Vuelta a Burgos: Matthew Brennan doubles up with stunning late sprint to narrowly win stage 4

Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) doubled up on victories at the Vuelta a Burgos as he narrowly pipped Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to the line in the sprint on stage 4 in Briviesca.

Losing contact with his last lead-out man through the final corner, it looked like the Brit was out of it as the sprint started, opening up his effort from 13th position as Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor) and David González (Pinarello Q36.5) surged to the front with speed.

This was 21-year-old Brennan’s seventh victory of the season, as he continues his build-up to the Vuelta a España, where he will make his Grand Tour debut alongside the likes of Wout van Aert.

With no GC action on the mostly flat fourth stage, Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) held onto the purple race leader’s jersey with one day of racing remaining, but with overall victory far from sewn up.

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The brutal finale to Lagunas de Neila (6.4km at 9.1%) is set to decide things on Saturday, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Oscar Onley (Netcompany) well within striking distance to overtake Gall at the last attempt, just six and seven seconds down respectively after the Scot gained a second at the bonus sprint in Oña.

A breakaway of three riders led for the majority of stage 4, with Caja Rural-Alea duo Nil Aguilera and Javier Ibáñez getting up the road alongside Josh Burnett (Burgos Burpellet BH) heading out of Palazuelos de Muñó.

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With only two small categorised climbs on the 178km route, last man standing Ibáñez survived in front all the way until the final 16km, when the Cofids, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Visma-Lease a Bike-led peloton finally reeled him back, allowing the build-up to the final sprint to unfold without interruption.

Stage 4 Results

General Classification after stage 4