Brandon McNulty is getting used to the feel of those rainbows around his chest. He’s already had four outings in the world champion’s jersey in the 12 days since his stunning victory in Montreal, and it’s fair to say he’s given it a good airing.
Riding Giro dell’Emilia, Coppa Agostoni, Tre Valli Varesine, and Gran Piemonte in the last few days, he has been a spritely presence, animating each race with a series of attacks.
“It’s been super special,” McNulty told the gathered media at the teams presentation in Bergamo the evening before Il Lombardia.
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“Obviously I’m still the same rider. It’s not like I’m all of a sudden better, but it’s just nice to race with a bit of confidence, just to attack and whatnot, it’s been really nice.”
McNulty highlighted out a caveat when it comes to his racing style in recent days. These late-season Italian Classics are, he argued, “always a bit more open and free”. And then there’s the small matter of Tadej Pogačar’s injury-enforced absence, which has not only opened most of these races up to the peloton as a whole but also in terms of the pecking order at UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
But it seems that the rainbow jersey, which can weigh heavily on some shoulders, is sitting rather lightly on his.
“I don’t really feel burdened by the jersey or anything. I just feel like I’m trying to honour it and just race aggressively.
“I think it does come with a bit of respect, or space [in the peloton],” he added, “but as I said these races are always a bit more relaxed already, so it might also just be that it’s the end of the year. I guess we’ll see tomorrow in a Monument how it will be.”
For all his racing freedom in recent days, McNulty did give the first indication that this rainbow jersey will be deployed on domestique duty.
“When we have a leader like Isaac [Del Toro] here it changes a bit the tactics,” McNulty said.
That idea of a world-champion helper hasn’t sat comfortably with some pundits, and while it will be a pretty obvious scenario when Pogačar is back next year, he confirmed the hierarchy has been set in a similar way for Il Lombardia.
“For sure he’ll be, like always, our first rider, but we always try to race aggressively with myself, so we’ll see, but the first thing is Isaac, for sure."
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