Did Isaac del Toro help his UAE trade teammate Brandon McNulty win the road world title?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the debate that\u2019s doing the rounds after McNulty brought the U.S. its first rainbow jersey in 33 years at the UCI road world championships last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cDel Toro was obviously working for McNulty,\u201d gnashed Tom Pidcock in the aftermath of a wild race in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
Michael Matthews insinuated similar as Team USA\u2019s losing rivals picked apart what went wrong last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Tin Foil Hat Brigade has been picking over race replays and sparking conspiracy theories ever since.<\/p>\n
Was there a nefarious trade team alliance in this race of nations?<\/p>\n
Speaking to QuiBici Sport<\/em>, McNulty and Del Toro\u2019s manager at UAE Emirates-XRG dismissed the doubters.<\/p>\n If the Mexican Del Toro somehow colluded with Team USA after McNulty slipped away with his decisive attack, Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin wants to see proof.<\/p>\n \u201cTo anyone who insinuates this, I urge you to speak with data and not with opinions,\u201d Matxin told Qui<\/em>Bici Sport<\/em>. \u201cHow long was Del Toro on the front? And the others who are talking, how long were they on the front trying to close it down?<\/p>\n \u201cIf you bring me evidence with numbers showing that he pulled less than the others, then I can agree with you,\u201d Matxin said. \u201cBut if they are just words, with all due respect, it remains an opinion we can all form.\u201d<\/p>\n Matxin\u2019s words of defense are hardly a surprise.<\/p>\n He\u2019s in the upper tier of management at UAE, the super team boasting Del Toro, McNulty, and Tadej Poga\u010dar on the books and now a third straight year hosting the reigning world champion.<\/p>\n Of course he\u2019ll say McNulty won fair and square.<\/p>\n But even without any possible supporting data, the evidence was all over the TV screens.<\/p>\n Del Toro was the most active rider in the race, despite representing one of cycling\u2019s minnow nations.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to win worlds,\u201d Matxin said. \u201cHe defends the colors of Mexico because he is proud to be Mexican. He wants to make history for his country.\u201d<\/p>\n Matxin went as far as to say that his Tour de France podium-finisher was the best rider in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion, Del Toro was the strongest, even if Brandon won. You could see that in how the other riders marked him,\u201d Matxin told QuiBici<\/em>. \u201cThe course may not have been the best for him, but in terms of condition, he was superior to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n With Poga\u010dar on the sidelines and Remco Evenepoel on an off-day, it was a rainbow opportunity Del Toro would never throw away.<\/p>\n Speaking to Velo<\/em> last week, Team USA sport director Mike Creed and cult favorite road captain Larry Warbasse also dismissed the collusion conspiracy.<\/p>\n The theory that Del Toro switched passports in the final of road worlds was, according to Warbasse, \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t pull all day and then just give the race to McNulty,\u201d Creed told Velo<\/em>. \u201cIf you just finished 270km and you\u2019re frustrated, and your name is Tom Pidcock, that\u2019s understandable.<\/p>\n \u201cFor everyone else, it\u2019s just stirring the pot,\u201d Creed continued. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who would give away the world championships.\u201d<\/p>\n So why didn\u2019t Del Toro pull the chasers when McNulty launched his winning raid?<\/p>\n One, he was probably gassed. He\u2019d just been riding the front for the best part of 40km.<\/p>\n Two, he was isolated and caught at the opposite end of the spectrum from USA, who flooded the zone with McNulty, Matteo Jorgenson, and Quinn Simmons.<\/p>\n Who would<\/em> ride in that situation?<\/p>\n Del Toro wasn\u2019t shy when he debriefed the race to ESPN MX<\/em> last week.<\/p>\n His rivals exploited Mexico\u2019s collective weakness, and he couldn\u2019t do more when his race started to unravel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe peloton raced a little against us or used the fact we didn\u2019t have the best team,\u201d Del Toro told ESPN MX<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want the gold medal to get away from me,\u201d he added. \u201cFinally, though, it was very difficult for me to keep going, and I ran fifth, unfortunately. It\u2019s a bittersweet taste.\u201d<\/p>\n If Team USA paid Del Toro for his role in McNulty\u2019s world title, the Mexican clearly invested in some good acting classes.<\/p>\n Speculation aside, McNulty now owns the rainbow jersey for the next 12 months.<\/p>\n Despite the background debate, the consensus is that the 28-year-old earned the stripes courtesy of individual strength and the smarts of U.S. nationals.<\/p>\n McNulty hasn\u2019t publicly spoken out about the Del Toro drama, and it\u2019s hard to imagine he ever will.<\/p>\n However, the shy Arizonan could barely hide his delight after he debuted his new striped top this weekend in Italy.<\/p>\n McNulty hit 10th at the Giro dell\u2019Emila on Saturday and narrowly missed the win Sunday at Coppa Agostoni.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure it is still settling in, with the jersey and everything,\u201d McNulty said Sunday after he finished second in the six-rider sprint.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is super special [being the world champion],\u201d McNulty said Sunday. \u201cI feel like the races pass faster; I don\u2019t really think about kilometers to go anymore. Hopefully that continues. Perhaps it will wear off, and I will go back to suffering, but the last two days have been so special.\u201d<\/p>\n McNulty gets two more shots at winning in rainbows before he shuts down his 2026 season.<\/p>\n The hilly circuits of Tre Valle Varesine await on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Three days later, McNulty teams up at UAE Emirates-XRG with \u2013 guess who<\/em> \u2013 Del Toro for a monument brawl with Evenepoel and Paul Seixas at Il Lombardia.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a race where the American and Mexican will<\/em> race together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/del-toro-mcnulty-uae-manager-slams-worlds-collusion-theory\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2295100110-1-scaled.jpg”] Updated October 5, 2026 08:48AM Did Isaac del Toro help his UAE trade teammate Brandon McNulty win the road world title? That\u2019s the debate that\u2019s doing the rounds after McNulty brought the U.S. its first rainbow jersey in 33 years at the UCI road world championships last weekend. \u201cDel Toro was obviously […]<\/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-2180051","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\/2180051","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=2180051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2180051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2180051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2180051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Del Toro was superior to everyone\u2019<\/h2>\n
USA team boss: \u2018You don\u2019t pull all day and then just give the race to McNulty\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Del](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2297430025-2-1200x799.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
McNulty narrowly misses victory in debut rainbow weekend<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2298379686-1200x799.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")