Matthew Brennan continued one of the great Vuelta a España debuts by winning his fifth stage of the race in Seville on Wednesday.The flat profile of stage 17 was always likely to end in a bunch sprint, and though the breakaway was only caught with three kilometres remaining, Brennan’s victory was inevitable as soon as he opened up his sprint with 100m remaining.At 21 years and 34 days old, the Yorkshireman is now the second-youngest rider in history to win five Vuelta stages, only a day behind Vicente Carretero exactly 90 years ago, while no rider has ever won back-to-back Grand Tour stages at a younger age.In the modern era, Brennan’s achievements in the power-heavy world of sprinting are preternatural.
His wins this Grand Tour have generally come from reduced bunches, but with Wednesday’s stage heading 185km towards Seville, the Vuelta’s iconic sprinting city, this was a test of his pure speed.Though FDJ’s Enzo Paleni provided the peloton with a brief moment of panic, retaining a minute lead with 10km remaining, Brennan’s Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Bruno Armirail reeled him in with a mighty effort on the front.Unlike his previous wins, Wout van Aert did not lead Brennan out, with the British rider instead opting to take Uno-X rider Magnus Cort’s wheel. Van Aert, to his right, did ensure that any chasing riders had to take a long route around to challenge for the victory.In a late sprint, Brennan held off Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s Jordi Meeus to win by a bike length.The victory was Visma-Lease a Bike’s seventh stage victory of the race, with the Dutch squad sitting first and second in the green jersey standings. Brennan now trails Van Aert by only 56 points, but the expectation is that the Belgian will secure the points classification by hoovering up the intermediate sprints over the coming days.Thursday’s stage will see a pivotal 32km time trial in Cadiz, with second-placed Primoz Roglic expected to claw time back on red jersey Enric Mas. All the GC contenders finished stage 17 safely in the bunch.
