Brandon McNulty will race in the rainbow jersey for the first time on Saturday when he lines up at the Giro dell’Emilia, less than a week after becoming elite men’s road race world champion in Montréal.
The 28-year-old will return to UAE Team Emirates-XRG colours for the first time since his World Championships victory, with the team unveiling the trade-team version of his rainbow jersey ahead of the Italian one-day race. It will be McNulty’s first competitive appearance as world champion and his first start at the Giro dell’Emilia.
McNulty won the 2026 elite men’s road race world title in Montréal on Sunday after attacking with around 33km remaining and holding off a chasing group through the closing laps. Michael Matthews took silver and Mathieu van der Poel bronze as McNulty became the first American man to win the elite road race world title since 1993.
McNulty starts life as world champion at San Luca
The Giro dell’Emilia gives McNulty an immediate test in one of Italy’s most distinctive late-season races. The 1.Pro event takes place on Saturday 3 October and finishes in Bologna after repeated ascents of the San Luca climb, where the steep ramps normally reduce the race to a small group of the strongest climbers and puncheurs.
McNulty will have plenty of strength around him. UAE Team Emirates-XRG have named Igor Arrieta, Filippo Baroncini, Felix Großschartner, Jhonatan Narváez, Tim Wellens and Adam Yates alongside the new world champion. The team have won the previous two editions through Tadej Pogačar in 2024 and Isaac del Toro in 2025.
For McNulty, though, much of the attention will inevitably be on the jersey. “I’m really excited to make my debut in the rainbow jersey this Saturday,” he said ahead of the race. He added that the scale of the Montréal victory was still sinking in, but that he had no intention of changing the way he races now that he carries the world champion’s bands.
That is particularly relevant within UAE, where McNulty has spent much of his career balancing personal opportunities with work for the team’s other leaders. His World Championships victory came with the United States rather than his trade team, but the result immediately changes the visibility around every race he enters. The rainbow jersey will now make him one of the easiest riders to identify in the peloton, even on days when his role is primarily to support a teammate.
Italian races come quickly after Montréal
Saturday also begins a busy Italian block for McNulty. He is due to race the Coppa Agostoni on Sunday before returning on Tuesday for Tre Valli Varesine, giving the new world champion three starts in four days. UAE Team Emirates-XRG will also contest Monday’s Coppa Bernocchi, although McNulty is not part of the announced seven-rider squad for that race.
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Photo Credit: Getty
His Montréal victory came after a race in which the United States repeatedly placed riders into the decisive moves before McNulty made the attack that ultimately won the title. Our analysis of how McNulty won the World Championships looked at how that collective approach left the favourites reacting rather than controlling the race.
The Giro dell’Emilia now provides the first chance to see what comes next. McNulty has said the jersey will not alter his approach, but for the first time in his career he will roll to the start as the reigning world champion, with every move made in the rainbow bands.
