McNulty back to his best level with tremendous Pyrenean performance: "There was no secret plan: we just wanted to make the race hard"

Brandon McNulty is not stranger to big performances, however after two weeks at a level lower than expected, it came as a surprise to see the UAE Team Emirates ride at such a high level today at the Tour de France, finishing third whilst supporting Tadej Pogacar.

"Mikkel [Bjerg] did a super good pull on the Hourquette d’Ancizan, and also at the beginning of the Val Louron climb. From then on, the initial plan was for me to ride 15 minutes full gas. But, as I was pushing it, I began to hear on the radio that more and more riders were getting dropped from my pace and I ended up going on for much longer than expected," McNulty said in a post-race interview.

Despite having only four riders, UAE managed to blow the race apart, with McNulty shedding all of the GC riders but Jonas Vingegaard and his own teammate at the Col de Val Louron - Azet. "It was a big effort for me, but it went well and I’m happy to pull it out because it meant we could actually lead the race on the mountains for the first time on this Tour de France".

In the final descent and climb he kept the pace high so as to keep the gaps that had been created, and possibly put Vingegaard under pressure. "It was very special. With 5 kilometres to go I thought that Jonas [Vingegaard] and Tadej [Pogacar] might act very nice and let me win the stage… but then I realized that there are no gifts on this sport," he admitted. "Anyway, it was very nice to pull off this performance and to stand on the podium with the most aggressive rider award".

The 24-year old explained: "Today we rode with lots of grit. We were racing on emotion, basically, for the guys who couldn’t take part today. There was no secret plan: we just wanted to make the race hard".

"Tomorrow will be hard as a well. Right now I just look forward to rest… but, once I get some sleep, I’ll probably be more excited about tomorrow’s stage," he concluded. He will surely play a key role in Tadej Pogacar's last attempt to directly distance Jonas Vingegaard.