The rider

Brandon McNulty arrives as UAE's quiet stabilizer, a rider whose calm expression hides one of the most valuable engines in the peloton. The Phoenix native returns to the Tour after a long gap, but his role is immediately obvious: help UAE dominate the Barcelona team time trial, then become a metronome in the mountains when the race needs controlling rather than exploding. Sixth at the Tour de Suisse showed the form was present. More importantly, it showed he can hold that form while working inside Pogačar's system.

McNulty's profile is unusual because his time-trial strength translates so well into climbing service. He can sit on the front for long, uncomfortable blocks, flattening the rhythm of a mountain stage until rivals run out of places to surprise UAE. When the course tilts toward a rolling or technical race against the clock, he becomes even more valuable. He is not just a helper who survives the TTT; he is one of the reasons UAE can begin the Tour expecting to take time rather than merely defend it.

There is still a leader's quality in him, visible in wins like the Tour de Pologne and Montréal in 2025. That matters because the best domestiques in a Tour-winning team are not passengers. They are riders who could chase results elsewhere and choose instead to spend elite ability on a common target. McNulty gives Pogačar discipline, horsepower and tactical calm. In a race often decided by short bursts, his long pulls are the quiet architecture that make those bursts possible.