Brandon McNulty Wins Men's Road Race World Title, First American Champion in 33 Years

Brandon McNulty crossed the finish line alone in Montreal on Sunday, September 27, 2026, and immediately put his hands on his head like a man who didn't believe what had just happened.

He had reason to be stunned. The 28-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona became the first American man to win the elite road race at the UCI Road World Championships since Lance Armstrong in 1993, according to the BBC. He's only the third American man ever to hold the title, joining Armstrong and two-time winner Greg LeMond (1983, 1989).

How It Happened

The race covered 273.4 kilometers (170 miles) through Montreal's city-center circuit, finishing in 6 hours, 17 minutes, and 4 seconds, according to Olympics.com. McNulty made his winning move with roughly 30 kilometers remaining, slipping away from the lead group as favorites including Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock, and Wout van Aert jockeyed with each other instead of chasing him down.

His advantage swelled past a minute at points, according to both NBC Sports and Olympics.com, before shrinking dramatically on the final climb up Mount Royal. NBC Sports reported the gap fell to about 10 seconds before McNulty pushed it back out to 34 seconds with four miles left. The BBC and Yahoo Sports described a similar swing, from a 50-second cushion down to just 10 seconds on the last climb.

He crossed the line 13 seconds clear of Australia's Michael Matthews, who took second in a group sprint, with 2023 champion Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands finishing third in the same time as Matthews.

"Until the last few hundred metres, I really didn't even believe it," McNulty said, according to Olympics.com. He told Cycling News he was "on the verge of cramping" and "on the verge of bonking" in the closing kilometers, standing up on his pedals only to find his legs "like noodles."

A Team Plan That Worked

McNulty didn't do it alone. Teammate Quinn Simmons rode into an early breakaway alongside Van der Poel, and Matteo Jorgenson later marked the chase behind McNulty's winning attack, according to Outside Online.

"We made a plan last night, we set our egos aside a little bit and we decided, okay, we just want an American to win this race," Jorgenson told Outside Online. Simmons finished fourth and Jorgenson eighth, putting three Americans in the top ten.

The chase group's own hesitation helped seal it. Instead of cooperating to close the gap, riders including Pidcock and Italy's Giulio Ciccone began positioning for the sprint rather than working together, according to Olympics.com. Belgium's Remco Evenepoel, who was chasing a rare road race and time trial world title sweep in the same year, finished 12th. He'd already won the road race title in 2022 and time trial titles in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The Pogačar Connection

McNulty rides as a domestique for Tadej Pogačar at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and the two-time reigning world champion was absent from this year's race after a season-ending crash at the Vuelta a España on August 29, per NBC Sports. Cycling News reported McNulty said afterward he hoped he'd made Pogačar "proud."

McNulty had flown somewhat under the radar this season. His best previous result was a third-place finish at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal two weeks before Worlds, according to Olympics.com. He also finished fourth in the individual time trial at these same championships the week prior, missing a medal by 12 seconds, per NBC Sports.

The win also settles an old score. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, McNulty was dropped by eventual gold medalist Richard Carapaz on the final climb after himself dropping the rest of the field, then got swallowed by the chase group before the finish, according to Olympics.com.

The Bigger Weekend

The men's title capped a strong stretch for U.S. cycling. Ashlin Barry won America's first under-23 men's road race world title on Friday, according to Outside Online. In Saturday's women's road race, Demi Vollering of the Netherlands won her first world title, adding to her 2026 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia victories, edging Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, who is married to U.S. Olympian Taylor Phinney. The top American finisher in the women's race was 2024 Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner, in 21st.

McNulty now carries the rainbow jersey into races worldwide for the next year. The next test comes at the 2027 UCI Road World Championships, where he'll defend the title as a marked man rather than the quiet domestique nobody watched off the front.