“If everything goes well, I’ll make my Grand Tour debut at La Vuelta” – Visma’s British prodigy Matthew Brennan steps up for defining 2026

Matthew Brennan is no longer being introduced to the WorldTour. He is being measured against it.

After a 2025 season that saw him win repeatedly across stage races and one-day events, the 20-year-old Brit now heads into 2026 with a very different status. Not a prospect learning the ropes, but a rider whose results have already forced the peloton to take him seriously. “If everything goes well, I will make my Grand Tour debut at La Vuelta,” Brennan said in Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s official press release outlining his 2026 plans.

That single line captures the shift. From breakout rider to rider trusted with three weeks.

For the full picture of how Brennan’s step up fits into Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s wider 2026 strategy alongside Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson, see our main hub: Visma confirm full 2026 plans of Van Aert, Vingegaard, Jorgenson and more.

Brennan did not creep into relevance in 2025. He burst into it.

Across the season, he stacked up wins at a rate few riders of his age have ever managed, taking victories in WorldTour stage races and ProSeries events alike. He won stages in races like Volta a Catalunya, Romandie and Poland, took overall honours at Tour of Norway, and added big one-day wins such as Grand Prix de Denain. By the end of the year he had climbed from obscurity in the UCI rankings into the top tier of the peloton.

What made the year stand out was not just how often he won, but how he did it. Bunch sprints, reduced group finishes, hard stage race days. He was not being pigeonholed. He was being tested.

That is why his own tone going into 2026 is calm rather than star-struck. “Since joining the team, I’ve felt that the guidance is excellent and that I have the best support from everyone,” he said. “I believe this team offers me the best opportunities to keep growing and become an even better rider.”

The ambition is controlled. “I hope to reach the same level as last season, and ideally push even higher. From there, I hope to make my mark more and more in the bigger races.”

Those bigger races come quickly. Brennan will open his season in Australia at the Tour Down Under, already thinking about results. “I’ll start at the Tour Down Under, where I aim for stage wins,” he said. “Then I’ll begin my classics campaign in the opening weekend with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.”

From there, the calendar gets serious. “This year I’m focusing on the big classics, such as Milano-Sanremo, Paris Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders,” he explained. “I hope to play a significant role in these races and gain experience in such big events.”

Those are not development races. They are races that punish weakness. For Brennan, they are part of the next lesson.

The defining unknown of his season sits later in the year. “If everything goes well, I will make my Grand Tour debut at La Vuelta,” he said, already thinking beyond the spring.

He is open about the uncertainty. “Riding three weeks of stages will be tough, and I don’t yet know how my body will respond. But with good preparation and a strong team, I hope to achieve a lot.”

There is ambition behind the curiosity. “It would be great to win at least one stage,” he said. “In every stage race, you start with that goal, and for me, that’s the main objective right now.”

But he also knows what this really is. “Above all, I mainly want to learn and gain experience in La Vuelta.”

Brennan will not start 2026 as an unknown quantity. Rivals now expect him to be there. Teams will watch him. Sprints will be shaped around him.

Big classics. Fast starts. A three week race. That is not a gentle season. It is a proving ground.

In 2026, Matthew Brennan is no longer being introduced to the top level. He is being asked to prove he belongs there, again, over a much longer and harder year.