"Uphill I felt good so I'm very happy" - Brandon McNulty blitzes his way up final climb to stage win at Volta a Comunitat Valenciana

UAE Team Emirates' Brandon McNulty showed some brilliant climbing legs on stage 4 of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana. Taking the win and moving into the overall lead of the Spanish stage race.

The finish of Stage 4 was initially planned for around 15km later however, according to reports, the tragic death of a spectator at the finish line meant the day's racing was shortened to finish atop a brutal climb. “We learned with 40km to go that the finish line would be brought forward," McNulty explains. "This changed the plans a bit, but uphill I felt good so I'm very happy."

On the climb to the new finish line, McNulty was up against the likes of Aleksandr Vlasov and Santiago Buitrago among others. "The team put me in a good position on the final climb and then I gave everything up to the top," the American explains.

"In the last part I followed Buitrago. I was behind the group, but I knew that they wouldn't attack on the slight slope," concludes McNulty's recap. "I had an advantage on the false-flat as I am bigger and have more power and I gave everything to the finish line."

As mentioned, McNulty is now also in the overall lead of the general classification, 13 seconds clear of the Colombian, Buitrago.