Miracles exist: McNulty, from luxurious gregarious alongside Pogacar to brilliant world champion
Brandon McNulty (Arizona, 1998) On Sunday he experienced his most important victory since he became a professional cyclist. When the American runner launched an attack 33 kilometers from the finish line, the big favorites for the medals let him do it. They did not think that the member of the UAE Team Emirates could win the game and they were fully confident that thanks to their quality they would ruin the attempt of one of the many cyclists who live in Girona. They miscalculated. They underestimated the options of their professional colleague and they were wrong.
In a competition without earpieces, no one could inform or remind them that the phoenix cyclist He is a great roller, who had just finished fourth in the time trial, third a few days ago in the Montreal Grand Prixwho grows in big cycling events – he had already been 6th in the road race at the Olympic Games and 5th in the time trial – and who maintains intact his great time trial skills with which he began to amaze as a young man. And since he presented his candidacy, McNulty A perfect individual time of 33 kilometers was set.
He was like a rocket, following a constant rhythm and, when he had doubts, he put them aside with a stroke of his pen, to end up achieving his first victory of the year and second in the largest city in Quebec, after in 2025 his UAE Team Emirates teammate Tadej Pogacar, winner of the last two editions of the World Cup and absent this year due to injury, will let him win. Almost instantly after winning, ‘Pogi’ He dedicated some nice words to him: “The king of Montreal, proud of you”, in another example of the good relationship between the two, as was already seen in an Instagram image of his wife Summer, whom he married in October 2023, in which the three of them are seen in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Sunday’s was not the first world title of McNulty. In 2016 he was world junior time trial champion in Doha (Qatar)endorsing the good conditions he had shown in the fight against the time trial, being bronze in the time trial of the Richmond World Cup (USA)) of 2015, the year in which he was also proclaimed champion of USA of the specialty, being silver in the U23 World Cup in 2017.
At that time I ran through the Lux Cycling Club. He made the leap to professionalism in 2017 with Rally Cycling, in the continental category, and in 2020 he signed for the UAE Team Emirates. He was 21 years old, a team with which last April he extended his contract until 2030. On August 2, 2019, life would take a 180-degree turn. McNultythe day on which the best team in the world announced its signing. In the press release they presented him as one of the most promising talents in the United States. Regarding his signing, Joxean Fernández ‘Matxin’ He highlighted that “he is a world-class talent, with two key qualities that few cyclists his age possess: the ability to combine climbing and time trials at a high level,” and when the lucky man was asked why he chose the UAE, he responded that “because of their interest in my long-term development as a cyclist.”
He is a world-class talent, with two key qualities that few cyclists his age possess: the ability to combine climbing and time trialing at a high level.
Since then, McNulty –Animal lover, last February he adopted his dog Bellemont– has achieved 23 wins. Brandon He has known how to combine his work as a luxury gregarious for his leaders with his own pride, and when he has had an opportunity he has taken advantage of it, like when he dressed in the red leader of La Vuelta 2024 After the first stage, of course, a time trial.
A folksy person – whose image many have joked by saying that it couldn’t be that he is only 28 years old, since his hair, mustache and facial features make him look older – McNulty joked with his wife before the race that it would take a miracle for him to be world champion. Then, after more than six hours of titanic effort, he casually said, half-jokingly, “I guess miracles happen,” after becoming the first American to win the men’s road event at the World Championships since Lance Armstrong did it in 1993.
The prize, beyond the 8,000 euros in cash for the victory, is to become part of cycling history and wear the world champion’s rainbow jersey for the entire 2027 season, which could well debut on October 3 at the Emilia’s turnwhere it is registered.
