Brandon McNulty might pack the shape and Montréal pedigree to finish Workforce USA’s 33-year world championship males’s rainbow jersey drought.
McNulty, fourth in Sunday’s time trial, is the Montréal world’s final outsider. (Picture: Getty Pictures)
Up to date September 21, 2026 11:50AM
Quinn Simmons may pack the hype, however Brandon McNulty might be the person who quietly ends the longest drought in American biking.
The USA will deliver one in every of its strongest elite males’s groups in a long time into Sunday’s highway race on the UCI Street World Championships.
Simmons is the plain chief after his breakthrough season and aggressive exhibiting within the Canadian classics, however McNulty presents one thing no different American can match.
He has already received on these roads.
McNulty received the 2025 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal after Tadej Pogačar attacked from the elite choice after which waited for his UAE Emirates XRG teammate. Pogačar successfully handed him the victory, however McNulty nonetheless needed to be sturdy sufficient to comply with the world champion when the race exploded.
One yr later, McNulty proved it was no fluke.
The 28-year-old returned to Montréal this month and completed third behind UAE teammate Isaac del Toro and French teenager Paul Seixas.
McNulty then kicked off the Montréal worlds with fourth in Sunday’s elite males’s time trial, lacking the bronze medal by solely 12 seconds.
“I feel it confirmed the work was paying off and hopefully I can hold getting higher,” McNulty mentioned after averaging 50.79 kph over the 39.2km course.
The end result confirmed that McNulty has arrived at worlds in high situation, and strengthened the case that Workforce USA can play a number of playing cards on Sunday.
McNulty as the last word worlds outsider
Sunday’s 273km highway race is an old-school suffer-fest that begins in Brossard earlier than reaching Montréal for 12 punishing laps round Mount Royal.
The repeated climbs and greater than 3,700m ought to produce a race of attrition, precisely the type of race when McNulty’s climbing capacity, time trial energy, and resistance after six hours might turn into decisive.
“We have now our work lower out, however I feel we have now a superb staff to race aggressively,” McNulty instructed Biking Weekly on Sunday.
“There are a ton of sturdy guys that I don’t suppose we’ve ever actually crushed earlier than, so it’s going to be laborious,” he mentioned. “However I feel we have now numbers to no less than play our playing cards nicely.”
McNulty provides the US an additional card to play behind Simmons, who’s being billed because the staff’s chief amongst equals.
Simmons races as loud as his wild seems. He isn’t afraid to assault and buries himself within the pedals in “Ricky Bobby” fashion. A junior highway world champion in 2019, Simmons was ninth in 2024 in Zurich, so he can go the worlds distance.
McNulty is the other. A junior world time trial champion in 2016, he can comply with the fitting wheels after which strike late. Although he pulled out sick from the Tour de France, McNulty confirmed up in Paris to get together sporting blonde-tinted hair.
That distinction in kinds and perspective might make the pair much more harmful and provides Workforce USA a critical shot on the podium.
It’s been an extended wait for an additional rainbow jersey. Greg LeMond received twice — 1983 and 1989 — Lance Armstrong in 1993.
‘Dream Workforce’ squad chasing the rainbow
Workforce USA brings its strongest elite males’s highway squad to Montréal in years.
Simmons and McNulty are already flying, and can see high help.
Matteo Jorgenson, Kevin Vermaerke, Sean Quinn, Artem Shmidt, Riley Sheehan, and Larry Warbasse spherical out the eight-rider choice, which means the People have the depth and expertise to go deep.
“I feel it provides the U.S. most likely our greatest shot at a win since Lance received in ’93. I imply, we have now eight guys which might be all actually sturdy, and all have a job to contribute,” Vermaerke instructed Cyclingnews on the current Vuelta a España.
Workforce USA may have choices in what’s solely the fourth time North America has hosted the highway worlds.
Vermaerke spent a lot of the second half of the 2026 Vuelta in breakaways after Pogačar crashed out, so he’ll be one to look at for early strikes.
Jorgenson also can shine within the monument-like distance, and Sheehan might be a wild card in a diminished bunch kick.
Neilson Powless, who just lately pulled out of Montréal, was fifth in 2021 Leuven for one of the best males’s American end in twenty years within the elite males’s highway race.
The USA hasn’t received the boys’s highway title since Armstrong took the rainbow jersey in Oslo in 1993.
If the 33-year drought ends Sunday, it may not come from the American everyone seems to be watching.
It’d come from the quiet outsider who already is aware of the best way to win in Montréal.
