Lance Armstrong slams UAE team manager's behaviour following Brandon McNulty's Worlds win: 'Give me a break, honestly!'

Armstrong thoroughly enjoyed the World Championships in Canada. “A hell of a race. Folks, today you were treated to a real, real bike race,” he begins. “We’ve talked about Brandon so often on this show. And history will prove that we are—and always have been—huge fans of this young man. He has incredible drive.”

With 85 kilometers to go, Mathieu van der Poel made his move—Armstrong saw it, too. “Do you remember that first surge by Mathieu van der Poel? I thought, ‘Oh no, okay, this is going to be one of those days again. This is just going to be another one-man show by Mathieu: pure dominance.’”

"But that didn't happen. Still, if you look at the list of, let's say, the top five, six, or seven favourites, I think they were thrown off by the fact that Pogacar wasn't there—which is the ultimate compliment. It was enough to make you scratch your head."

Armstrong speculates on a "what-if" scenario. “Pogačar would probably have moved up to that group with Van der Poel and then pulled away. The group with Mathieu would then be reeled in, and that would be it. With Tadej there, they’re in a kind of bubble and know how to race. Without him, there’s no structure.”

"You know, sometimes I fall into that trap and think, 'Pogačar just beats everyone—what's so hard about this sport? Train hard every day, break away from the pack, and win,'" he continues. "You saw it today: okay, not everyone can do that. Paul Seixas, one of the best in the world; Isaac Del Toro, an amazing talent. All those guys were on their last legs by the end of the race because they were trying to race like Pogačar. So that turns out to be damn hard—we’ve certainly learned that.”

"My take on the course is: a lot tougher than I expected," he adds. "This was a brutally tough course—there's no other way to describe it. But it's almost a different kind of toughness that actually makes it easier for the bigger, stronger riders."

"Like McNulty, an all-rounder; Michael Matthews, a sprinter-type; Van der Poel, a classics rider. Those climbs are so short—it's pure brute strength in your legs—and that wore down the true climbers."

And that’s where McNulty took advantage. “What we saw was that he’s also an opportunist. He said, ‘You know what, I’m just going to attack and see what happens.’” Then he opened up a gap and used his tremendous engine to stay ahead. “He’s an incredible rider,” Armstrong repeats.

Armstrong does take issue with the fact that Brandon McNulty is not picked every year by UAE for the Tour de France. So when the TV cameras showed the UAE team boss excitedly hugging McNulty just after the race, it got under the Texan's skin.

"Who was the first one there to hug him? Mauro Gianetti!" Armstrong sighs, referring to the team manager of UAE Emirates-XRG. "Ah, come on. He says 'I told you so, I told you so'. Give me a break, honestly," says the irritated American.