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The British rider and Grand Tour debutant Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike sprinted to a second stage victory of the Vuelta a España in Roquetes.
Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte expertly led out their 21-year-old teammate at the end of stage five, and the youngster confidently demonstrated his devastating speed again to conclude the 173.4km route from Falset. Brennan has two victories from two sprint opportunities at the final Grand Tour of the season.
Jordi Meeus (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) was second and Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education–EasyPost) third on the day, while Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates XRG) safely maintained his commanding 3min 21sec general classification lead.
A five-rider breakaway escaped early: Walter Calzoni (Pinarello Q36.5), Stefan Küng (Tudor), Mattia Gaffuri (Picnic PostNL) and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharm) joined Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) at the front after the Norwegian rider attacked solo.
Küng soon dropped back to the peloton, leaving a four-man breakaway, but they were caught by the chasing bunch with around 100km remaining. It was Lidl-Trek who upped the pace and shut the escapees down on a blowy day when crosswinds and potential splits in the bunch were a concern.
On the first day of this year’s race staged entirely on Spanish roads, Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) took maximum points at the intermediate sprint, at Tivenys, after 114.7km. Hayter, narrowly denied victory on stage one by Pogacar, had previously looked in danger of being dropped amid hectic racing in strong winds.
Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek – who would have expected to compete in the bunch sprint – was dropped on the category-three Puerto de Paüls climb, and the powerful Visma-Lease a Bike team dominated the final stages.
“It’s better than a normal day job, it’s fantastic,” said Brennan. “Second one in the bag, first Grand Tour … I’m just very thankful to finish it off again, and I think the boys are quite relieved.
“It [the team performance] was pretty spot on. We had the two boys pulling on the front until the final few kilometres. Then Wout and Chris are the best guys you can have in that situation … glad we could finish with the arms in the air.
“On this type of terrain, it works really nicely … these guys are just so strong … it gives you the confidence to go on and achieve more.”
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Van Aert told TNT Sports: “When you have Matt in a group like that, it’s the best card to play, and I don’t even need to see the replay to see how he finished that one off.”
Asked if it feels just as good to see Brennan win as when he wins a race himself, Van Aert smiled and said: “It comes close.”
Thursday’s 177.5km stage six, from Alcossebre to Castelló, is a medium mountain stage with 3,080m of climbing.
