Vuelta a Espana

Brennan Shows His Class

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Sunday, August 23rd, 2nd stage: Monaco > Manosque

First Grand Tour, first sprint and first victory for Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike)! Making his debut in La Vuelta 26, the young British sprinter wasted no time showing his worth as he left his rivals several bike lengths behind in the uphill sprint in Manosque at the end of stage 2. A couple of weeks after his 21st birthday, Brennan survived a long day (202.1 km from Monaco) and the stage’s many hills to eventually get the better of Pau Miquel (Bahrain Victorious) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG), who was in the mix in the uphill finale. The Slovenian star first saw Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) threaten his overall leader’s jersey with the bonus seconds he took during the stage. Then he answered a powerful attack by Wout van Aert with 2 kilometres to go. He eventually completed the stage’s top 3, ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), while Hayter was distanced. On day 3, Pogacar will defend La Roja on the first mountain stage of this edition, heading to Font-Romeu..

Stage 2

  1. Matthew Brennan (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 4h47’47”
  2. Pau Miquel (Bahrain Victorious) +0’00”
  3. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) +0’00”

GC

  1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 4h58’40”
  2. Wout van Aert (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +0’09”
  3. Matthew Brennan (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +0’10”