Brandon McNulty roared to America\u2019s first rainbow jersey in 33 years with a daring solo attack to win the UCI Road World Championship Sunday.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old hold off a late chase in Montr\u00e9al to join Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong in a select club of U.S. cycling history.<\/p>\n
LeMond won the elite men\u2019s road race in 1983 and 1989 and Armstrong took the title in 1993.<\/p>\n
Since then, no American man has worn the rainbow jersey as road race world champion. The most recent best was fifth, last by Neilson Powless in 2021.<\/p>\n
McNulty changed that with a thrilling, well-timed two-lap attack and a solo ride to the line in a wild and epic race at Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the last climb on Mount Royal, I was just dying. I just kept pushing,\u201d McNulty said. \u201cWe talked about it and I made some jokes to my wife. I knew something could happen and it would take a miracle, and today miracles can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNulty becomes the fifth American to win the elite world crown, one of cycling\u2019s most prestigious titles. U.S. women winners include Audrey McElmury in 1969 and Beth Heiden in 1980.<\/p>\n
Team work seals America\u2019s first rainbow jersey in three decades<\/h2>\n![\"Team](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297437002.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
McNulty celebrates with Team USA teammates in Montr\u00e9al. <\/span> (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe stunning victory capped superb teamwork from Team USA.<\/p>\n
Quinn Simmons rode into an early attack with Mathieu van der Poel. As the favorites came back together, McNulty launched his bid for the title. Matteo Jorgenson then marked attacks behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said for weeks now we have a super strong team and that it\u2019s possible. We rode crazy well,\u201d McNulty said. \u201cUntil the last 300 meters I really didn\u2019t even believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNulty jumped with just over 30km to go, but his lead shrink from 54 seconds with one lap to go to 15 seconds over the final climb on the Mount Royal circuit.<\/p>\n
Stalled cooperation among the chasing superstars behind him from the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro, and Van der Poel gave him the rope he needed to deliver the stunning win.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nHe still held 24 seconds with five kilometers to go and put his time trialing legs to work on the final run.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old crossed the line alone, ending a drought that stretched back to Armstrong\u2019s victory three decades ago. Michael Matthews was second, with Van der Poel third.<\/p>\n
A big win for the quiet rider<\/h2>\n![\"Brandon](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297434238.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
McNulty has won more than 20 races, but none as big as the world title. <\/span> (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nQuiet and famously brief in interviews, McNulty has spent much of his career letting his legs do the talking.<\/p>\n
The Arizona native came through the junior and U23 ranks with LUX Cycling and Rally Cycling, where a stage win and GC at the 2019 Giro di Sicilia helped earn him a move to superteam UAE Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n
Since 2020, he\u2019s became a trusted teammate of Tadej Poga\u010dar, often putting his own ambitions aside to work for the sport\u2019s biggest star.<\/p>\n
McNulty\u2019s won some big races in his career and there is nothing fluky about happened Sunday.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIn grand tours, he\u2019s won stages at the Giro d\u2019Italia and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, where he also wore the leader\u2019s jersey, and finished a career-best ninth in the 2025 Giro.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he went all-in for the Paris Olympics, where he missed a medal in the time trial on a wet and treacherous course by about 40 seconds.<\/p>\n
After some setbacks earlier in his European career, McNulty has been racing with more confidence the past few seasons.<\/p>\n
His victory at the GP de Montr\u00e9al last year showed what he could do on a similar finishing circuit. In three previous elite road worlds starts, his best result was 17th, alongside two DNFs, with a junior time trial crown in 2016.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, he won the big one.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUS elite road world champions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\nElite Men\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n Elite Women\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n\n1983:<\/strong> Greg LeMond
1989:<\/strong> Greg LeMond
1993:<\/strong> Lance Armstrong
2026:<\/strong> Brandon McNulty<\/span><\/td>\n1969:<\/strong> Audrey McElmury
1980:<\/strong> Beth Heiden<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nUpdated September 27, 2026 02:40PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/brandon-mcnulty-ends-33-year-us-drought-road-world-title\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297433871.jpg”] Updated September 27, 2026 02:40PM Brandon McNulty roared to America\u2019s first rainbow jersey in 33 years with a daring solo attack to win the UCI Road World Championship Sunday. The 28-year-old hold off a late chase in Montr\u00e9al to join Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong in a select club of U.S. cycling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2166678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The stunning victory capped superb teamwork from Team USA.<\/p>\n
Quinn Simmons rode into an early attack with Mathieu van der Poel. As the favorites came back together, McNulty launched his bid for the title. Matteo Jorgenson then marked attacks behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said for weeks now we have a super strong team and that it\u2019s possible. We rode crazy well,\u201d McNulty said. \u201cUntil the last 300 meters I really didn\u2019t even believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNulty jumped with just over 30km to go, but his lead shrink from 54 seconds with one lap to go to 15 seconds over the final climb on the Mount Royal circuit.<\/p>\n
Stalled cooperation among the chasing superstars behind him from the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro, and Van der Poel gave him the rope he needed to deliver the stunning win.<\/p>\n
