Brandon McNulty won\u2019t spend his entire season in the rainbow jersey fetching bottles for Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s according to UAE Emirates-XRG boss Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin, who said the American world champion will see opportunities to win in 2027. And he even hinted at the possibility of grand tour leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, have no doubt that he will have freedom and his own opportunities,\u201d Matxin told Eurosport<\/em>.<\/p>\n The bigger question is where those chances might fall on the stacked super team roster built around Poga\u010dar and rising star Isaac del Toro.<\/p>\n Matxin said UAE is committed to giving the 28-year-old Arizonan plenty of shots to honor the stripes next season. In fact, UAE already backed McNulty across the Italian fall classics, where he delivered his first win in the rainbow jersey at the Veneto Classic.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are now talking about Brandon McNulty as world champion, but in recent years he has been leader or co-leader in many of the races on his calendar,\u201d Matxin said.<\/p>\n McNulty admits he will be taking pulls for Poga\u010dar in the big races like the Tour de France, and he has no illusions that his new stripes will change the pecking order that much.<\/p>\n But even Pogi joked that he might be returning the favor for McNulty in a few select races.<\/p>\n For McNulty, the most intriguing part of his rainbow jersey season could be dipping his toes into grand tour leadership.<\/p>\n With strong time trialing and climbing skillset, he\u2019s still seen as untapped potential across three weeks. Matxin said 2027 could give him a clearer pathway.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve also tried to see how far he can go in a grand tour,\u201d Matxin told Eurosport<\/em>. \u201cIn the end, for one reason or another, the stars haven\u2019t all aligned for him, because I don\u2019t believe he isn\u2019t a grand tour rider.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to the 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia as an example of how quickly the hierarchy can shift. McNulty finished a career-best ninth overall at the 2025 Giro while helping Del Toro finish second overall.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, at last year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia we had two leaders, Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso, and two alternatives, Brandon McNulty and Isaac del Toro,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the end, Del Toro emerged strongly and consistently, but McNulty could also have had the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading a grand tour wouldn\u2019t be that far of a stretch. He\u2019s already proven he can win shorter, week-long stage races, like the CRO Race, the Volta a Valenciana, the Tour of Luxembourg, and the Tour de Pologne.<\/p>\n With Pogacar all but certain to return to the Tour de France and likely the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a as well, a shot at the Giro alongside Del Toro could be in the cards.<\/p>\n All that will be fleshed out in the coming weeks in the winter team camps.<\/p>\n McNulty\u2019s worlds win in Montr\u00e9al stunned many, and Matxin and the other UAE brass were half-expecting Del Toro to come up aces with Poga\u010dar sitting out with injury.<\/p>\n Instead, it was Team USA\u2019s superb tactics coupled with McNulty\u2019s perfectly timed attack that won the day to deliver America\u2019s first road world title since 1993.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a more open world championships. Because a rider like Tadej, simply by being there, imposes a certain way of racing,\u201d Matxin said. \u201cBrandon seized his chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Matxin pointed to a key moment in the final lap when Tom Pidcock\u2019s pursuit drew the lead chasers within a few seconds of McNulty. Instead of shutting down the move, the bunch sat up, and McNulty had the legs to power home the historic win.<\/p>\n \u201cBrandon won, but if Pidcock had closed those six seconds and they caught him, maybe we\u2019d be talking about [Matteo] Jorgenson having won,\u201d Matxin said.<\/p>\n \u201cMcNulty has that ability to hold on. He\u2019s a time trialist, a rider with unquestionable quality and a mentality for winning. When we target certain objectives, he generally very rarely falls short.\u201d<\/p>\n McNulty now has the jersey and the promise of freedom. He said he\u2019s dreaming of winning a Tour de France stage in the world champion\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n The question will be if UAE lets him chase something even bigger.<\/p>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/brandon-mcnulty-uae-grand-tour-leadership-2027\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/GettyImages-2300820363.jpg”] Updated November 6, 2026 03:16PM Brandon McNulty won\u2019t spend his entire season in the rainbow jersey fetching bottles for Tadej Poga\u010dar. That\u2019s according to UAE Emirates-XRG boss Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin, who said the American world champion will see opportunities to win in 2027. And he even hinted at the possibility of grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2242490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242490","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=2242490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2242490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2242490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2242490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Could McNulty lead UAE at a grand tour?<\/h2>\n
![\"McNulty](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/GettyImages-2298779588.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
World title strengthens McNulty\u2019s case<\/h2>\n
![\"McNulty](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/GettyImages-2297287601.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"McNulty](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/GettyImages-2299215970.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")