{"id":910751,"date":"2026-09-30T07:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T07:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910751\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T07:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T07:46:16","slug":"who-was-the-first-one-there-to-hug-him-mauro-gianetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910751\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWho was the first one there to hug him? Mauro Gianetti!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nArmstrong had expected a hard race in Montreal, but even he was surprised by the kind of punishment the circuit eventually produced. \u201cMy take on the course is: a lot tougher than I expected,\u201d he said on The Move<\/a>. \u201cThis was a brutally tough course, there\u2019s no other way to describe it. But it\u2019s almost a different kind of toughness that actually makes it easier for the bigger, stronger riders.\u201d\"Brandon<\/p>\n

McNulty became the first American world champion since Armstrong himself<\/p>\n

McNulty, Michael Matthews and Mathieu van der Poel were still among the strongest riders left when the race reached its decisive phase, while a number of more traditional climbers had already begun to fade.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike McNulty, an all-rounder; Michael Matthews, a sprinter-type; Van der Poel, a classics rider. Those climbs are so short, it\u2019s pure brute strength in your legs, and that wore down the true climbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNulty made his move with just over 30 kilometres still to race, attacking into a lull rather than waiting for another acceleration on the Mont-Royal climb. \u201cWhat we saw was that he\u2019s also an opportunist,\u201d Armstrong continued. \u201cHe said, \u2018You know what, I\u2019m just going to attack and see what happens.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The gap quickly stretched beyond a minute. It came crashing back down on the final lap as McNulty began to suffer, but the chase stalled again and the American recovered enough to reach the finish 13 seconds clear of Matthews and Van der Poel. \u201cHe\u2019s an incredible rider,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho was the first one there to hug him?\u201d<\/p>\n

The television pictures soon showed Gianetti celebrating with the rider he had backed so confidently the night before. \u201cWho was the first one there to hug him? Mauro Gianetti!\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cAh, come on. He says \u2018I told you so, I told you so\u2019. Give me a break, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

What irritated Armstrong was the contrast with how often McNulty has actually appeared at the Tour de France during his years with UAE.<\/p>\n

Since joining the team in 2020, the American has ridden the Tour three times: 2021, 2022 and 2026. His second appearance included a huge ride on the road to Peyragudes, where he drove the final climb with Tadej Pogacar on his wheel before still having enough left to finish third himself.<\/p>\n

McNulty then missed the next three editions while his own results continued to build. He won a Giro d\u2019Italia stage in 2023 and a Vuelta a Espana time trial in 2024, before taking overall victories at the Tour de Pologne, Tour de Luxembourg and CRO Race in 2025. His victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal that September came on the same roads where he would return twelve months later and take the rainbow jersey.<\/p>\n

UAE brought him back into Pogacar\u2019s Tour squad in 2026, although illness eventually forced him out on stage 18.<\/p>\n

Next season McNulty will return to that same packed UAE hierarchy wearing the rainbow jersey, alongside Pogacar, Isaac del Toro and a collection of riders with major ambitions of their own. Whether world champion status brings him more chances to race for himself, including at the Tour, or leaves Armstrong asking the same question again twelve months from now will depend on how UAE choose to use one of their biggest winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Armstrong had expected a hard race in Montreal, but even he was surprised by the kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,182780,784,90670,166008,85,19805,25247],"class_list":["post-910751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brandon-mcnulty","tag-cycling","tag-lance-armstrong","tag-mauro-gianetti","tag-sports","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-world-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}