"He has it in him": Visma manager Grischa Niermann praises Matthew Brennan and a united squad after Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne victory

Matthew Brennan secured a massive victory at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne this Sunday, sprinting to the win after a demanding and chaotic race. Following a difficult opening day of the Classics weekend marked by numerous crashes, including one for Brennan himself, his team executed a perfect tactical plan. They managed to drop several pure sprinters, putting Brennan in a perfect position to secure the victory.

The Opening Weekend was a chaotic affair, with crashes impacting many riders. Despite the setbacks, Niermann was extremely proud of how his riders responded on Sunday.

"Yes, today we saw a super team. Yesterday as well, actually, but today it worked out with Matthew [Brennan]'s win at the end, and we are very happy about it," Niermann explained in his post-race interview.

When asked about the importance of recovering so quickly from Saturday's disappointments, the team manager kept things in perspective. "Well, yesterday wasn't that bad, but in the end, of course, we wanted to win and be on the podium. That wasn't possible. Christophe [Laporte]'s fourth place was the highest we could achieve. Today was the next really big race where we wanted to show ourselves, and I think that worked perfectly today," he noted.

The team's strategy was highly visible throughout the race. They were constantly attentive, jumping into moves and closing gaps immediately. When asked what he told his riders before the start, Niermann outlined a clear objective to avoid a traditional bunch sprint, even if Brennan is arguably one of the fastest men in the peloton despite his young age.

"That we had to perform as a united team, that we wanted to be in all the moves, and that we wanted to try to make the race hard. We didn't necessarily want to arrive at the finish line with every sprinter, even though we assume that Matthew can beat anyone. Of course, if he has to sprint against [Jasper] Philipsen and [Jonathan] Milan and so on, they are the big favorites, but he is super fast. Today we made the race hard and in the end, he was able to win the sprint, and win it very convincingly. So, all good," he said.

By placing three riders in the key breakaway group, the team had multiple options to win. "No, of course we wanted to help shape the race and make it hard, because we want Matthew to play a role in the Classics in the future. For that, he has to be able to participate in the real racing action of a race like this, and he showed that today - and also yesterday until his crash. So yes, the idea was definitely to make the race hard and, if necessary, to push to the finish with two men or just with Matthew," Niermann added.

Brennan's confident sprint was especially impressive given that he had crashed just the day before. For Niermann, however, the young rider's resilience was not a shock.

"Yes, he has it in him, I know that. Nevertheless, it is always decided at the finish line. As I said, Matthew rode a great sprint, but he was also given a massive lead-out by Christophe and excellently prepared by the rest of the team. Therefore, I really want to frame it as a team effort today," he emphasized.

Securing such a significant victory without their star rider, Wout van Aert, proves the depth of the squad as they head deeper into the spring Classics.

"Yes, of course. What you have, you have, on the one hand. But on the other hand, we will be even stronger when Wout is back. I think we have really shown now that we have a strong team, that at the moment we have more than seven guys who are really good for the Classics. And we need them, because in recent years we've always had a lot of bad luck in these races - well, everyone has bad luck."

"I think yesterday there were maybe 100 crashes. So it's not like we are the only ones who have bad luck, but unfortunately, it's part of these races. I think we have a very deep, strong squad, and with Wout there, we will simply be even stronger," Niermann concluded.