Grand Tour debutants are normally looking to simply survive through the 21 stages and get a first taste of cycling’s hardest races, but Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) has completely bypassed that notion by completing his hat-trick just 11 stages into his first tilt at the Vuelta a España.
Not only that, but he also emulated Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) with his third victory into Lorca, coming to the line first with another powerful sprint off the back of a perfect Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte lead-out.
Brennan levelled the score against the former race leader – who dramatically crashed out on stage 8 with several fractures – at 3-3, but Brennan also became the first rider since Pogačar’s explosion onto the scene at the 2019 Vuelta to win three stages in a Grand Tour debut.
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When he speaks, Brennan seems mature beyond his 21 years, and while he seems to be taking all this success in his stride, it hasn’t been plain sailing all season for the rapidly rising young British star.
“I put in a lot more work going into this race, and kind of, should we say, had a fresh start. The Classics season didn’t go super well, and then I got quite sick, and I just had to step back,” said Brennan in his post-stage press conference.
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“So I think having that start really helped me kind of focus on my ambitions here, and then especially, knowing that I was going to be supported in some of the stages with guys like Stevie [Kruijswijk], Wout [van Aert], Christoph [Laporte], I think helps to boost the motivation.
“Coming into a race like this, once you’ve had the preparation, once you’ve had the support from the guys, then it really fills you with confidence about what you can achieve and what the possibilities are. And it’s been really nice to fulfil those achievements. Three stage wins now, who knows where we can go with it? So far it’s been really good for us.”
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In reality, the calmness he exudes is somewhat matched by his team – they knew he was special right from when he graduated to the WorldTour squad and immediately impressed at the GP de Denain and Volta a Catalunya.
Fast forward 18 months from those maiden successes as a pro and Brennan is an established star. He has 22 wins to his name now, at just 21.
“You saw last year he was exceptionally good. I saw a stage win for him in Catalonia that I never saw a rider doing it like this,” said Visma DS Frans Maassen to Cyclingnews before stage 11 in Cartagena.
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“He won the first stage there. It was exceptional when you look back at that. It was not possible with Groves in the wheel to win that stage, and still one teammate ahead for Groves there.
“Then you saw, yeah, this is a special guy, and we saw it also last year in any of the races he won. But to be honest, in the first half of the year we expected a little bit better. But now you see he’s back, and you see how talented a rider he is.”
Even with that talent, Brennan is also benefiting from the top lead-out at the race, with Van Aert and Laporte’s experience and power delivering him a red carpet ride to the finish on the three stages he’s won.
“I think it’s a one in a million situation, isn’t it, really?” said Brennan, when asked if he ever envisaged riders like Visma’s biggest star Van Aert to be leading him out when he turned pro less than two years ago.
“You enter the sport with the intent to win bike races, and then all of a sudden, within two years, you’ve had some of the best champions helping you out trying to win those bike races. It’s a really unique situation, and it’s a situation I’m also really grateful for, that I can be so successful at this and also have the confidence from the guys that they know that I can finish them off. They’ve also seen what I’ve done before this, and they can carry that confidence with them into the races as well.”
It’s hard to compare anyone in the sport to Pogačar, even the top up-and-coming riders, but Matthew Brennan is making a real push for superstardom in just his second year as a professional, and it looks like he’s only going to get better – an ominous sign for any of his rivals and would-be sprinters and Classics specialists in the next few years.
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