British sprinter Matthew Brennan won his first ever grand tour stage at his first attempt at a sprint in the three week race.
On the second day of racing at the Vuelta a España the Visma-Lease a Bike sprinter left the entire field in his wake with an explosive acceleration.
Brennan was ideally placed in the final in Manosque after other teams were forced to chase his team-mate Wout van Aert who had attacked on a short climb 1.8km from the line.
The 21 year-old put clear air between himself and a field that included decorated sprinters such as Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who finished fourth.
However, with race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates XRG) in third place on the day Brennan’s win was not enough to bag him the points jersey.
Regardless, today’s victory is the biggest of the young rider's career, which has already seen him rack up 20 wins, the highest profile of which was Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne this spring.
Speaking at the finish Brennan said: “We started off with the ambition of Wout trying to get in the red jersey today. We said there’s a nice opportunity to attack in the final and Wout was keen to do that.
“I was always going to be in the background to do the sprint in case the guys [out front] sat up and that’s exactly what happened. The guys sat up in the front and Christophe [Laporte] was able to guide me through all the hectic-ness of that.”
Asked how he felt about his first win in a grand tour he said: “Hopefully it’s not the last one, it’s nice. The boys worked all day really well and gave it 100%. They believed in both of us so we could achieve something successful today.”
There was less good fortune for Brennan’s compatriot Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) who had also staged a bid to snatch the red jersey.
Hayter had been one of four riders in the early breakaway alongside Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla), Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma), but had set off on his own with 50km to race.
He picked up six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint putting him into the virtual red jersey.
That left the Brit, who started the day just nine hundredths of a second off Pogačar, with just the task of finishing in the same time as Van Aert and Pogačar to likely claim the red jersey – assuming Pogačar didn’t win the stage.
However, when splits emerged in the peloton in the finale Hayter was several groups back from the front of the race allowing the Slovenian to preserve his place at the top of the general classification.
Brennan’s next best chance for a stage will be stage 8 to Xeraco, which is fairly flat.
Result
Vuelta a España, stage 2: Monaco > Manosque (202km)
1. Matthew Brennan (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike in 4:47:47
2. Pau Miquel (Esp) Bahrain-Victorious
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Emirate-XRG
4. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek
5. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) NSN Cycling Team
6. Tobias Johannessen (Den) Uno-X Mobility
7. Finn Fisher-Black (NZl) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
8. Axel Laurence (Fra) Netcompany Ineos
9. Oscar Onley (GBr) Netcompany Ineos
10. Orluis Aular (Col) Movistar, all at same time
General classification after stage 2
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Emirates-XRG in 4:58:40
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike +9s
3. Matthew Brennan (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike +10s
4. Léo Bisiaux (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM, +12s
5. Finn Fisher-Black (NZl) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +14s
6. Stefan Küng (Sui) Tudor Pro Cycling, +18s
7. Jay Vine (Aus) UAE Emirates-XRG, at same time
8. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, +20s
9. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +26s
10. Jordan Labrosse (Fra) Decalthon CMA CGM, +27s
