Brandon McNulty will make his first appearance in the world champion's rainbow jersey on American soil on November 21, when he lines up at El Tour de Tucson in Arizona. The 28-year-old Phoenix native will take part in the event for the first time, bringing his newly won world title to a mass-participation ride that is expected to attract around 12,000 cyclists.
McNulty claimed the elite men's road race title at the UCI Road World Championships with a solo victory, giving the United States its first men's elite road race world champion since 1993. His appearance in Tucson will provide an opportunity for local fans to see the rainbow jersey shortly after his breakthrough triumph.
The event, now in its 43rd edition, offers three distances, with the longest covering 165 kilometres. Unlike professional races, El Tour de Tucson does not offer prize money, with participants competing for personal achievement and the prestige of taking part.
McNulty will not be the only prominent name on the start list. Three-time US road race national champion Quinn Simmons, Canadian road champion Jérôme Gauthier, multiple-time road and track world champion Chloe Dygert, and former professional cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins are also expected to participate.
El Tour de Tucson combines mass participation with fundraising
The event is the flagship initiative of El Tour America, a nonprofit organization that stages cycling events and raises money for more than 120 other nonprofit organizations. Several current and former professional riders will also take part in The Prologue, a more exclusive camp designed to generate additional fundraising.
The November event will also coincide with developments elsewhere in American cycling. RNRNYC Racing p/b R1, an elite club team launched last season, is expanding its roster for 2027 and will continue supporting former WorldTour rider Ide Schelling, although his role will shift toward gravel racing.
Brandon McNulty ahead of Il Lombardia 2026
The Dutchman retired from professional road racing in 2025 after an 11-year career that included six seasons at WorldTour level with Bora-Hansgrohe and XDS Astana. He had a limited racing schedule with RNRNYC in 2026, including road and gravel appearances, and finished 10th at The Gralloch.
Schelling will remain associated with the organization as a brand ambassador while competing largely as an independent gravel rider.
“Ide will be racing a lot more by himself, but remains part of the bigger ecosystem, the RNR and L1 racing family. Maybe he'll do a couple of races with the team, but really he will focus on doing gravel events, which are mostly in Europe. Maybe doing Big Sugar and a couple more in the US,” Gil Lavi, co-founder of Rubber N' Road and RNRNYC Racing, told Cyclingnews.
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RNRNYC expands its international roster for 2027
The team takes its name from Rubber N' Road, a cycling apparel brand with a design studio and manufacturing operations in New York City. New Zealand rider Ethan Craine is among the additions for 2027. The 25-year-old joins after five seasons with Project Echelon Racing, during which he collected stage victories at the Green Mountain Stage Race, Salt Lake Criterium and Chicago Grit.
American rider Wiley Close, 22, also joins from the ENVE MOG Squad gravel team. He made his road racing debut in September and finished eighth on the queen stage of the Green Mountain Stage Race.
Dominican sprinter César Marte is another addition. He has achieved results in several US races since 2022, including the Tour of Somerville, Gateway Cup and Tour of America's Dairyland, as well as securing multiple stage victories at the Vuelta Independencia.
“Having Ethan [Craine] is huge. César Marte and Wiley Close are very talented racers, super young, super talented,” Lavi said.
RNRNYC expects to announce its complete roster in the coming weeks. Between 12 and 15 riders are expected to compete across a calendar centered on road racing, with selected gravel events also included.
Félix SernaCycling Journalist
Félix Serna is a writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2025. He covers professional cycling across both the men’s and women’s calendars, with a focus on UCI rankings, race developments, and rider performance. His work includes interview-based reports, liveblogs, and tournament coverage designed to provide clear, accurate context throughout the season.
In his reporting, Félix regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical reference. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies.
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- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
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