McNulty realizes how unique Pogacar’s gesture and UAE’s bizarre dominance was: "Tadej asked if I wanted to try a solo"

McNulty is by no means a rookie when it comes to winning. We’ve seen before that on a good day, the American can compete with the very best in the world. He has already won stages in Paris-Nice, the Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta a España, Valencia, Romandie… and this season he also took the overall title at the Tour of Poland.

But his 19th career win was different. The fact that he could follow Pogacar was impressive, as the world champion put everyone else more than a minute behind. Pogacar’s decision to wait told the whole story, and was the perfect ending to an incredibly dominant day for UAE.

The powerhouse squad pushed all day with riders like Nils Politt, Tim Wellens, and Pavel Sivakov, and eventually it was Pogacar who dictated the finale. “With maybe four laps to go, he asked me if I wanted to go solo, and I said I can try. And then we made this group on the climb and ended up in a group of four,” McNulty recalled afterwards.

“Then Tadej went, and then I was able to come across and he waited for me. He was kind enough to give me the win. We decided in the final. I’m really thankful for that, it was a super fun day. It's always special to go 1-2 with a teammate, but when he is world champion, it’s super special to cross the line like that.”

“It is one of the most memorable days of my career so far,” the stage winner said. “It’s super cool to see your teammates and friends pulling like this. We were in one line most of the day, and I was just watching these guys pulling super hard. I was suffering and didn't even know if I was going to be able to continue at the speed we were going. But when you see them pull like that, it is a special motivation.”

McNulty’s win was also UAE Emirates-XRG’s 85th of the season, equaling HTC-Columbia’s all-time record from 2009. “It’s special. We were close last year, so it was a big goal of the team to have this record, and now we're tied. I guess we need one more to break the record. I didn't even realize I was the one to tie this, so that’s a really cool statistic,” he concluded with a laugh.