{"id":360101,"date":"2025-12-20T08:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/360101\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T08:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:56:11","slug":"the-goal-was-to-win-one-race-then-it-spiralled-matthew-brennan-on-his-remarkable-breakthrough-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/360101\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The goal was to win one race… then it spiralled’ \u2013 Matthew Brennan on his remarkable breakthrough year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Brennan is Cycling Weekly’s Male Rider of the Year for 2025. This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 4th December 2025. Subscribe now<\/a> and never miss an issue.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a video that keeps popping up on Matthew Brennan<\/a>\u2019s Instagram feed. It opens with a shot down the Carretera de Girona, an unassuming residential road in Sant Feliu de Gu\u00edxols, onto which bursts the chaos of stage one\u2019s finale of the Volta a Catalunya. \u201cHere comes Brennan,\u201d announces Carlton Kirby excitedly on commentary. And it\u2019s at this point that the 20-year-old switches the video off. \u201cI see the first like three seconds, and I just keep scrolling,\u201d says the Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> rider.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not that he doesn\u2019t like it \u2013 quite the opposite, actually \u2013 but he just doesn\u2019t need any help remembering his first WorldTour victory, his breakthrough on cycling\u2019s biggest stage. \u201cIt was a nice day,\u201d he smiles. \u201cWell, the day wasn\u2019t nice, but it was really nice to finish it like that. I think it\u2019s something quite special that will always be with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If Brennan were to watch on, he\u2019d hear Kirby grow more and more animated. \u201cMy goodness, Brennan is really grinding into the gap here,\u201d the commentator says, but it seems to be too late \u2013 Alpecin-Deceuinck\u2019s Tibor Del Grosso is riding solo towards the gantry, rapidly passing the distance markers at the side of the road: 150m to go, 100m, 50m. Then comes the bike throw. \u201cOh, he\u2019s got it! He\u2019s absolutely nailed it!,\u201d Kirby shouts. Brennan punches the air with his fist. \u201cA genius at work!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Matthew\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was mid-March when the then 19-year-old took the leader\u2019s jersey at the Volta a Catalunya<\/a>. Cycling fans didn\u2019t know it at the time, but they\u2019d come to see a lot more of Brennan\u2019s genius over the rest of the season; he won 14 times, a tally bettered by just four other male riders: Tim Merlier, Isaac del Toro, Paul Magnier and the world champion Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>. The Brit began the season 349th in the UCI\u2019s rankings, and ended it 43rd, having jumped more than 300 places. All that, and he only turned 20 in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a good year,\u201d Brennan says understatedly. We\u2019re speaking over videocall the afternoon before his final race of the year, Paris-Tours. Does he have any regrets about 2025? \u201cNot having my holiday earlier,\u201d he smirks. Everything else exceeded expectations. \u201cWe came into the start of the season with the goal of trying to win one race, essentially. Then it spiralled a bit quicker and a bit more than we thought it would.\u201d<\/p>\n

That box was ticked almost immediately, in March, when he won three French one-day races on the trot, culminating in the cobbled GP de Denain, Paris-Roubaix\u2019s little brother. The teenager\u2019s next stop was meant to be the Classic Brugge-De Panne, until he got a call from his coach, Robbert de Groot, while out shopping with his girlfriend. Did he want to replace the injured Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> in the squad for Catalunya? \u201cBearing in mind I\u2019d never heard of this race before,\u201d Brennan says, \u201cI was like, \u2018Right, OK, yeah, whatever.\u2019 But I wasn\u2019t too convinced\u2026 It was good that I listened to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The team plan was always to ride for Brennan that afternoon in Saint Feliu, and he ended up doing it all himself. Gripping the drops of his handlebars, he clawed back the tearaway Del Grosso all by himself, and held off the peloton behind. The timing was perfect. \u201cIn that moment, you\u2019ve got to trust your racing instincts,\u201d Brennan says. Four days later, he proved it had been no fluke when he sprinted to a second victory. Then came another phone call: did he want to ride Paris-Roubaix<\/a>? \u201cYou\u2019re not going to turn that down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan arrived at his first Monument after a week of illness. The youngest rider on the start list, his expectations were low, so it came as a surprise to find himself in the front group deep into the race, riding alongside Poga\u010dar and Mathieu van der Poel<\/a>, while his team-mate Wout van Aert<\/a> advised him over the radio to go for his own chances. At almost 260km, however, the longest ride the teenager\u2019s longest-ever ride soon took its toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the parachutes came out a little bit,\u201d a dusty-faced Brennan said in the velodrome after the finish<\/a>. Reflecting on it now, he\u2019s impressed at how long he lasted. \u201cIt gives confidence that you can make it so far into that race so young. Looking back at the [power] numbers [required], they\u2019re not something that is necessarily crazy, either. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Matthew\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Brennan was brought up in the north-eastern market town of Darlington, County Durham, by a bike-racing father and triathlete mother. He joined his local club, Stockton Wheelers, at 12 years old, and excelled on the track as a junior, winning two world titles in 2023. The following year, he signed a two-year deal with Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s development squad, but amazed the team bosses so much on his first training camp that they decided he\u2019d turn pro a year early.<\/p>\n

