The team started the stage with only four riders after losing George Bennett and Vegard Stake Laengen to COVID-19, Rafal Majka to injury and Marc Soler to illness all in the space of a week, and needing someone to help their leader attack Jonas Vingegaard in the mountains.
After Mikkel Bjerg did his part up to the base of the Col de Val Louron-Azet, it was McNulty's turn on the front and he made the most of it; putting in a very high pace with incredible consistency that pressured all the overall contenders except for the top two of Vingegaard and teammate Pogačar.
The American effectively paced that trio for the final 50 kilometres of the stage, dropping Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers), Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic), Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) completely off the wheel, pulling off 500 metres from the finish for Pogačar and Vingegaard to battle it out for the stage victory.
McNulty earned the most combative award for his efforts on the stage, but said he wished his team leader had let him take the glory at the finish.
Mikkel [Bjerg] did a super good pull on the Hourquette d’Ancizan, and also at the beginning of the Val Louron climb," McNulty said after the stage.
"From then on, the initial plan was for me to ride 15 minutes full gas.
"But, as I was pushing it, I began to hear on the radio that more and more riders were getting dropped from my pace and I ended up going on for much longer than expected.
"It was a big effort for me, but it went well and I’m happy to pull it out because it meant we could actually lead the race on the mountains for the first time on this Tour de France.
"It was very special. With 5 kilometres to go I thought that Jonas [Vingegaard] and Tadej [Pogačar] might act very nice and let me win the stage… but then I realised that there are no gifts on this sport.
"Anyway, it was very nice to pull off this performance and to stand on the podium with the most aggressive rider award."
McNulty also spoke to the determination of his team today, executing their goal of shaking the race up for their leader despite being only four strong instead of eight.
"Today we rode with lots of grit," he said.
"We were racing on emotion, basically, for the guys who couldn’t take part today. There was no secret plan: we just wanted to make the race hard.
"Tomorrow will be hard as well. Right now, I just look forward to rest… but, once I get some sleep, I’ll probably be more excited about tomorrow’s stage."
The Tour de France continues tonight with Stage 18, one of the hardest stages of the entire race, taking in two hors categories climbs of the Col d’Aubisque and the Hautacam. Watch on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker from 9:20 (AEST), with the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starting at 9:30 (AEST).
