Second victory for Matthew Brennan in Catalunya as Juan Ayuso takes race lead from Roglic
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike are not having their climbers show their best legs at the Volta a Catalunya, but their last-minute addition Matthew Brennan has been shining all week. At 19 years of age, he has now won his second stage in the race, on a finale hit by the crosswinds and where Juan Ayuso stole the lead from Primoz Roglic.
The stage started with a breakaway of eight riders: Bruno Armirail, Michael Leonard, Enzo Paleni, Jan Castellon, Mats Wenzel, Mikel Bizkarra and Jokin Murguialday. They never got much of a gap as the sprinter teams recognized the danger, but equally the threat of crosswinds late in the day made it dangerous to have so many riders towards the front.
The group was caught with 21 kilometers to go finally, Paleni being the last survivor, and just before Juan Ayuso snatched a bonus second in the intermediate sprint which provisionally put him back to the race lead ahead of Primoz Roglic. However the GC fight wouldn't stand there, as shortly after echelons began taking place in the strong crosswinds.
Quickly gaps were formed, and both pelotons would organize itself, but the run-up to the finish saw several moves from both groups to break things even further. However in the end, the fight for the stage win would be in a sprint, with Axel Laurance launching it early but in the final 100 meters there was one man with more speed than everyone else in the group: Matthew Brennan. The Briton took his second win of the week, beating Tibor Del Grosso and Pavel Bittner.
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- What very expensive legal affair?Caralladas03-04-2025
- Powless just got “better” at 28, Rog hasn’t gotten worse at 35, GT only really started getting going in GT late twenties. Give the guy a chance, he’s not even been let off the leash yet, remember what Jonas achieved GT wise since being given leader status.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Jorgenson turns 26 this year, he won't get much bettervappaxbipmv02-04-2025
- i completely agree. wouter has been through a meat grinder. he’s such a class act, a man of such character that he would never complain or make excuses, that’s why it’s so infuriating to hear him spoken about as if he was failing, choking, or in any way not fulfilling what’s expected of him. i get it, he’s a PRO, so part of what he gets paid for is to be a target for anyone with an opinion. fair enough. MY opinion is that he needs TIME to overcome a pile of injuries. i hope he gets there, because he deserves a pile of wins.OCexile02-04-2025
- I just went through the list of events in his recent riding history listed in another article (so not including his very expensive legal affair and any potential trouble at home) and it’s a half miracle he’s still riding at all. He's outfallen Roglič for sure, who always came away RELATIVELY unharmed.Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- ugh. slice and dice this any way you like. if you’re one of the belgians TRYING to believe wout is going to be in the fight at de ronde and roubaix, this is an ice cold dose of reality. my opinion is that nobody — ESPECIALLY his own team — should have been fanning any expectations of wout at this point after what he’s endured.OCexile02-04-2025
- I guess when you’re high, you don’t (need to) focus on anything ;-)Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- True but things also change, Primoz will get older, Remco crashes, MJ isn’t peaking yet and people can improve their weaknesses faster than others improve their strengths, cf MVDP climbing, JV TTing.Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- Sorry, yeah doesn’t look great but it seems all the recent context gets completely ignored in order to make a big story out of this. Honestly, did anyone at this point really expect Wout to suddenly have recovered all his missing form? Respect to Powless but he’s no nobody, his 2022-2023 presaged something like this. Yes they messed up but it also nearly worked, impossible to know how good your opponent is going to be in such a situation unkess it’s an in form Pog or MVDP. I’d not see this as a disaster but a really bad call, there are positives, they distanced a very strong 2nd group (Mads might be saving himself though) and Wout was very close to a place he’s not heen in a long time. I’d call that progress. Only a few meters would have led to completely different headlines. Why make everything so boack and white? Wout obviously understands and it is in part everyone putting all that pressure on him that led to him making a bad call. That said, had he let his mates go for the win (no guarantee either) héd have received different criticism.Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- Pogi is just had 9 days of racing.
James2631802-04-2025