{"id":206262,"date":"2026-09-28T15:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=206262"},"modified":"2026-09-28T15:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:25:15","slug":"mcnulty-wins-world-championship-as-evenepoel-and-other-favorites-falter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/09\/28\/mcnulty-wins-world-championship-as-evenepoel-and-other-favorites-falter\/","title":{"rendered":"McNulty Wins ‘Miracle’ World Championship as Evenepoel and Other Favorites Falter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USA’s Brandon McNulty sprang a huge upset on Sunday in Montreal when he won Sunday’s Elite Men’s Road Race World Championship in Montreal with a 32km solo as the many pre-race co-favorites dithered and let the title slip away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The win marked the first road race world championship won by an American cyclist, male or female, since 1993, when Lance Armstrong won the title. It was also a reminder of the defending champion, Tadej Poga\u010dar, who is McNulty’s leader at UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG. (Imagine, the world champion is Poga\u010dar’s team domestique!) He was unable to defend his title because he is still recovering from injuries he sustained in the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old McNulty crossed the finish line 13 seconds ahead of another surprise, Australian Michael Matthews, who outsprinted Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, the best finisher of all the pre-race favorites. But the day and the applause belonged to McNulty and his American teammates Matteo Jorgenson and Quinn Simmons.<\/p>\n

Though the American team had come into the race saying they had a good chance to win, McNulty was still shocked by the result. “Honestly, I don’t know. Really this is, I don’t know\u2014I’m really at a loss,” he stammered immediately after the race. “I made some jokes to my wife. I knew something could happen, but it would take a miracle, and I guess miracles happened.”<\/p>\n

A winning attack as favorites fail to fire<\/strong><\/h2>\n

McNulty made his winning move with 32km left to ride on the 273.4km course from Brossard to Montreal \u2013 which began with a flat section of 112km \u2013 when he broke away from a nine-rider group containing some of the favorites, including 20-year-old Paul Seixas of France, Mexico’s Isaac del Toro, Tom Pidcock of Britain and van der Poel. He made the break after a series of brief attacks in the group and as the riders were either taking a breather or simply underestimated the American.<\/p>\n

It’s also possible that no one wanted to take the initiative in chasing for fear of helping others in the group win the race, a state of mind that would prove to be fatal. Whatever the reason, 29km from the finish McNulty’s lead had stretched to 33 seconds. With two of 12 laps of the 13.4km circuit left to ride, the lead had ballooned to 1:07.<\/p>\n

One reason was Jorgenson, who raced after every break to become an anchor on the wheel. The Visma\u2013Lease a Bike rider worked hard over the next 20km to make the pursuits as difficult as possible. But on the final climb of the Voie Camillien-Houde (1.7km @ 7.3%), McNulty cracked and the chasers, led by Pidcock and Italy’s Giulio Ciccone, came within 10 seconds of the American, who was now clearly struggling.<\/p>\n

“The last climb up Mont Royal I was doing like zone 2, just dying, but I just kept pushing,” McNulty explained. But by the time he was on that uncategorized climb (780m @ 6%), his pursuers had stopped pursuing, afraid to sacrifice themselves for anyone else \u2013 so they all sacrificed themselves for McNulty.<\/p>\n

But, according to Pidcock, there was something else at play. “Del Toro was obviously working for [his UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG teammate] McNulty in the end there,” he told Cyclingnews<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because of the renewed cat-and-mouse game played by the chasers, McNulty was able to get away and then slow down near the finish and celebrate. “Until the last 100 meters, I really didn’t even believe it, I was so tired. I mean, I don’t know, I really don’t know,” the overwhelmed McNulty managed to say. “We’ve said for weeks now that we have a super strong team and it’s possible. I think we rode crazy well, marked everything, had guys ahead. I’m just seriously at a loss for words.”<\/p>\n

Clearly.<\/p>\n

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P\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek sd\u00edlen\u00fd UCI (@uci_cycling)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n