"To see that rewarded today is really special" - Matthew Brennan ends Tour Down Under with a victory

Team Visma | Lease a Bike travelled to Australia with its main focus on supporting Matthew Brennan into a stage win. It didn't seem as if it was going to happen after the Briton missed out on it in the first three sprints of the race; but on the final day he achieved this in what was perhaps the most difficult of sprints.

“It was quite chaotic, with a lot of movement in the peloton. But the team did a really good job, and I’m very happy I could finish it off," the Briton said in a post-race interview, as reported by Domestique. The Dutch team did not put in as much during the day to the chase this time around, and had men around Brennan into the final 2 kilometers when it mattered the most.

The Briton struggled with positioning over the two flat sprints, whilst in Willunga's uphill dash to the line it seemed as if he lacked the legs. However today that was not the case, as he held his own in the front on the slight uphill finish into Stirling and, after matching the early sprint of Brady Gilmore, then went on to overtake him and sprint to victory.

"The past week didn’t always go as we hoped, and results were hard to come by. But as a team, we worked hard every day and gave 100 percent in every stage. To see that rewarded today is really special," he admits. Finally proving he has good form, this will make him a prime contender to win the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race next week.

However, this is in his mind a path towards the classics. “This victory gives me a lot of confidence for the races coming up in spring. It’s been a learning week, with its ups and downs. But today, we did everything we needed to do, and that gives me a lot of confidence,”

Brennan did not crash today, however several riders, including his teammate Menno Huising, did go down because of two kangaroos who moved into the peloton during the stage. An unusual moment that will be stuck in the memory of the Briton.

“I just remember looking to the right and seeing this big animal and thinking, ‘You’re not meant to be here'," he joked. "You can’t really predict two kangaroos jumping across the road. I hope everyone’s okay, because that’s the main thing.”

“They were quite big. All the Aussie boys say they come in pairs, and then suddenly the second one just throws itself into the peloton.”