Brandon McNulty's bid for his first win of 2025 may have been agonisingly close to becoming reality on Saturday in the Tour de Pologne, but despite that last-minute defeat, as the rider from Arizona put it afterwards, in terms of battling for the overall the stage went "better than I expected".
True, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer was powerless to stop Victor Langellotti Ineos-Grenadiers) from overhauling him in the final metres of the ascent to Bukovina Tatrzanska and as the Monaco rider celebrated both stage and moving into the overall lead, McNulty had to settle for second on the line.
But at the same time, as McNulty said afterwards, thanks to his drive for victory in the closing 600 metres, he'd managed to gain valuable seconds on the rest of the field.
While Langellotti remains an unknown value for the last individual time trial, McNulty will now go into the final 12.5-kilometre TT in pole position of all the top pre-race favourites.
As such, in an event that is close on a century old but which has never had a US top-three finisher on GC let alone an outright winner, the UAE racer is excellently placed to go for the overall victory - and make some cycling history in the process.
Asked how he rated his performance, McNulty pointed out there were definite pros and cons to what he'd done.
"It's hard to say, I mean ok, you always want to win the stage, but I knew the reality was Ijust to stay as close to the leaders as possible today and then go for it tomorrow," he told reporters. "So actually, today was better than I expected."
After injured race leader Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) fought bravely to keep his yellow jersey for a fifth day, when the Frenchman first faded from the main GC group with 45 kilometres to go, it was clear that the overall battle was about to be unleashed.
McNulty and the other UAE challengers Jan Christen and Rafal Majka were all in the thick of the action, with the American picking up three valuable seconds in an intermediate sprint ahead of Bahrain Victorious rival Antonio Tiberi and Christen.
Combined with his eight-second margin on all his pre-race rivals after his last kilometre attack, McNulty is now seven seconds behind Langellotti but 13 seconds up on the closest pre-race favourite Tiberi.
"The plan was for me Jan and Majka to all go for those seconds, just because we're all up there on GC," McNulty said.
"As long as other teams aren't getting those seconds it's good for us, so that was the position I found myself in, but it's good to get them going into tomorrow."
Christen had already staked a claim on GC with a big attack on late on stage 2's ascent to Karpacz and another strong acceleration in the closing kilometres on stage 5 at Zakopane alongside Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana). So as McNulty explained, between the three of them "It was kind of about who had the legs today and I knew I was feeling good.
"We just made hard as possible with our other guys and then on the last climb we tried to go as hard as we could.
"Majka set a good pace on the final uphill and Jan and I keyed off each other, and I had a good moment and almost had the stage."
McNulty said he felt it had been touch and go all the way to the line, but his big goal in any case had been to distance his overall rivals. Langellotti had beaten him, but otherwise on the day it was very much 'mission accomplished'.
"I knew I went a bit early but also I was just trying to get a gap on the other GC guys. I looked back in the last 200 metres and saw him coming, so I almost felt him coming but I was trying to hold on," he said.
"I felt really good today, so obviously I hope we'll have the same legs tomorrow, and maybe we can try to win this race."
What chances in the time trial?
McNulty's skills against the clock virtually need no introduction, given he's a former Junior Men's World Time Trial Champion, former US Pro National TT Champion and winner of time trials in WorldTour races like the UAE Tour and the Tour de Romandie. However, it's McNulty's most recent, and biggest, victory in the speciality which gives most ground for optimism.
Last August the rider from Phoenix clinched the opening time trial in the Vuelta a España in Lisbon, held over a very similar distance to Pologne's final TT - 12 kilometres in the Vuelta compared to 12.5 kilometres on Sunday in Poland.
The out-and-back Polish course is marginally more rolling than last year in the Vuelta, with 200 metres of elevation gain compared to just 55 metres in Lisbon, but in either case, McNulty's most recent result will surely give him some major motivation.
Furthermore, as second-placed rider on GC, he'll have time gaps on all his rivals bar race leader Victor Langellotti so should be able to gauge his effort that much better.
'll check it on Veloviewer and whatnot but we'll see it in the morning for sure," McNulty said.
"I'll go into it like any other TT, just do my best, and hopefully it turns out well. But we'll see."