He still held 24 seconds with five kilometers to go and put his time trialing legs to work on the final run.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old crossed the line alone, ending a drought that stretched back to Armstrong\u2019s victory three decades ago. Michael Matthews was second, with Van der Poel third.<\/p>\n
A big win for the quiet rider<\/h2>\nMcNulty has won more than 20 races, but none as big as the world title. <\/span> (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nQuiet and famously brief in interviews, McNulty has spent much of his career letting his legs do the talking.<\/p>\n
The Arizona native came through the junior and U23 ranks with LUX Cycling and Rally Cycling, where a stage win and GC at the 2019 Giro di Sicilia helped earn him a move to superteam UAE Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n
Since 2020, he\u2019s became a trusted teammate of Tadej Poga\u010dar, often putting his own ambitions aside to work for the sport\u2019s biggest star.<\/p>\n
McNulty\u2019s won some big races in his career and there is nothing fluky about happened Sunday.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIn grand tours, he\u2019s won stages at the Giro d\u2019Italia and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, where he also wore the leader\u2019s jersey, and finished a career-best ninth in the 2025 Giro.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he went all-in for the Paris Olympics, where he missed a medal in the time trial on a wet and treacherous course by about 40 seconds.<\/p>\n
After some setbacks earlier in his European career, McNulty has been racing with more confidence the past few seasons.<\/p>\n
His victory at the GP de Montr\u00e9al last year showed what he could do on a similar finishing circuit. In three previous elite road worlds starts, his best result was 17th, alongside two DNFs, with a junior time trial crown in 2016.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, he won the big one.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUS elite road world champions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\nElite Men\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n Elite Women\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n\n1983:<\/strong> Greg LeMond
1989:<\/strong> Greg LeMond
1993:<\/strong> Lance Armstrong
2026:<\/strong> Brandon McNulty<\/span><\/td>\n1969:<\/strong> Audrey McElmury
1980:<\/strong> Beth Heiden<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nUpdated September 27, 2026 02:40PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/brandon-mcnulty-ends-33-year-us-drought-road-world-title\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297433871.jpg”] Updated September 27, 2026 02:40PM Brandon McNulty roared to America\u2019s first rainbow jersey in 33 years with a daring solo attack to win the UCI Road World Championship Sunday. The 28-year-old hold off a late chase in Montr\u00e9al to join Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong in a select club of U.S. cycling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2166678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Quiet and famously brief in interviews, McNulty has spent much of his career letting his legs do the talking.<\/p>\n
The Arizona native came through the junior and U23 ranks with LUX Cycling and Rally Cycling, where a stage win and GC at the 2019 Giro di Sicilia helped earn him a move to superteam UAE Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n
Since 2020, he\u2019s became a trusted teammate of Tadej Poga\u010dar, often putting his own ambitions aside to work for the sport\u2019s biggest star.<\/p>\n
McNulty\u2019s won some big races in his career and there is nothing fluky about happened Sunday.<\/p>\n
In grand tours, he\u2019s won stages at the Giro d\u2019Italia and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, where he also wore the leader\u2019s jersey, and finished a career-best ninth in the 2025 Giro.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he went all-in for the Paris Olympics, where he missed a medal in the time trial on a wet and treacherous course by about 40 seconds.<\/p>\n
After some setbacks earlier in his European career, McNulty has been racing with more confidence the past few seasons.<\/p>\n
His victory at the GP de Montr\u00e9al last year showed what he could do on a similar finishing circuit. In three previous elite road worlds starts, his best result was 17th, alongside two DNFs, with a junior time trial crown in 2016.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, he won the big one.<\/p>\n
US elite road world champions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\nElite Men\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n Elite Women\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n\n1983:<\/strong> Greg LeMond
1989:<\/strong> Greg LeMond
1993:<\/strong> Lance Armstrong
2026:<\/strong> Brandon McNulty<\/span><\/td>\n1969:<\/strong> Audrey McElmury
1980:<\/strong> Beth Heiden<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nUpdated September 27, 2026 02:40PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/brandon-mcnulty-ends-33-year-us-drought-road-world-title\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297433871.jpg”] Updated September 27, 2026 02:40PM Brandon McNulty roared to America\u2019s first rainbow jersey in 33 years with a daring solo attack to win the UCI Road World Championship Sunday. The 28-year-old hold off a late chase in Montr\u00e9al to join Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong in a select club of U.S. cycling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2166678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
| Elite Men\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n | Elite Women\u2019s Road Race<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n| 1983:<\/strong> Greg LeMond | 1989:<\/strong> Greg LeMond 1993:<\/strong> Lance Armstrong 2026:<\/strong> Brandon McNulty<\/span><\/td>\n 1969:<\/strong> Audrey McElmury | 1980:<\/strong> Beth Heiden<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n Updated September 27, 2026 02:40PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/brandon-mcnulty-ends-33-year-us-drought-road-world-title\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2297433871.jpg”] Updated September 27, 2026 02:40PM Brandon McNulty roared to America\u2019s first rainbow jersey in 33 years with a daring solo attack to win the UCI Road World Championship Sunday. The 28-year-old hold off a late chase in Montr\u00e9al to join Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong in a select club of U.S. cycling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2166678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |