Brandon McNulty traveled to the Tour de Romandie with strong classification ambitions, but was able to put an end to that after a few days. On Friday, the American from UAE Team Emirates took revenge by winning the time trial, partly thanks to his poor starting position, which allowed him to escape the rain.
After his time trial, McNulty told his story Cycling Pro Net. At that moment he did not yet know that his finishing time would be enough for victory. “It was almost all uphill, until three kilometers before the finish,” he describes the atypical course. ‘From there you had a super fast descent, so you had to keep pace until the top. But I had surprisingly good legs today.’
McNulty said he had not counted on those good legs at all, as he always had to drop out early in the first stages. ‘I came here for a ranking, but the last two days I was clearly not at my usual level. It’s a bit of fatigue I think. It’s been a long spring already, this is my last race for a while. I had a really bad feeling, but today was a little better. It was nice to feel that I could really race again,” the eventual winner took courage from his effort.
McNulty had high hopes for victory: ‘If it gets really wet, it will be difficult’
McNulty was lucky to beat the rain, unlike many other time trial riders and classification riders. He therefore secretly hoped that his time would be enough for the day’s victory. ‘If it gets really wet, it will be difficult, because of those super fast corners. But there are still some good riders coming. Hopefully my time will hold, but I don’t know yet.’ In the end, the finishing time was more than enough for victory. Juan Ayuso completed the celebration for UAE by taking over the leader’s jersey from Thibau Nys.
