Brandon McNulty took the men’s road world title in Montréal on Sunday, but did not believe he had won until the final 100 metres after attacking with 32km left in the 273.7km race.
Results
Sep 27
| Pos | Rider | NATNationality | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Brandon Mcnulty | USA | 6:17:04 |
| 🥈 | Michael James Matthews | AUS | +0:13 |
| 🥉 | Mathieu van der Poel | NED | +0:13 |
| 4 | Quinn Simmons | USA | +0:13 |
| 5 | Isaac del Toro Romero | MEX | +0:14 |
| 6 | Mads Pedersen | DEN | +0:14 |
| 7 | Thomas Pidcock | GBR | +0:14 |
| 8 | Matteo Jorgenson | USA | +0:14 |
| 9 | Giulio Ciccone | ITA | +0:14 |
| 10 | Ben Healy | IRL | +0:14 |
| 11 | Mauro Schmid | SUI | +0:22 |
| 12 | Remco Evenepoel | BEL | +0:25 |
| 13 | Juan Ayuso Pesquera | ESP | +2:08 |
| 14 | Stefan Küng | SUI | +2:19 |
| 15 | Paul Seixas | FRA | +2:47 |
| 16 | Jørgen Nordhagen | NOR | +3:09 |
| 17 | Oscar Onley | GBR | +3:09 |
| 18 | Christian Scaroni | ITA | +3:12 |
| 19 | Mikkel Honoré | DEN | +3:14 |
| 20 | Davide Piganzoli | ITA | +3:20 |
| 21 | Primož Roglič | SLO | +3:29 |
| 22 | Michael Valgren | DEN | +4:20 |
| 23 | Toms Skujins | LAT | +4:25 |
| 24 | Anthon Charmig | DEN | +4:25 |
| 25 | Tiesj Benoot | BEL | +4:31 |
| 26 | Pavel Sivakov | FRA | +4:37 |
| 27 | Santiago Buitrago Sanchez | COL | +4:41 |
| 28 | Wout van Aert | BEL | +5:11 |
| 29 | Maxim van Gils | BEL | +5:11 |
| 30 | Andreas Lorentz Kron | DEN | +5:46 |
| 31 | Adam Richard Yates | GBR | +6:37 |
| 32 | Michael Shea Leonard | CAN | +6:39 |
| 33 | Tobias Halland Johannessen | NOR | +6:48 |
| 34 | Guillermo Thomas Silva Coussan | URU | +6:48 |
| 35 | Michael Russell Woods | CAN | +6:48 |
| 36 | Jhonatan Narvaez Prado | ECU | +6:48 |
| 37 | Aleksandr Vlasov | RUS | +6:48 |
| 38 | Georg Zimmermann | GER | +6:48 |
| 39 | Byron Munton | RSA | +6:48 |
| 40 | Michael Storer | AUS | +6:48 |
| 41 | Menno Huising | NED | +6:51 |
| 42 | Jack Leonard Haig | AUS | +6:53 |
| 43 | Igor Arrieta Lizarraga | ESP | +6:53 |
| 44 | Nicolas Prodhomme | FRA | +6:53 |
| 45 | Nickolas Zukowsky | CAN | +6:53 |
| 46 | Marcel Camprubi Pijuan | ESP | +7:02 |
| 47 | Florian Lipowitz | GER | +7:04 |
| 48 | Riley Sheehan | USA | +10:00 |
| 49 | Corbin John Strong | NZL | +10:00 |
| 50 | Michal Kwiatkowski | POL | +10:00 |
| 51 | Tobias Svendsen Foss | NOR | +10:00 |
| 52 | Embret Svestad-Bårdseng | NOR | +10:00 |
| 53 | Jai Hindley | AUS | +10:00 |
| 54 | Felix Grossschartner | AUT | +10:00 |
| 55 | Lorenzo Mark Finn | ITA | +10:00 |
| 56 | Nelson Oliveira | POR | +13:11 |
| 57 | Lawrence Warbasse | USA | +15:35 |
| 58 | Ivo Emanuel Alves Oliveira | POR | +15:35 |
He eventually managed to hold off the chasing group by just 13 seconds with Australia’s Michael Matthews taking silver and his fourth podium in a Worlds road race, 11 years after his first. Mathieu van der Poel stormed to a very impressive bronze. McNulty’s US teammates covered moves behind him, while the chasers struggled to work together.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” McNulty said when asked at the finish what was going through his mind. “I’m really at a loss. Until the last 100 meters, I really didn’t even believe it. I was so tired.”
On his final lap, McNulty described himself as riding “like zone 2”, the easy intensity used for endurance training. “I was just dying, but I kept just pushing,” he said. His lead had been 1:08 with two laps remaining, yet two chasers came within 12 seconds on the last ascent.
“We’ve said for weeks now that we have a super strong team and that it’s possible,” McNulty said. “We marked everything, had guys ahead.”
Our pre-race analysis considered how a hesitant chase could let a move stay away. McNulty attacked later than the early move it envisaged, but the pursuit did falter.
Simmons gets ahead, Jorgenson covers the chase
Quinn Simmons had joined an earlier dangerous move including Van der Poel, Oscar Onley and Primož Roglič, giving the US a rider up the road instead of a break to chase. Matteo Jorgenson later described Simmons’s presence there as a way of neutralising that move. When McNulty found his opening, Jorgenson was still available to cover attacks behind him.
“We set our egos aside a little bit, and we decided, we just wanted an American to win this race,” he said in USA Cycling’s post-race account.
Once McNulty got his gap, Jorgenson covered attacks in the group behind. “From there, thankfully, I had crazy legs, and I was able to follow a bunch of moves, and make some guys a little bit frustrated, which really helped,” he said.
Tom Pidcock was among those trying to get across. “The crash definitely didn’t help. There was a bit of a chase,” Pidcock told Cycling Pro Net. He felt he had “really really good legs”, but said the wind made it hard to open a gap with Jorgenson responding to attacks. “He was super strong once Brandon attacked,” Pidcock said of the American. After six hours of racing, he said, it was “always going to be super difficult to make a difference there”.
Pidcock also suggested that Isaac del Toro, McNulty’s trade teammate, was helping him keep his advantage. In Pidcock’s view, Del Toro’s presence made it harder for the chasers to force a gap.
“No one would want to work together in that group,” Pidcock said. Riders were stuck in the classic situation of ‘Group 2 Syndrome’, caught between spending energy to bridge the gap and saving their legs for a sprint.
Pidcock, at one point, reduced the gap down to below 10 seconds to McNulty with Italy’s Giulio Ciccone, but Del Toro closed it down and everyone sat up again allowing McNulty to ride clear once again.
“I don’t think I have any regrets. I mean I did what I could,” Pidcock said.
Simmons finished fourth, on the same time as Matthews and Van der Poel, while Jorgenson placed eighth, 14 seconds behind McNulty.
Matthews had crossed the line with his head in his hands. After a lung embolism in the past two years and breaking both arms earlier this year, he said of his silver medal: “Whether I’m first or second, honestly it feels like a win.” He had ridden a circuit he said many considered beyond him.
Van der Poel had come for the rainbow jersey and said he was proud of his ride. “I came to try and become world champion, but I’m proud of the race I did,” he said. His aim had been to stay ahead of moves by the stronger climbers, and he felt he had managed it. “It was still close,” he said. “I did what I had to do, and yeah, it’s bronze in the end.”
McNulty had joked with his wife about winning that morning. At the finish, still struggling to take it in, he said: “I knew something could happen.” Then he added: “I guess today miracles happen.”
