TakeWorlds2 weeks ago
McNulty's winning move with 32km to go was 5w/kg, not the 9w/kg surge that normally decides a Worlds finale. That gap is the story: at this distance, nobody had the peak power left to make the race explode, so it came down to who hadn't already spent theirs.
The expected decisive attack on the final climb never arrived — the distance had already drained the field's high-end reserves, per Beyond the Peloton's race analysis. McNulty didn't out-punch anyone; he simply held output while Michael Matthews, Quinn Simmons, Matteo Jorgenson, Isaac del Toro and Mathieu van der Poel accumulated 270km of fatigue and hesitation. Outside's power analysis put it plainly: average effort in a tactical race like this doesn't tell the full picture. Distribution beat peak.
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