Brandon McNulty didn’t have to think very long about it. He still had a year left to run on his contract with UAE Team Emirates, but when the team proposed a long-term extension this past summer, he saw no reason to demur. The American signed on the dotted line, tying himself to Tadej Pogačar’s squad until the end of 2027.
The presence of Pogačar, not to mention talents such as João Almeida, Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso, means that opportunities to lead the team in major races are limited but McNulty wasn’t tempted by the thought of greater liberty elsewhere.
Then again, maybe, as Kris Kristofferson would have it, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. When he weighed it all up, McNulty reckoned there was altogether more to gain by staying at one of the contemporary peloton’s two superpowers.
“It’s having the security and it’s also a really good team. They’re always improving, and I think they have a lot of belief in me too,” McNulty explains. “I’m comfortable here.”
McNulty has grown accustomed to the team’s rhythms since he joined from Rally ahead of the 2020 season. UAE Team Emirates, in turn, appear happy to let McNulty be McNulty when the occasion allows. Their flexibility extends to granting him an exemption from altitude camps after some youthful experiences of mile-high training left him drained rather than replenished.
“I did some altitude as a junior and I’ve always felt worse afterwards, which is strange. I wish it wasn’t the case,” McNulty says. “I feel like I’m an outlier, though, so maybe it’s partly in my head and I should try to do it more.”
The lack of an altitude camp certainly didn’t impede McNulty at his lone Grand Tour of 2023, the Giro d’Italia, where he won a gripping stage into Bergamo ahead of Ben Healy, nor was it a hindrance when he placed fourth in the time trial at the World Championships in Scotland. He labels the two performances as the highlights of his career to date.
Rather than cloister himself in a European ski resort with his team, McNulty spent most the period between the Giro and Worlds in the open expanses of Arizona, with a brief interlude in Tennessee to win the US time trial title. Whatever about the relative merits of training in thin air, the 25-year-old seems more certain of the benefits of spending time on home roads.
“I’ve always told the team that I feel I can train really well at home, just doing my own thing, and I…
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