British starlet Matthew Brennan made history with victory on stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana, becoming the youngest rider ever to win five stages in a grand tour and the youngest to claim back-to-back Vuelta stages — all in his debut three-week race.
He follows in the footsteps of decorated sprinter Marcel Kittel, who won five stages of the Vuelta in the 2017 edition, and is also only the second British rider to win four or more stages in the same grand tour, after the legendary Mark Cavendish.
On the flattest stage of this year’s race, a 185km run from Dos Hermanas to Seville, Brennan was always going to be the heavy favourite.
Rather than capitalising on a leadout from his Visma-Lease a Bike squad, this time he surfed the wheels of his rivals in the closing kilometre and launched his sprint from the wheel of Magnus Cort, who ultimately came third.
Jordi Meeus, a former winner on the Champs-Elysees at the Tour de France, came second, a clear bike-length behind 21-year-old Brennan.
Brennan said: “It’s fantastic for me. We’re a long way into this race now and today was the day where we could make history in our team. In terms of the win again, it’s really cool to do that. We did everything in our power to get there.”
Overall leader Enric Mas retained his advantage of 2 minutes, 6 seconds ahead of Felix Gall. Primoz Roglic is a further 4 seconds back in third.
Thursday’s stage is a 32.1km) time trial that could be key for Roglic. The Vuelta finishes in Granada on Sunday