{"id":427372,"date":"2026-01-21T08:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427372\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:49:07","slug":"a-few-things-that-we-want-to-tweak-runner-up-spot-again-for-matthew-brennan-in-tour-down-under-stage-1-but-optimistic-for-next-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427372\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A few things that we want to tweak\u2019 – Runner up spot again for Matthew Brennan in Tour Down Under stage 1 but optimistic for next chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Matthew Brennan<\/a> burst onto the WorldTour scene when he clinched a second place on the first stage of the Tour Down Under<\/a>, where with a powerful acceleration in Gumeracha he came close to unseating a celebrating Sam Welsford.<\/p>\n

The British rider then went on to have a breakthrough season, winning 12 races including stage victories at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and Tour de Romandie.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This year, the 20-year-old Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> rider came into the WorldTour opening stage race with a goal of snatching stage 1 to Tanunda, a clear chance for the sprinters in an edition which leans more heavily towards the climbers this time.<\/p>\n

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Brennan’s team, along with Welsford’s Ineos Grenadiers, put in considerable effort to control the front of the peloton, keep the break in check and then ultimately reel them back in order to have a bunch sprint. It was all going to plan until the final kilometre where Brennan was not able to get a clear run to the finish line. He did, once again, produce another huge turn of speed, but he could not overcome Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) who received a perfect leadout to claim the victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we just ended up on the wrong side [of the road]. I think there was one little moment of hesitation from us,\u201d Brennan told reporters after the podium ceremony where he received the white best young rider\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n

That moment meant Brennan had to settle for the runner-up spot, again.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems to be a bit of a thing now. I think we came off that a little bit disappointed as a team, because we knew we could win it today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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“But to be honest, I think with the new squad, new group of riders, new kind of way of working together, that we’ve actually done a really good job. There’s a few things that we want to tweak, but throughout the whole day, they were always there, always helping, always protecting, doing what they needed to do. So the guys did a fantastic job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stage had quickly settled into a familiar pattern with a small break up the road, and Visma-Lease a Bike and Ineos Grenadiers taking turns at the front while other teams sat back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of work, but can we be happy with what we did today?\u201d Brennan asked and quickly replied, \u201cI think we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re very aware of what we need to work on now and we’re very confident that we can fix that. So hopefully, once we get another another chance, we can really show ourselves and hopefully finish off with a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next opportunity for the sprinters is likely to come on stage 3 if they can survive the mid-stage Wickham Hill climb, and ascent of Mount Barker.<\/p>\n

Cyclingnews is on the ground for the season-opening 2026 Tour Down Under, and a subscription gives you unlimited access to our unrivalled coverage. From breaking news and analysis to exclusive interviews and tech, we’ve got you covered as the new season gets underway in Australia. Find out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, Matthew Brennan burst onto the WorldTour scene when he clinched a second place on the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-427372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}