“I used to stand at the finish and watch the pros... now I’ve won it” – Matthew Brennan seals dream Kuurne breakthrough

Matthew Brennan’s breakthrough at Kuurne – Bruxelles – Kuurne was not just another sprint victory at the end of Opening Weekend. It was the closing of a circle that began years earlier behind the barriers.

“I raced this race twice as a junior,” Brennan said after his dominant finish, having followed the likes of compatriot Mark Cavendish onto the winner's list in Kuurne. “After that, we all stood at the finish to watch the professionals come in. Now I’ve won it myself as a pro. That’s an amazing feeling.”

The step from watching to winning rarely comes this quickly. And it rarely comes on a day as chaotic as this.

Kuurne 2026 did not unfold as a straightforward sprinters’ opportunity. It fractured early and never fully settled. “I actually felt a bit nervous all day after my crash yesterday,” Brennan admitted, referencing his fall at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad less than 24 hours earlier. “But I could rely on an incredible team-mate to bring me back into the race from a lost position today. He gave absolutely everything.”

That support mattered. The race had already taken a toll.

Tim Wellens crashed before the decisive hill phase and abandoned, stripping UAE of a key engine. On Mont Saint Laurent, the tempo lifted sharply and the script began to tear apart. Arnaud De Lie, Jonathan Milan and Dylan Groenewegen were distanced. Paul Magnier punctured at the worst possible moment on the cobbles. The expected full bunch sprint scenario was dismantled long before the run-in to Kuurne.

By the time the early break was absorbed, the field had already been thinned. “We made the race hard, we took the initiative,” Brennan explained. The crosswinds inside the final 35 kilometres added another layer of selection, with echelons forming and riders shed from the front in waves. Even Jasper Philipsen was briefly compromised by a puncture and had to fight back with limited support.

This was no ordinary sprint.

When the race finally returned to Kuurne for the local laps, only those who had survived terrain, crashes and wind remained. “The whole team was brilliant. They did their job, with Laporte delivering a fantastic lead-out,” Brennan said, smiling. “I had the easiest task, just to finish it off in the last 100 metres. I can’t thank my team-mates enough.”

It looked straightforward in the final metres. It was anything but straightforward to reach them.

A late attack briefly threatened to disrupt the sprint trains, but it was reeled in with 1.5 kilometres to go. From there, it became a positioning battle between riders who still had something left after nearly 195 kilometres of cumulative damage. Brennan opened up decisively and was comfortably the fastest to the line.

His first victory in a Flemish Classic now sits beside those junior wins he once celebrated from behind the barriers. “My first, yes. Hopefully, there are more to come.”

And his ambitions already stretch beyond Kuurne. “The Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix. They’re iconic races. Hopefully one day I can win one of them.”

On the evidence of a brutal Kuurne that stripped away many of the pre-race favourites, Brennan’s trajectory is moving quickly. He no longer watches the pros arrive at the finish. He is arriving first.