As he prepared for that step-up last winter, he recalls, it was the off-the-bike changes the he feels made the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to move out [to Girona, Spain] and get my own independence. With that, you can also then change your nutrition a little bit, the style of life, and all these types of things, which I think in the end helped me quite a lot. [Previously] I\u2019d come in after doing five hours, and have whatever my family is having.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan also focused more on gym work, with the aim of holding a more aerodynamic position in sprints. \u201cThat helped stabilise everything and make everything aggressive, but also powerful,\u201d he says. The roll call of top-class sprinters he conquered this year is proof that it worked; he beat Biniam Girmay<\/a> at Germany\u2019s Rund um K\u00f6ln, Alexander Kristoff at the Tour of Norway, Tour de France<\/a> green jersey winner Jonathan Milan \u2013 twice \u2013 at the Lidl Deutschland Tour, and Alberto Dainese at the Tour of Britain.<\/p>\n

It might come as a wonder, then, that Brennan doesn\u2019t regard himself as a pure sprinter. He politely dismisses any comparisons to Mark Cavendish<\/a> (who, by the way, won three fewer races in his first pro year). \u201cI think I\u2019m really quite a versatile person in terms of what I can achieve,\u201d Brennan says. \u201cI can survive my way through quite nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take, for example, his stage victory at April\u2019s Tour de Romandie, which came after more than 3,000m of climbing. There was similar elevation, too, when he won stage two at the Tour of Norway, outpunching climber Maxim Van Gils on a 7% incline. Where does he rank that win? \u201cWhich one was this?\u201d he says, the victories blurring into one. Of the four stages in Norway, Brennan placed first twice, second twice, and won overall. \u201cThis is the problem, I don\u2019t remember what stage is what at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Matthew\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Despite all the podium visits, Brennan remains modest. He\u2019s noticed his celebrity grow at races \u2013 \u201cyour name is shouted a little bit more,\u201d he says \u2013 but he doesn\u2019t get stopped for selfies in the street, at least not yet. \u201cI look at a guy like Wout, who steps off the bus and immediately is swarmed. That\u2019s quite overwhelming,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Instead, Brennan prefers his world of calm and understatement; he describes his last-gasp Catalunya victory as \u201cquite cool\u201d, and his envious season win tally as \u201calright, not bad\u201d. How has he found the year? \u201cI\u2019ve had a great time,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also got a sense of humour. When I ask what would be his dream race to win, he looks into the distance for a moment, and then cites the Salt Ayre criteriums in Lancaster \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve never won one of those,\u201d he grins.<\/p>\n

This laidback attitude is his natural character, no doubt \u2013 it\u2019s also one of his superpowers on the bike. \u201cI think one thing I\u2019ve taken away from this year is that, generally, I just feel quite relaxed towards everything,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just in a mindset of, if it goes great, brilliant, that\u2019s what we strive for. But if it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s also not a problem. I can try another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future now is in Brennan\u2019s hands. He\u2019d like to go to the LA Olympics in 2028. Before that, though, there\u2019s another event he has circled in his diary: the 2027 Tour de France<\/a>, which starts in Edinburgh, a two-hour train journey from his home. \u201cI mean, yellow jersey day one on the Tour in the UK I don\u2019t think is a bad goal to try and achieve,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that would be quite cool rolling through the UK in a yellow jumper.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it happens, Brennan could become a household name. The moment will be watched live by millions. It\u2019ll then be cropped into a video to be replayed over and over on Instagram. Even Brennan won\u2019t be able to scroll past that one.<\/p>\n

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\nVisma-Lease a Bike
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