Asked before this Vuelta a Espana which rider would win five stages and leave his rivals utterly demoralised by his dominance, you would probably have said Tadej Pogacar. In the end it was British rider Matthew Brennan, who won five stages on his debut Grand Tour in a coming-of-age performance and narrowly missed out on another two – even one more would have been an outright record.
The 21-year-old Brennan’s haul of wins saw him make history as the youngest rider to win five stages in a Grand Tour, the youngest to claim back-to-back Vuelta stages, and only the second British rider to win four or more times in the same three-week race, after none other than Mark Cavendish. Those wins came on terrain ranging from pan-flat to hilly and in different circumstances, from textbook leadouts from his Visma-Lease a Bike squad to beating Pogacar on an uphill drag. It was all the more impressive given he entered the race with the status of heavy favourite on those flatter stages, with a crack team assembled around him and plenty of pressure to deliver. Evidently he wears that pressure lightly.
