{"id":889096,"date":"2026-09-12T07:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889096\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T07:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:26:14","slug":"we-are-really-different-matthew-brennan-on-next-cavendish-hype-and-his-five-star-vuelta-debut-vuelta-a-espana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889096\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We are really different\u2019: Matthew Brennan on \u2018next Cavendish\u2019 hype and his five-star Vuelta debut | Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Matthew Brennan sat down with his team before the race to study this year\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> route, the young Briton had limited expectations for his Grand Tour debut. Fast forward a few weeks and the 21-year-old from Darlington is the youngest rider ever to win five stages in a single Grand Tour.<\/p>\n

He is also the youngest to win back-to-back stages. His fifth win was the seventh for his Visma\u2011Lease A Bike team in this Vuelta, the highest number they have ever achieved at this level, surpassing the tallies of six set at the 2022 Tour de France and this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s has been one of the most remarkable Grand Tour debuts in history, and there\u2019s a chance he may even take a sixth win in Sunday\u2019s final stage in Granada.<\/p>\n

As he has racked up the wins, the comparisons with the British sprint legend Mark Cavendish have become inevitable. Brennan is flattered but says he and the Manxman are not the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really nice comparison, but we are really different riders,\u201d he tells the Guardian after the Vuelta\u2019s stage 18 time trial<\/a>. \u201cI can cope with stages that go up to three and a half thousand metres of climbing and still be there at the finish, while I don\u2019t think that he would. But to be compared with such a savvy, classy rider is all good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Brennan sprints to win stage two. \u2018It helps a lot that I have got one of the world\u2019s best teams around me,\u2019 he says. Photograph: Colin Flockton\/Alamy<\/p>\n

There was already a buzz about Brennan before his Grand Tour debut. Even so, nobody had expected this level of success. As the Vuelta has progressed, he and his experienced teammate Wout van Aert have become something of a double act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps a lot that I have got one of the world\u2019s best teams around me and that Wout is there,\u201d Brennan says. \u201cHe is always so good at positioning that I end up thinking: \u2018I didn\u2019t actually do much there.\u2019 The team gives me a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already, he and Van Aert seem to have developed an intuitive relationship. \u201cI know whatever happens, we will be racing it together. He\u2019s a really good racer. We don\u2019t have to speak much. And I\u2019ve taken pride in helping him out,\u201d Brennan adds, referring to the work he has contributed to Van Aert\u2019s two stage wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole team is pretty like\u2011minded,\u201d Brennan says, citing their ability to \u201cdeal with hectic situations\u201d in sprint finishes. He casts his mind back to the plans hatched with his sporting directors before the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially looked at 10 stages as options, but then we narrowed it down to five, in which the team said they would back me 100%,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The stage finishes he targeted were in Manosque, Roquetes, Lorca, Palos de Frontera and Seville. Incredibly, Brennan sprinted to success in all five.<\/p>\n

Of those five, Brennan says the first, stage two in Manosque<\/a>, was the highlight: \u201cThere\u2019d been training camps and two and a half months of buildup, so the first one was really good, almost like a breath of fresh air, and proof that the work had all been worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan has also spoken out on behalf of a peloton that has raced in 40C heat many times this summer. After the stage to C\u00f3rdoba<\/a> was held in extreme temperatures, he was critical of the UCI, cycling\u2019s world governing body.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the climb, at the start, it was 44 degrees, and at that point, you start thinking: \u2018What are we doing?\u2019\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA normal office person has to have their temperature set at 20 degrees, or whatever, and I\u2019m sure the people at the UCI office will have theirs set at 20 degrees as well. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if there are a few bodies going home in an ambulance tonight with heatstroke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Brennan celebrates on the podium at Sevilla after winning his fifth Vuelta stage. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Forty-eight hours later, Brennan stuck to his guns. \u201cI have a platform where I can share an opinion,\u201d he says. \u201cAfterwards, multiple people thanked me for saying it. It\u2019s important to give the opinion of the peloton, and I spoke the majority view.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big reflection of how the peloton feels about how the UCI listens to them and does not look at the health risks. This is the reason why the riders don\u2019t feel heard. In my opinion, it should always be rider safety first. It becomes dangerous very quickly. We are not normal people \u2013 we spend every day pushing ourselves to the limit \u2013 but at what point does that competitive edge become dangerous? There should never be an incident in which a rider collapses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan agrees that the sport\u2019s creaking customs make change hard to come by: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of tradition, but the sport is now very different, even to how it was five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vuelta ends on Sunday but Brennan\u2019s thoughts have already turned towards 2027 and his hopes of selection for the Grand D\u00e9part of the Tour de France in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team\u2019s ambition is always to win the yellow jersey in Paris, but, in my opinion, I can support those ambitions. I have confidence that the team will look favourably on me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Matthew Brennan sat down with his team before the race to study this year\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-889096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889096","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=889096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}