rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
Ryan Mullen has said his Olympic experience had been “incredible” so far and he was “so grateful for the opportunity” to represent Ireland at his first Games.
The Irish rider was speaking after placing 12th in the TT in Paris yesterday, the best placing an Irish rider has ever achieved in an Olympic road event; one better than Ciaran Power in Greece in 2004 and Dan Martin in Rio in 2016, when both were 13th in the road races at those Games.
“I’m so proud, I’ve got lots of messages of support from back home,” he said. “It’s been 15 years I’ve been representing Ireland now and I’ve finally made it to the Olympics and I hope I’ve done the country proud.”
Speaking to RTE Sport, Mullen said he was “sorry for the accent, but I can’t help it” – a reference to his English accent having grown up there. But he had “a massive family in Meath and Louth and hopefully they’ll be having a pint watching this”.
He added he had left everything out on the road during the 32km TT, run off in wet conditions. Mullen spent time in the hot seat after his ride and by the time he spoke to the media he looked cold, though he was in very good form.
“I gave it everything, I took as much risk as I dared. I didn’t come all the way to the Olympics just to lie down on a roundabout,” he said. “I was calculated risk wherever I could, give it everything thing I’d got and then just hung on.
“Sadly it wasn’t enough to stay in the hotseat but I’m pretty proud of my ride. It was dangerous, it was slippery. I watched the ladies go off before us and I say that, and kinda learned from the mistakes they made.
“Maybe I was overly cautious having watched a few of them slide off. But it was wet, it was grim, it was slippery, a good Irish summer’s day.”
He added though there were plenty of crashes in the rain, he simply focused on going as hard as he could while keeping the bike upright
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and you kind of learn to pick your lines quite well and I’ve had enough offs in my time to know what has grip and what doesn’t. So I just avoided the drain covers and bumpy surfaces wherever I could.”
Mullen has taken his two-year-old son, Louis’s, Peppa Pig toy to the Games – in a bid to get selfies of himself with the toy alongside some of the famous names he met in France.
“He’s not here today, sadly,” he said of Louis. “But I’m going home tomorrow to see him and then I’ll come back for the road race. So I’m hoping I’ve done him proud, and Peppa proud.”
He added he was now looking forward to representing Ireland in the road race alongside Ben Healy next weekend, where Mullen will do all he can to help Healy get the best result they can.
“Ben’s turned into one of the best one-day racers in the world and I’m really excited try and help him achieve his best possible result and my job, professionally, is to help him.
“I’m pretty good at that and I think there’s no better man he could ask for to help him deliver his best performance.”
.
.
.
#Ryan #Mullen #proud #ride #incredible #Olympic #experience
Source link
