Matthew Brennan won his fourth stage of the 2026 Vuelta a España after converting teammate Wout van Aert’s excellent leadout.Tuesday’s stage 16 from Cortegana to La Rábida was one of the most straightforward sprint days of the race so far — a fairly flat 181km dash south towards the coast.Green jersey Van Aert, winner of two stages already, began a strong leadout with 500m remaining, stretching out the bunch of sprinters and giving Brennan a lead that the 21-year-old would not cede.Brennan launched with 160m remaining, comfortably beating Cofidis’ Bryan Coquard to the line.The victory makes him the first rider since Fernando Gaviria at the 2017 Giro d’Italia to win four stages on their Grand Tour debut. A further triumph could come on Wednesday, on another flat sprinters’ stage into Seville.It also gives Visma-Lease a Bike its sixth victory of the race, making up for a disappointing Tour de France in which leader Jonas Vingegaard crashed out and the team went winless.“It’s unbelievable,” Brennan told reporters post-stage. “Four victories here, the plan was for one. As a team, we’re now on six. The stages that we’ve gone for, we’ve committed to the plan that we have, and the boys were pushing so much weight today. To finish off like that, Wout putting me in such a place, it was perfect.”The British rider also added that he was targeting selection for next year’s Tour, whose Grand Départ begins in the United Kingdom.Earlier in the day, UAE Team Emirates’ Kevin Vermaerke once again made his way into the day’s breakaway, the 25-year-old American having proven himself one of the most combative riders in the race after team leader Tadej Pogačar’s withdrawal.Wednesday’s stage is another opportunity for the sprinters, but attention is already turning to Thursday’s 32km time trial in Cadiz, where second-placed Primož Roglič will look to pressure red jersey Enric Mas, who holds a two-minute-and-six-second lead.