faster and faster.

But just how good was the performance? Let’s take a look at those Irish and British junior riders who have set the best times over 10 miles – on both junior gears and unrestricted gears – in the modern era. Murphy’s time, as you’ll see, ranks very highly indeed, even when compared with Ryan Mullen and the best British riders.

The big change over the last couple of years for juniors in Ireland is their being allowed by Cycling Ireland to use unrestricted gears. That measure is very much a sign of the times. More and more younger riders – in both the junior and U23 categories – are performing better than ever, mainly due to advances in coaching, technology and nutrition.

The move to unrestricted gears means it’s hard to compare Murphy’s time to every previous top time by juniors over 10 miles. However, many of the best times have also been done on unrestricted gears. And that includes Ryan Mullen, when he too was a first-year junior.

But first, how does Murphy’s 17:59 on the Frosses course – a very fast stretch from Ballymena to Coleraine in Antrim – compare to the most recent previous best Irish times?

Before Murphy’s time last week, Darren Rafferty held the Irish junior 10 mile TT record, having recorded 18:48 in July, 2021, also at the Ernie Magwood TT Series in Ballymena. Rafferty, who came up through Island Wheelers, was riding for Team 31 Jollycycles U19 at the time.

He had only returned from serious crash injuries and was just about to set off for France, where he won so many races he secured a place with Hagens Berman Axeon. He has since moved on to the World Tour, with EF Education-EasyPost, and won the elite men’s road race at the National Road Championships in Limerick last month.

When Rafferty recorded his time, on junior gears, he broke the Irish record held at the time by Ben Walsh, the Junior Tour of Ireland winner who set a time of 19:21 in 2017. Walsh’s time was also on junior gears.

The previous year, first-year junior Xeno Young set a time of 19:41, just one second faster than the record holder at the time, Mark Downey. Going a bit further back, Thomas Martin broke the Irish junior 10 mile TT record, in June 2006, with a time of 20:28, which stood for years.

But what about Ryan Mullen – 12th in the Olympic TT at the weekend and a rider who ate up TT wins, with huge performances, from the time he was 15-years-old and also into his junior years. How does Conor Murphy’s time of last week compare to Mullen’s at the same age?

This is where things get interesting. Mullen, though from an Irish family, grew up in Britain. And though he raced in Ireland from the time he was a kid, he rode many of his TTs – especially those fixed distance 10s and 25s – in Britain. And when he raced there as a junior, he was allowed to ride unrestricted gears.

That means his fastest times did not count as Irish records. But it also means we now have a direct comparison between Mullen as a junior and Murphy now.

Granted, bikes, training and just about everything to do with cycling performance has moved on in the 12 years since Ryan Mullen was a junior. But Murphy’s time now is considerably faster than Mullen’s at the same age.

In 2012, when Mullen was aged 17 years, he recorded a time of 19:01. He told stickybottle at the time he had clocked 18:57 on his own bike and believes that was the correct time.

However, he was credited with a time four seconds slower after what he believes was a slight error with the official time keeping. The 19:01 was recorded in the Rhos on Sea CC 10 mile TT in St Asaph near Mullen’s base in North Wales.

It was the fastest time ever set by a junior on British roads at the time, including beating the best times set by Chris Boardman and Bradley Wiggins.

Since then, having consulted the record times on the British TT scene, it appears only four juniors have gone faster than Mullen’s time from 2012. And only one of those times – all with unrestricted gears permitted – is faster than Murphy’s from last week.

In 2016, Adam Hartley – then of PH-MAS Cycling – bettered Mullen’s time by 17 seconds, recording 18:44. In 2018, Zack Bridges of Ribble Pro Cycling did 18:42, followed by Joshua Sandman of Team Backstedt Bike Performance doing 18:16 in 2018.

But in 2021, Joshua Giddings of Z Junior Race Team recorded a time of 17:48; just 11 seconds faster than Murphy’s from last week. And that is the only time currently on the record books in Britain faster than Murphy’s.