Matthew Brennan won his first WorldTour race on Monday at the Volta a Catalunya, days after he took his first professional victory.
On stage one of the race in Sant Feliu de Guíxols the 19-year-old Visma-Lease a Bike rider caught the lone escapee, Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck), with metres to go on an uphill drag, and held off star sprinter Kaden Groves (also Alpecin-Deceuninck)
It means the man from Darlington has now won four races in a row, after winning twice with Visma's development squad, and then with the senior team at the GP de Denain last Thursday.
"The weather made it quite tricky today," he explained on TV post-race. "We did everything we could to keep the position towards the front and minimise any losses. As we came into the finish we knew the coast road would be a critical point in the bike race, and I managed to get into position, with a few guys around me, they supported me into there.
"From there we managed to sprint. In the end it was such a tricky situation to manage, you just had to go full gas. I'm so happy it ended up like this. Big thanks to everyone else involved."
"I watched [last year's similar stage] last night and as soon as Alpecin went off the front I knew it was a replay from last year," he continued. "You've just got to manage it and take responsibility, and it it ended up the best we could have done in that scenario."
Groves explained that Del Grosso going solo was not the plan, but he just had the speed on the descent. He added: "In the end, he ran out of legs and me also. Brennan is super strong and rode me off his wheel."
With around 2km to go, Del Grosso clipped off the front, but he was soon followed by Brennan. Despite there being a large gap, still 80 metres at 500m to go, and the peloton appearing close behind, Brennan launched his sprint and came round Del Grosso in the closing metres to take an iconic victory.
“You couldn’t wish for a better season, to be honest. I’m really happy,” Brennan said in Denain last week. Now, the season has got even better. The Brit will now wear the leader's jersey on Tuesday's lumpy stage, which includes a category-one climb, but has a relatively flat run-in.
