Croatia is known for it's beaches and good weather but as we enter the fall, rain begins to fall quite a lot. Today at the Cro Race the peloton was decimated by the difficult weather conditions, but Brandon McNulty took full advantage of the situation to take a brilliant solo win.
"Today was a good day I felt good. A confusing day with the GC but I found myself alone off the front," the UAE Team Emirates rider said in a post-race interview. "The gap held and I tried to stay for the GC time and then just kept going for the stage, kept the gap so yeah it's a nice, a good day".
It is the 14th time this season that UAE Team Emirates finish with a 1-2, as Igor Arrieta managed to take a strong runner-up on the day after benefiting from the work of his rivals who were in hot pursuit of McNulty. The American attacked with over 50 kilometers to go, joining Kim Heiduk but quickly setting off by himself in the Croatian hills.
The peloton never took it easy and never let the gap grow much above a minute but it proved to be impossible to bring back McNulty in that terrain and with him putting on such a strong performance. He won the stage and also 26 seconds on the majority of the GC field. Because of the bad weather conditions, GC times were taken on the penultimate lap which meant he didn't win as much time as he could potentially, but the 36 seconds were nevertheless enough to boost him into the race lead and into the position of man to beat for the overall classification in this race. This was win number 77 for the Emirati team in 2024 and the chances are very high that they will end the season with over 80.
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