Aggressive McNulty in prime position to claim Tour de Pologne victory

The glass is half full, of course, but after going close to victory on stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne, it must have been hard for Brandon McNulty not to feel a pang of regret all the same.

McNulty marked himself out as the day’s strongman with his persistent aggression in the finale of a tough stage in the Tatra Mountains, and when he pressed clear of the GC group on the drag to the line, he must have thought his efforts would be rewarded with stage victory.

Enter Victor Langellotti. Monaco’s first WorldTour pro has been the revelation of the week in Poland, and the Ineos man channelled Primož Roglič here, hunting down McNulty in the final 300 metres and then outkicking him to the line. 

For Langellotti, the stage win and the yellow jersey. For McNulty, a frustrating second place was tempered by the consolation of moving to within touching distance of final overall victory in this race with just Sunday’s 12.5km time trial to go. 

“I mean, ok, you always want to win the stage, but I knew the reality was just to stay as close to the leaders as possible today and then go tomorrow,” McNulty said. “So actually today was better than I expected.”

It hadn’t been clear beforehand if McNulty or Jan Christen would lead UAE’s challenge here, but the American was always to the fore in the finale. His first major effort came at the intermediate sprint with a shade under 20km remaining, when he stole away to snag three bonus seconds. He attacked once more on the final classified climb of Sciana Bukowina, and he was always prominent as the front group fragmented and reformed over the other side.

On the final kick to the finish at Bukowina, McNulty tried again, and his strength eventually saw him press clear alone. Only Langellotti’s late intervention denied him the win. 

“We saw Jan was really good on stage 2, then I was up there and obviously Rafal [Majka], so it was kind of just who had the legs today,” McNulty said. “I knew I was feeling good, so we just made it hard with our other guys, and then on the last climb we tried to go as hard as we could. Majka set a good pace on the final, and Jan and I keyed off each other, and I had a good moment and almost had the stage.

“I knew I went a bit early, but I was also just trying to get a gap on the other GC guys. I looked back in the last 200 metres and saw him coming. I almost felt him coming, but I was trying to hold on.” 

McNulty and Langellotti finished seven seconds clear of Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) and the rest of the 15-strong front group at Bukowina, which leaves the American well placed to claim overall victory on Sunday.

He has seven seconds to recoup on Langellotti, and, perhaps more relevantly, he has 13 seconds in hand on Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and 14 on his teammate Christen. Given McNulty’s pedigree against the watch, he is the clear favourite to win the Tour de Pologne at the Wieliczka Salt Mine on Sunday in a flat 12.5km time trial that looks well tailored to his gifts.

“I feel really good today, so I hope I’ll have the same legs tomorrow, and maybe we can try to win this race,” McNulty said.

“I’ll go into it like any other TT. I’ll just do my best, and hopefully it turns out well, but we’ll see. I'll check it on VeloViewer and whatnot, but we'll see it in the morning for sure.”