Matthew Brennan – left, with Wout van Aert – scalped Jonathan Milan in a straight-up sprint in Germany to take his 10th pro win in his neo pro season (Photo: Kristof Ramon)

Matthew Brennan, who has just turned 20-years-old, today became the youngest rider to take his 10th pro victory, doing so in his neo pro season for Visma-Lease a Bike. And he did it in a bunch sprint on stage 1 at Lidl Deutschland Tour (2.Pro) in a close scrap with Jonathan Milan (Lidl Trek).

Brennan has been nothing short of sensational this year, take 10 wins riding for Visma Lease a Bike World Tour team and two more for its U23 squad. He is the youngest rider even to notch 10 pro wins.

He toppled Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickSteo), who was also aged 20 years, though 14 days older than Brennan, when he took his 10th pro win in 2020, according to Velo Statistics.

In the all-time stakes, Brennan is also the youngest ever rider to win 10 pro races in a single season. In that ranking he has toppled former world champion, and two-time Giro d’Italia winner, Giuseppe Saronni.

The Italian, for almost 50 years, held the record as the youngest ever cyclist to win 10 pro races. He took his 10th pro win in the 1978 season when he was almost seven months older than Brennan is now.

Brennan kicked off his incredible winning run this season with his first pro victory at Grand Prix de Denain (1.Pro) in March, having already won two races competing for U23 Visma. Weeks later he won two stages at Volta Catalunya (2.UWT), followed by a stage of Tour de Romandie (2.UWT) in May and Rund um Köln (1.1) two weeks later.

There followed two stage wins and the overall at Tour of Norway (2.Pro), also in May, before collecting a stage victory at Tour de Pologne (2.UWT) two weeks ago and now his win in Germany today. And in beating Milan – after 202km of racing into Herford today – Brennan has proven himself one of the very fastest sprinters in the world.

“This is incredible”, Brennan said after his photofinish win, after coming off Milan’s wheel and proving notably faster than him in the last 50-100 metres. “It was really close. I did think I had it, but there was still a bit of doubt. It was a high-speed sprint.

“A few weeks ago I was sitting on the couch watching the Tour de France. You see world-class sprinters like Jonathan Milan fighting it out there. For me, it was a great benchmark to go up against him here at the Deutschland Tour.

“Beating a sprinter of his calibre gives me a lot of confidence. There are still some big stages to come over the next few days, but it’s nice to have a win in the bag already.”

Source – Velo Statistics

Photo finish in Germany 😳

Matthew Brennan takes the win ahead of Jonathan Milan after a sprint that was this close 🤏 pic.twitter.com/9pg0dvZMmZ

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) August 21, 2025