American rider Brandon McNulty took the biggest one-day race victory of his career on Sunday, winning the GP Cycliste de Montréal just ahead of his UAE Team-Emirates captain Tadej Pogacar, who was happy for his teammate to cross the line in first place.
It was an 85th win of the year for UAE, a total that ties the all-time seasonal record, set by Mark Cavendish’s HTC Colombia team in 2009. UAE’s 84th win of the 2025 season had come earlier in the day, when Isaac Del Toro sprinted to victory in the Trofeo Matteotti in Pescara, Italy.
American riders finished third and fourth too in Montreal, with Lidl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons rounding out the podium a minute and three seconds behind the front pair, while EF Education-EasyPost’s Neilson Powless finished a second down on Simmons in fourth.
(Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images)
The route consisted of 17 laps of a 12 kilometre circuit, one which will be utilised when the world road championships are held in Canada next year, and the WorldTour race is one that Pogacar has won twice before, in 2022 and 2024. So it was no surprise to see the Slovenian set his team to work in the final 100km and then launch a trademark attack with around 35km of the race remaining.
Pogacar initially got separation from the rest of the race but McNulty marked Simmons and Louis Barre of Intermarche-Wanty as they bridged to the Slovenian. Simmons tried to close another gap to Pogacar after he attacked again with 24km to go, with McNulty once again covering the move, before eventually reaching his teammate alone as Simmons tired.
That enabled the two UAE riders to work together to distance Simmons and everyone else, and hand them the luxury of deciding on who the race victor would be. McNulty, who won the general classification at the Tour of Poland in early August, crossed the line first to add a first WorldTour one day race win to an impressively expanding palmares.
The ultimate teammate 🫡
Pure humility as the World Champion Tadej Pogačar rode tirelessly to repay Brandon McNulty’s work over the years and help him win at Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal 🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/2Or0DhbjHp
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) September 14, 2025
Earlier on Sunday the final stage of the Vuelta a Espana was cancelled after further pro-Palestine protests in Madrid. Pogacar’s great rival Jonas Vingegaard was declared the winner of cycling’s final Grand Tour of the year.
The final Monument classic of 2025 is Il Lombardia, which takes place in Italy on October 11.
(Header photo: Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images)