"Ninth place is something I am proud of" - Brandon McNulty takes pride in his Giro d'Italia performance

Brandon McNulty was one of the many strong climbers in the selection of UAE Team Emirates - XRG for the Giro d'Italia. A team that came with the highest ambitions but left empty-handed. Well, not entirely, but the second place of Isaac del Toro will be a bittersweet result for the superteam. McNulty himself took a 9th place, his best Grand Tour result to the day.

"Another Giro in the books," he writes in a story on his Instagram after the three weeks. "It was truly such a pleasure to ride for Isaac and give everything to defend his pink jersey. In the end, we didn’t win but I know that Isaac will be back! Thank you for such an amazing 21 days."

"On the personal side, I am super proud of this Giro. For the first time in my career I felt I could be somewhat useful over the entire 3 weeks. I came here not thinking about my personal GC at all and just tried to be as close to our leaders as possible because we had such a strong team, so to finish 9th is something I am proud of."

"Of course we all grow up wanting to be grand tour winners, and world champions but you quickly realize that those accomplishments are few and far between, but finishing in the top 10 in any grand tour was one small goal I had for my career that I really never thought I’d be able to achieve."

"While I’m under no illusion that I was the 9th best rider to start this race, there’s so much luck involved in a three week race and I’m thankful to have made it through with only a few stitches and bruises," he concludes, noting that favourites such as Primoz Roglic or his teammate Juan Ayuso were forced to abandon throughout the race.