'I feel a bit freer' - World Champion and Veneto Classic winner Brandon McNulty makes Tour de France stage victory top objective for 2027

Road World Champion Brandon McNulty has said he would like to target a stage win at next year's Tour de France as his initial top objective for 2027.

After soloing to the USA's first elite men's road race gold in over three decades at the World Championships, McNulty has subsequently rounded out his 2026 season with an impressive one-day campaign in Italy, culminating in a win in the Veneto Classic on Sunday.

In a long interview with L'Équipe, McNulty explained that having the rainbow jersey is a liberating experience when racing, both enabling him to take greater risks attacking and to feel stronger morale all round.

It has also made him more ambitious, he said, with the big goal for 2027 to take a Tour de France stage win, even if overall victory in a Grand Tour would, he felt, likely always remain beyond him.

"Even just getting on the [final GC] podium would be a lot," the UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer said, "it's such a commitment and so for now, I'm happy to help our leaders Isaac [Del Toro] and Tadej [Pogačar].

"For me, the main objective would be to win a Tour stage, as that's what is missing from my palmares. That's really what I would like."

Prior to McNulty's win in the Vuelta a España's opening time trial in Lisbon back in 2024, the American also soloed to victory in a very hilly stage of the Giro d'Italia in 2023. He has raced the Tour three times, both in 2021 and 2022 and then again in 2026, when was a DNF on stage 18 after falling ill.

McNulty bounced back, though, to race this autumn, starting at the GP de Québec before taking the biggest triumph of his career a few weeks later in Canada as well. Then he continued racing on after Il Lombardia to his first victory since winning the rainbow jersey on Sunday. But as he told L'Équipe, ending his season so late had always been the plan and was not because he was now wearing the Champion's jersey.

"It [Veneto] has been on my calendar since January," he said. "I've always loved racing, but with the jersey it's even nicer.

"I have the feeling that the calendar goes by quicker and in a better way. I'm not counting down the kilometres. Every time I lower my eyes and I see the rainbow stripes. It's a new feeling."

Asked if the jersey gave him greater confidence, he agreed, saying "I've already felt that these last two weeks in Italy. I feel a bit freer.

"When I attack, it's not like I don't care what happens, but if I crack, it's not necessarily so serious, so that means I can race more aggressively, I think. I hope to keep that sensation going next year, we'll see if it works out."

From Richmond to Montreal, via Doha

Harking back to his first Worlds participation in Richmond in 2015, McNulty said that he remembered being on the line when Peter Sagan won, and how "electric" the atmosphere had been, whilst his becoming Junior World TT Champion in Doha in 2016 a year later meant he had a bit of experience of how it felt to be wearing a rainbow jersey. But he then instantly qualified that by adding that "as an elite pro, it's on a totally different planet."

"I never thought I'd get to wear this jersey, but here we are. Anything can happen, it's crazy."

He emphasised to L'Équipe that he remained the same rider with the same strengths and weaknesses, and how there was no question of him suddenly winning all five Monuments. Rather he preferred to focus on what had worked for him in the previous five or six seasons and try to continue to progress.

"I’m a bit torn between stage races and one-day races, but I do love the Classics—I find them more entertaining. Amstel and Liège have always been among my favourites, and I’d love to be able to play a role in the finale of those races, to explore them further. Of course, if Tadej is there, it’s a different story."

McNulty pushed back at the idea, too, that having a World Champion like himself, working for Pogačar in some races, was in any way a strange concept. He pointed out that whilst UAE had been "spoiled" by having a rider in the rainbow jersey who won all the races, that wasn't always the case with previous World Champions.

As he put it, "being in the head of the peloton, with Tadej on my wheel, that's also very cool and special. I'm happy to do that. It's always an honour."

As for the here and now, McNulty told the organisation's TV interviewer at Veneto that whilst racing was now over, some travel and team obligations remained before heading for home for rest.

"Next month we have some team camps and a lot of other stuff and then I'll just enjoy some time off, " he said. "Then it's back to the racing next year."

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