On the eve of the individual time trial of the Tour de France, Mauro Gianetti surprised by revealing an incident within the UAE: Brandon McNulty one of the candidates for victory in the specialtyhad suffered an accident with a car during route reconnaissance. “He was on his bicycle with a car behind him. When he tried to overtake, the vehicle suddenly braked and Brandon could not avoid hitting him.“, explained the CEO of the Emirati team.
Despite the mishap, McNulty was able to start without any major problems and ended up setting the 22nd fastest time of the day. Before the 17th stage, Joxean Fernández ‘Matxin’ offered more details to BRAND about what happened: “It seems that a car, although we don’t know exactly who it belonged to, braked completely suddenly. He was driving behind, keeping his distance, and in the end he ended up crashing. He has a little discomfort in his leg, but we hope it is only a consequence of the blow.”
McNulty’s reaction
After finishing the stage, The American cyclist seemed to identify the person responsible for the incident with a comment on a post about the time trial. “This guy also likes time trial days“, he wrote on his social networks. The message was accompanied by a photograph in which a blue Peugeot appeared, an image that quickly attracted attention.
For now it is unknown if the UAE will take any type of legal action. In any casethe incident once again puts the debate about cyclist safety on the table during recognitions and stages, an aspect that many consider essential.