Brandon McNulty up to third overall at the Škoda Tour de Luxembourg

UAE Team Emirates-XRG continued its impressive start to the Škoda Tour de Luxembourg, with Brandon McNulty and Jhonatan Narváez finishing third and fourth, respectively, on stage 3. The day was won by Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who best handled the punishing slopes to the line.

Finishing within the grounds of Vianden Castle, the final climb was 3.3km long with an average gradient of over 10%, proving the perfect battleground for the first clash between the general classification contenders.

Flanked admirably by his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates throughout the course of the afternoon, McNulty headed into the finale in a smart position. Showing his strength to the line, McNulty, a pure climber and time trial specialist, hung with the best puncheurs to take third place with an insignificant time loss.

Backing up his teammate, Narváez showed equal form to cross the line in fourth.

Both riders had been helped into place by Nils Politt, Igor Arrieta, Pablo Torres and Rafał Majka throughout the Queen stage of the race. Starting out from Mertert, Politt was the first to pilot his team leaders towards the head of proceedings.

Next up, Arrieta, Majka and Torres each followed the wheel of Lidl-Trek’s Søren Kragh Andersen, who looked to attack into a dangerous breakaway on the first of three ascents of the Montée de Niklosbierg. Their manoeuvre ensured that McNulty would have sufficient numbers when his group bridged up on the second ascent.

With McNulty by now in position, Majka went to work at shredding the group of favourites on the last recorded ascent of the climb. At this point, McNulty remained strong and Narváez did well to keep within contact before the decisive last few kilometres.

As it was, the finale was to include a fourth, uncategorised climb of the Niklosbierg, before continuing up the steep, 300m-long ramps to Vianden Castle. Here, the legs told the story, with Skjelmose the strongest puncheur on the day.

McNulty, to his credit, stuck with the Lidl-Trek man, and now heads into stage 4 sitting just eight seconds back in the general classification. Saturday’s stage is an individual time trial, which should act in McNulty’s favour.

Narváez, meanwhile, moves up to sixth overall, just 12 seconds down on the race lead of Skjelmose. Between the pair, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is in a prime position heading into the final two stages.

McNulty: “It was a super hard finish. We did three laps of the same climb and the team rode super well, especially in those last two laps when we all came together. It was just a full two-minute effort to the castle so I am happy with it in the end and it sets us up well for tomorrow.

“It was definitely good to have Igor, Rafał and Pablo up the road. There was no doubt they’d have still been there had they been in the group, but it was nice to put pressure on the other teams so that then they had to bring them back because we had three guys in the front. When they came back we had a full team still so it was a really good move.

“My main focus is just to win the TT and not think too much about the GC. I’ll just take it as a normal TT and try to win the stage, and then hope that it falls into place for the GC. It is quite a hard TT, it is not super flat, and it’s a bit longer than we’re seeing a lot nowadays, so I’m excited for it.”

Skoda Tour de Luxembourg stage 3 results:

1. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) 4:05:07

2. Jordan Jegat (Team TotalEnergis) s.t

3. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +2″

4. Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) s.t

Skoda Tour de Luxembourg general classification after stage 3

1. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) 11:34:29

2. Jordan Jegat (Team TotalEnergis) +4″

3. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +8″

6. Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +12″