Four times Brennan in the Vuelta a España

There is no sprint that Matthew Brennan cannot resist, unrivaled when it comes to running faster than the rest. A formula and evidence that repeats itself in the Vuelta, to the point that the British Visma rider already has four laurels, four victorious sprints, four thumbs up and, why not, a smile of supremacy. Because that is what the rider did again, launched by the tireless Van Aert, barely bothered by Coquard and Braet, who completed the podium, comfortably with his reprisal and turbo, unmatched in this peloton.

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With terrain full of ups and downs at the start, a broken road between hills and slopes wrapped in a sea of pines, earthy rocks and also gray-blackened emptiness due to the ravages of fires, many cyclists tried to take off at the start of the stage, the only chance for the breakaway to succeed, although it had an expiration date later, once the terrain smoothed out. After many attempts, five won the pulse against the peloton – Vermaeke (UAE), already the great agitator of the race since Pogacar left, Madouas (FDJ), Dalby (Uno-X), Sütterlin (Jayco) and Thalmann (Tudor) – who paraded the maillot of the team among pictorial scenographies, few like the one offered by the Gossán Reservoir, magazine cycling and march among the waters, an idyllic postcard among reflections. But the peloton, once again, ignored the landscape, always committed to the race, fixed gear, without respite or rest, full sail ahead, lest it be said otherwise. Neither the escapees gave up nor did the peloton allow another day of chaos, as Visma and Cofidis, this time indeed, wanted to control the stage, so that everything was decided in the final sprint, so that the sprinters resolved the contest. And so it happened. Or rather, it repeated itself.

From Cortegana to La Rábida it was not an easy day, again with the sun present, already eternal in Andalusia, although the cyclists found in the wind both relief and torment in equal parts; the breath of fresh air brought possible echelons, nerves not to lose contact, not to be left behind. But the shocks did not go beyond that – at least with none of the contenders for the crown – and almost all mixed again with 24 kilometers to go. Goodbye to the few hopes of the escapees; welcome to the real race, that of the teams trying to take the lead to act as launchers, trampolines to success. It was about putting the bike in, pulling harder, using elbows, pure cycling, dangerous but exciting, watts and more watts, vertigo through the Huelva of dehesas and livestock farms, of cuttlefish, shrimp and mojama, also of endless fine sandy beaches like those of Mazagón, and, of course, of cyclists. But none as fast as Brennan.

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Several teams raised their hands at the opportunity to graduate in the stage, such as Uno-X, Cofidis, Bora and Visma, busy placing Cort Nielsen, Coquard, Meeus and Brennan. But Visma has discovered the infallible recipe in the Vuelta, the one in which Van Aert launches and Brennan finishes, the one in which, this time with the Muelle de las Caravelas in the background, where there are three representations of Christopher Columbus’s ships, there is no rival that can resist them. Four golds for Brennan and two for Van Aert, quite a haul for Visma, the fastest team, the true bullet men.

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General Classification

posrider	Team	Time
1 Matthew Brennan	TVL	3h:56:33
2 Bryan Coquard	COF	+00:00
3 Vito Braet	LOI	+00:00
4 Jordi Meeus	RBH	+00:00
5 Magnus Cort	UXM	+00:00
6 Wout van Aert	TVL	+00:00
7 Hugo Hofstetter	NSN	+00:00
8 Vincenzo Albanese	EFE	+00:00
9 Alberto Dainese	SOQ	+00:00
10 César Macías	BBH	+00:00

posrider	Team	Time
1 Enric Mas	MOV	56h:02:29
2 Felix Gall	DCD	+02:06
3 Primoz Roglic	RBH	+02:10
4 Richard Carapaz	EFE	+04:24
5 Oscar Onley	IGD	+05:44
6 Jakob Omrzel	TBV	+06:14
7 Mattias Skjelmose	LTK	+06:49
8 Cristian Rodríguez	XAT	+07:01
9 Clément Berthet	CGF	+07:19
10 Sepp Kuss	TVL	+08:55

See full classification