19-year-old continues to punch above his weight in bunch sprints and regains points lead ahead of closing weekend
Matthew Brennan celebrates winning stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya with his Visma-Lease A Bike teammates(Image credit: Getty Images)
Matthew Brennan showed no sign of slowing down in the Volta a Catalunya on Friday as neither two hard days in the mountains nor the fraught, crosswind-filled finale proved too big an obstacle for the 19-year-old to rack up a second stage victory in the race
Taking one win for the Visma-Lease A Bike racer was an impressive enough feat already, given this is his first year in the WorldTour, and as he told Cyclingnews earlier this week, he had never tackled so much climbing before as he did during stage 3's trek through the Pyrenees.
Yet, Brennan has not only proved up to the task of getting through the climbing stages, but when the Volta bunch split to bits in the galeforce crosswinds on Friday, he was back in the mix – and winning again.
"Two wins is bonkers!" was his succinct analysis of the scale of his success in the Volta so far.
"Being in the leader's jersey for three days and this jersey [points] now, it's really unbelievable. I really did not come into this race expecting that. It's unbelievable.
"It was a super-strong headwind finish, so I knew people would hit it too early. I was surfing the wheels and having that escape route I got lucky, and I hit it right. So I'm really happy."
Getting the sprint right was only the final part of the jigsaw, though, on a day when crosswinds saw multiple echelons forming on the last part of the stage. Visma put five riders in the front group of 29, which ensured a strong presence for Brennan in the closing kilometres.
"It was really chaotic coming into the finale. We knew there would be a bit of cross-wind. I was a little bit far back," Brennan recounted.
"But we managed to kind of move up. Simon [Yates] did as well, and then we worked. There was a gap and a group of us away, so we pushed on. I'm very thankful to the team for their work today. Overall, we finished in a great position."
Points classification leader Brennan on the podium after his second victory of the week (Image credit: Getty Images)
On Friday, he wore the points jersey on Thursday in place of classification leader Primož Roglič. But now, Brennan has gained a narrow advantage thanks to his latest win, and on stage 6, he'll wear the jersey in his own right.
Now five points ahead of new race leader Juan Ayuso, Brennan may be able to hold onto that lead in the two remaining days. Saturday's ultra-mountainous stage to Queralt may make it difficult to keep the GC contenders at bay before Barcelona, while his Visma team will be focussed on supporting ninth-placed Yates.
However, Sunday's hilly stage profile with its fast finish in Montjuïc Park could swing things back in Brennan's favour – not just for the points jersey but also for a third stage win, too.
"It'd be nice, although I think tomorrow [Saturday] is a really hard day, and I think the weather will turn as well, although as I'm from the UK, probably that'll turn in my favour," he said with a smile.
"But Saturday's a really tough day, then we are going into Barcelona, which is also quite a hectic one. We'll just have to do what we can.
"I haven't looked at the profile [for Sunday] too deeply, but I'm motivated to give it a good try. Today shows we'll really in the game and really motivated to still cause some more trouble in this race."
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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