VIDEO INTERVIEW | Brandon McNulty about his own ambitions after time trial victory: "For now it's just a matter of helping them and seeing where I end up"

Brandon McNulty is the rather surprising winner of the opening Vuelta a Espana time trial, beating Mathias Vacek and Wout Van Aert to grab the first red jersey of this edition. Cyclinguptodate caught up to the American after the stage to get his first impressions.

Is this McNulty's best victory to this date? "I'd love to say so. I mean, the Giro win was also a big one. That was kind of the highlight, but yeah, it's nice to come away with a time trial win in the grand tour. Time trial has always kind of been one of my favorite disciplines. So now I have two grand tour wins. That's great."

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2024 Vuelta a Espana GC Update after stage 1 ITT: Brandon McNulty leads although Wout van Aert has Red Jersey in sights, Primoz Roglic best placed of overall contenders

So now McNulty sits in the overall lead of Vuelta a Espana, but his team UAE Team Emirates entered the race with different leaders and so we'll most likely see the American lose the red jersey in coming stages. Although it wouldn't be too far fetched to see the 26-year-old fight against the best in the mountains, just like during the 2022 Tour de France.

Does he dream about pulling off such performances during this Vuelta? "It's possible, I have really good form. The priority is to help Joao and Adam and then... if I can manage three weeks, then that's already great. And then I can come away behind those two after helping them. But yeah, I think for now it's just a matter of helping them and seeing where I end up and just focusing on feeling good for the whole three weeks."

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LIVE BLOG! Vuelta a Espana 2024 stage 1: Time trial in Lisbon to generate the first differences

2024 Vuelta a Espana starts as 2023 ended, with an American in the Red Jersey! Brandon McNulty stuns with stage 1 time-trial win