'Today a miracle happened' - McNulty goes long to claim Worlds for US after 33 years

The United States lined up with a deep squad and a triumvirate of ambitious leaders, but Brandon McNulty still couldn’t quite believe what was happening when he entered the final lap of the World Championships with a lead of a minute on the chasers.

McNulty had attacked alone with 33km remaining after his teammate Quinn Simmons had been up the road with dangerman Mathieu van der Poel. Now Matteo Jorgenson was snuffing out every attack behind while McNulty settled in for the time trial of his life.

He held firm on the final lap of Mount Royal circuit to claim the United States’ fourth elite men’s world title after Greg LeMond (1983 and 1989) and Lance Armstrong (1993), and the Arizonan was still struggling to process the achievement when he crossed the line. 

“Honestly, I don’t know. Really, this is, I don’t know… I’m really at a loss,” McNulty admitted. “Like, until the last 100 metres, I really didn’t even believe it. I was so tired, but I don’t know… Really, I don’t know.”

After an unruly race, marked by Van der Poel’s long-range attack, the scattergun accelerations of Isaac del Toro and the surprising struggles of Remco Evenepoel, McNulty looked a world champion in waiting when he took the bell, but his lead dropped to barely more than 10 seconds when Tom Pidcock attacked with intent on the final ascent of Camillien-Houde.

“On the last climb of Mount Royal, I was doing like zone 2, I was just dying, but I kept just pushing,” said McNulty, who steadied the ship over the other side. 

Behind, Pidcock looked for a relay from his companions in the chasing group and the impetus was lost. McNulty pressed on and he held firm over the Côte de la Polytechnique and the Avenue Panguedo to win the world title, 13 seconds clear of the chasers, who were led home by Michael Matthews and Van der Poel.

At the finish, McNulty paid tribute to the USA tactics and the strength of his teammate Jorgenson and Simmons in particular.

“We’ve said from weeks now that we have a super strong team and that it’s possible. And yeah, I think we rode, I mean, crazy well,” McNulty said. “We marked everything, we had guys ahead. I mean, I’m seriously at a loss for words.”

McNulty won the Grand Prix de Montréal twelve months ago after reaching the finish in the company of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader Tadej Pogacar. Third place in this year’s race – not to mention fourth in the Worlds time trial – marked him out as a contender to inherit Pogacar’s rainbow jersey, but McNulty saw himself as an outsider before the start.

“I mean, we talked about it and I made some jokes with my wife, but I mean, I really didn’t know,” McNulty said. “I knew something could happen, but it would take a miracle, and I guess today a miracle happened.”