"Had to go full gas" - Matthew Brennan upsets the odds to take first World Tour win with star-making performance at the 2025 Volta a Catalunya
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike's 19-year-old Brit Matthew Brennan is having himself an incredible start to the 2025 season. Including rides at development level, it's now four successive wins for the sprint prodigy, who managed to out power Alpecin-Deceuninck duo Tibor del Grosso and Kaden Groves in a thrilling finale to stage 1 at the Volta a Catalunya on Monday afternoon.
"The weather made it quite tricky today," reflected Brennan, who in the process of this win added a first World Tour success to his palmares, in his post-stage interview afterwards. "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."
In the finale though, the odds were firmly stacked against Brennan. With Del Grosso entering the final kilometre a lone leader and Groves sat firmly on the Brit's back wheel, Brennan was forced to pretty sprint as full gas all the way to the line.
"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," Brennan reflected of the finale. The starlet had clearly done his research too. "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. You've just got to manage it and take responsibility, and it it ended up the best we could have done in that scenario."
Thanks to the win, Brennan also now takes control of the leader's jersey at the Volta a Catalunya as his incredible start to the season goes from strength to strength.
"He's only gone and done it!"
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) March 24, 2025
19-year-old Matthew Brennan with an 𝐮𝐧𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 finish to take the first stage victory at Volta a Catalunya 🔥 pic.twitter.com/csFWGQWtbW
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- My issue is that this site proactively solicits the commentary of one disgraced doper after another. It's like they can't find anyone who didn't leave the sport under a cloud of shame. I think I'm done with this site.critguy26-03-2025
- The finale of this race was an absolute mess, and the last crash that took out 1/2 of the field was caused when a double width road very suddenly funneled into a single lane, and riders had nowhere to go. I find it amazing how some of these courses get approved in the first place. So much for the UCI's campaign for improved rider safety, because if they actually cared, the organizers wouldn't have been allowed to run the finale on this parcours.
santiagobenites26-03-2025 - I hope Wout can come back. He has had 3 terrible crashes--not on par with Froome or Bernal, but at his level just a fraction of a percent is all that separates the grand champions of this new generation. Even if he is back all the way physically, those abrupt confrontations with pavement and mortality take a psychic toll, especially for a father of young kids.
Barney26-03-2025 - Everyone was so keen on free speech for a while, what happened ;-) But seriously, the problem is not so much that he gave his view as that someone follows it and spreads it, not totally unlike the schoolkids running US war games at present ;-)Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- We'll see what happens this year, hopefully he finds himself a little stronger.awp26-03-2025
- awp, the way and races he races, he probably doesn’t feel like he needs that many or specific race days before the Tour. His program isn’t very different from other years.Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- No, he just realises he’s not a one-day racer so why should he force himself?Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- Sacrificing E3 and G-W that were planned seems like he was hedging his options and only decided to do it after not winning MSR. Would he have planned to do all 5 and if so why hold back on announcing P-R if it wasn’t conditional? Guess people will get active with predictions now :-).Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- The MTB World title - there is no such thing. However, there are World titles in XCC, XCO, XCM, XCE, Enduro, Downhill......... He's after the World title in XCO, but could probably win the XCC title too, as his record is still better than anybody else, and he hasn't ridden an XCC World Cup since May 2021. Ten wins from twelve races says it all..... However, the XCO course is Crans-Montana is technical - he will surely need plenty of time back on the MTB, both training, and racing, otherwise it's going to be another doomed ambition.wipperman9526-03-2025
- Sweet. I wonder who's up on the next episode of Disgraced Ex-Doper Offers an Unsolicited Opinion?critguy26-03-2025