08/09/2024

"It’s kind of a roll of a dice" - Brandon McNulty anticipates final Vuelta time-trial and World Championships

Brandon McNulty has shown himself at a very high level this year against the clock and will be a favourite to win the final time-trial of the Vuelta a España but also the World Championships. This afternoon, he has the chance to finish the Spanish race the same way he started it.

The UAE Team Emirates rider talks about the crash on stage 14 which left him battered and bruised in dramatic fashion. “I was scared to go off under the guardrail, but I could feel right away that I was fine, just road rash and cuts,. It was traumatic, but in all honesty, I’ve had worse injuries in a crash at a roundabout or something, so I was quite lucky," McNulty admits in words to Cyclingnews. “You get so used to leaning the bike over and being at one with the bike one day but then the next it’s like a foreign thing. It’s been tough to get the confidence back, but it’s coming.”

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He talks about a minor injury in the Achilles heel but that has been worked on in the past few days and he is hoping to show his best legs today in Madrid where he is a contender for victory; alongside the likes of Stefan Küng, Primoz Roglic and Mathias Vacek who was second to him in Lisbon three weeks ago.

Whether it will favour him or not, it's a bit of an unknown. “I haven’t seen it in person, but I have looked at the Veloviewer, and I’ve seen enough of it. And obviously, it’s stage 21, so it’s also about what you have left.”

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He was selected this week for the World Championships, where he will team up with Magnus Sheffield for the time-trial event. “I didn’t really know how I’d go in long ones, but in Glasgow, it was nearly one-hour long and I think I was better actually,” McNulty added. “I think if I have legs, then it could be a good course for me. But it’s tough when you’re two weeks after a Grand Tour.”

“For me, it’s kind of completely random,” he said. “In 2021, I was super good in the Olympic road race the week after the Tour, but then my TT was bad. We’ve seen guys like Remco were good in the TT after riding the Tour this year, but he’s obviously a different rider to me. For me, it’s kind of a roll of a dice," he concluded.