Brandon McNulty Stuns the Favorites in Montréal Worlds Thriller

Brandon McNulty became the first US road race world champion in more than three decades when he soloed to a brilliant victory in the elite road race championship in Montreal on Sunday.

The American rider attacked an elite lead group with 32.4km remaining and went into time trial mode, building a lead of 1’08 with two laps remaining and conserving 52 seconds of that at the bell.

Multiple riders tried and failed to bridge, with the stop-go racing helping McNulty to retain his advantage.

He powered onwards towards the line, having enough of a buffer to hold on heading up the steep finishing straight. He became the first US world road race champion since Lance Armstrong in 1993, and Greg LeMond in 1983 and 1989.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” a shocked McNulty said, when asked what was going through his mind after his win.

“I am really at a loss.. Until the last 300 meters I really didn’t even believe it, I was so tired. I don’t know. Really, I don’t know.

“The last climb up Mont Royal I was doing like zone 2, I was just dying. I kept just pushing…I don’t know.”

Asked if he truly believed he could win the race beforehand, he admitted that he didn’t expect it.

“No,” he answered. “We talked about it, I made some jokes with my wife. In the end I knew something could happen but it would take a miracle. I guess today miracles happen.”

Behind, teammates Matteo Jorgenson and Quinn Simmons marked every attempt to chase, closing down bids by Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) and others.

Michael Matthews won the sprint for silver 13 seconds later, edging out Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and Simmons.

Isaac del Toro (Mexico), Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Pidcock, Jorgenson, Giulio Ciccone (Italy) and Ben Healy (Ireland) were a further second behind, filling out the top 10.

Paul Seixas (France) and Evenepoel didn’t live up to their favorites tag, with the latter off the pace for much of the day and fighting to stay with the front group, and the former suffering cramp in the finale.

A chaotic, confusing, but thrilling race

The elite road race was set to be the hardest one day race of the year, with 273 kilometers and 3,578 vertical meters looming on Sunday morning.

Sixteen riders went clear very early on and had a gap of eight minutes after 100km.

Seixas’ France team was doing much of the chasing and slashed the gap down to 1’15 with 123km remaining. The group was eventually whittled down to Andreas Leknessund (Norway), Jamie Meehan (Ireland), Emils Liepinš (Austria) and Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrea), with these finally being caught on the Voie Camillien-Houde with 106.4km to go.

Anthon Charmig (Denmark) attacked with just under 98k remaining but was caught by a strong chase group six kilometers after that.

There was a regrouping of sorts but Wout van Aert (Belgium) sparked off a big move with 87km to go. He was joined by a determined Charmig, Van der Poel, Simmons, Primož Roglič (Slovenia) and Oscar Onley (Great Britain).

They had 41 seconds with 80 remaining, prompting a strong chase group to get moving behind. Van der Poel realized the danger and split the group with 74km left, with only Simmons and Onley able to hold him.

Roglič got up to them with 65km to go, making it four out front, and then Healy made a well-timed surge with just over 4 laps remaining. He caught and passed a dropped Onley and bridged with 39km left. Del Toro was riding very strongly and dragged the chase group up to them four kilometers later, with McNulty then making a superb move with 32.4km left.

Strong and steady does it

The Arizonan quickly gained time and had a very solid 1’08 with two laps to go. Pidcock put in repeated efforts to try to shake off the shadows but the stop-go racing helped McNulty to conserve much of his advantage. And while Evenepoel launched a big move just before the start of the final lap, sparking off another reaction from the group, McNulty still had 52 seconds at the bell.

The tension grew when another surge by Pidcock cut that down to 32 seconds starting the university hill climb.

However McNulty continued to ride superbly, and despite surges by Van der Poel, then Mauro Schmid (Switzerland), then Pidcock, strong riding by Jorgenson nullified all of the dangers.

McNulty thundered onto the uphill finishing straight with a solid lead and had time to celebrate at the line, clasping his helmet in disbelief at what he had done.

Tadej Pogačar was unable to take part but, for the third year in a row, a rider from the UAE Emirates-XRG team will be sporting the rainbow jersey.

It’s huge for them but even bigger again for US cycling, which has waited 33 years for another elite men’s gold medal.