Talking the issue of self-confidence and UAE’s crowded leadership with Brandon McNulty

In-form American insists he is happy at UAE Team Emirates, as he prepares for one-week success and the Vuelta a España as his only Grand Tour

10:30, Sunday 3rd March 2024

George Poole

Junior Writer

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Brandon McNulty won a stage and the overall title at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

Sitting down for a brief chat with GCN on the eve of the UAE Tour, Brandon McNulty was nothing if not honest. In a wide-ranging conversation, the 25-year-old discussed his happiness at UAE Team Emirates and offered a reflective insight on his battles with self-confidence, but first was a look ahead to the UAE Tour.

Being hurried to a massage as the team prepared meticulously for a race filled with heavy expectations from their sponsors, the American national time trial champion couldn’t help but laugh when asked how much time trial training he had done over the winter.

“Not a whole lot,” he admitted. “But sometimes I've had in the past before where I don't do much and then I come in and rock the TT. Sometimes I've had times where I'm riding the TT bike like four times a week and I'm just shit the next TT, so I don't know, we'll see.”

Three days later and GCN would once again pose questions to the UAE Team Emirates rider, only this time, McNulty was sitting in the winner’s chair at the post-stage 2 press conference, having taken victory in the 12.1km individual test around Al Hudayriyat Island.

Ending the stage with the top three riders on general classification, it would have seemed inconceivable for UAE Team Emirates to come away from their home tour without a rider on the podium, let alone inside the top 10. But that is what played out on the roads of Jebel Hafeet last Sunday evening.

Disappointing, perhaps, but McNulty could take solace in leaving the Middle East with a valuable stage win in his pocket.

“If I can win a stage or be on the podium or something, then that’s success for me,” he had told GCN ahead of the UAE Tour. With his massage on the horizon though, the race featured just fleetingly in the conversation. Instead, McNulty was more than happy to open up when pressed on the matter of his self-confidence and his happiness within a very talented Emirati WorldTeam.

‘It’s still surreal to be here sometimes’

Aside from the Olympics and the World Championships, in which the TT specialist should have a good chance at taking a medal, McNulty’s desires for 2024 are clearly aimed at a podium finish in a week-long WorldTour race. Note that the ambition is a podium, rather than making a beeline for victory. He says as much himself.

“A couple of weeks ago, I would have just said a GC race would have been a success [for 2024], but I’ve done that now at, not a small race, but a smaller than WorldTour [race]. So I guess the next step would be at least a podium in a WorldTour one-week.”

It drew a shy smile from McNulty when GCN posited that he should really be aiming for an overall victory in a WorldTour one-week, rather than simply eyeing up a podium berth

There are moments in the conversation when McNulty appears somewhat hesitant to draw a line in the sand. Riding for the no.1 ranked UCI WorldTeam for the last four seasons and having notched up nine (ten by the end of the UAE Tour) victories along the way, there is plenty of outside confidence in the American’s abilities, but that confidence is perhaps not always shared by McNulty himself.

“A one-week WorldTour race would be kind of the next step. If I can reach the podium or – I’d say a win but that’s kind of a lot to say,” he continued, before tailing off.

His humility is endearing, but ultimately could it be holding him back?

“Sometimes maybe that’s a weakness, my wife says the same, to have more confidence,” McNulty admitted. “But it’s kind of imposter syndrome almost, I still sometimes feel like I’m young and new to this, but it’s been five or six years now. It’s still kind of surreal to be here sometimes.”

McNulty made the step up to the WorldTour with UAE Team Emirates in 2020 after three seasons riding for Rally Cycling in the United States. Professional cycling is certainly a European sport and for those who enter this fray from further afield, the opportunities to fail are fewer. Does McNulty’s lack of belief at times stem from breaking into a sport so far from home, or is it indicative of his modest character?

“Maybe a bit of both. We’re always never at home, we’re always away somewhere foreign, so it feels different. But it was always a dream to be at this level, so sometimes I still forget that I’m actually [here] and capable of it, but we’re getting there,” he answered.

The 25-year-old is not introducing any mental exercises to his training routine to bolster his confidence, but racking up results can do no harm – “as I get better and better results, you earn your place in the front and it builds slowly for me” – to which stage 2 was a big moment for the man in the stars and stripes.

“[My morale is] super high! It was already super high after Valenciana but this is another level so I’m super happy,” he told a small group of reporters in his winner’s press conference.

Next up for McNulty will be Paris-Nice, where he will likely share team leadership with João Almeida and Jay Vine. The end of the UAE Tour may have seen the 25-year-old struggle with illness, but his team have assured GCN in the last 48 hours that McNulty is fit and well to start the race to the sun on Sunday.

McNulty happy at UAE Team Emirates, despite crowded leadership pool

With three victories already to his name in 2024, McNulty’s spring will be focused on one-week stage races, before a shot at Olympic ambitions in Paris and a tilt at the Vuelta a España in the Autumn. There, he will likely be joined by Vine, Almeida and Pavel Sivakov, with Adam Yates also hinting to GCN in December that the Vuelta could be in his sights.

The decision to ride only the Vuelta this season was not one made by the American.

“It was more the team’s [decision]. We were talking at first maybe the Giro-Vuelta, and then I don’t know, but it opened up more opportunities to focus on other races to not do the Giro. Then I’ll finish my first block in Romandie, I’ll do the Dauphiné but then I can have time to focus on the Olympics.”

With such strength in depth, one wonders where McNulty will get his own opportunities in the Vuelta. Is the number of would-be leaders at UAE Team Emirates frustrating or motivating for the American?

“I don’t think it is frustrating, but it’s a hint of both sometimes I would say,” he answered. “Sometimes, you show up at a race and there’s three guys that are all kind of in the leadership role, but usually, the top guy will still come up. Then it motivates you to find opportunities and create them too, so it’s kind of a good and – not bad – but a good and something.”

'Even the best guys, they’re still just normal guys, so you learn that along the way. But you see how they operate... so I think it’s nice to have guys that are this good to learn from still'

As the season progresses, there will come a judgement day for a few leading riders in various WorldTour squads – Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) are all in the last 12 months of their contracts, for example – but UAE Team Emirates have their top talent secured to long-term deals.

Yates has a deal until 2025, Almeida until 2026 and McNulty himself until 2027. There is a temptation to assume these riders will become discontent should opportunities continue to come at a rarity, given the presence of Tadej Pogačar and the number of elite talents under him in the pecking order. However, this is not necessarily the case.

Assuring GCN that his long-term future is with UAE Team Emirates, McNulty could not have been much clearer that despite his options sometimes being limited by shared leadership, he is a happy man in the white, black and red of the Emirati outfit.

“I’ve been really happy here, the team takes good care of me, they give me opportunities and they give me the freedom I like, so I’ve been really happy here.”

That being said, the American found a great deal of amusement in the suggestion that there may be some kind of public desire to see him in a more prominent role within the team, much akin to the wave of support shown to Sepp Kuss at Jumbo-Visma throughout the 2023 campaign.

“If I can get it trending #FreeBrandon, that would be funny!” he smiled, firmly tongue in cheek.

McNulty may not be a free man at this year’s Vuelta a España, more like a co-leader with an opportunity to earn the support of his colleagues. But to what heights can the American scale? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.