Visma's Matthew Brennan becomes youngest rider to ever finish on the podium of a World Tour race

Team Visma | Lease a Bike have a good eye for young talents but this does not only apply to climbers and classics riders. They seemed to have signed a golden sprinter in Matthew Brennan who, in his first ever World Tour race, became the youngest rider to ever finish on the podium of a race at the highest level.

“It's a fantastic result and I'm very happy. I have to thank the team, who worked hard for me all day. In the last kilometers we wanted to take the opportunity to see how close we could get," Brennan, who was second to Sam Welsford both at the Down Under Classic and today at the Tour Down Under, said in a post-race interview.

In 2024 with the team's development squad, he took a few quality wins and proved to be worthy of joining the elite team already. The Briton, born in 2005, travelled to Australia and impressed with a second place last weekend. Now, he further impressed by becoming the youngest rider to ever finish on the podium of a World Tour race.

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According to Cycling Statistics, he is the youngest rider since 1931 to finish on the podium of a top-level race. However, since the inception of the World Tour in 2009, no other rider has done this at a younger age. He dislodged Juan Ayuso from the top of this interesting statistic.

But Brennan admits that he could've actually won this Tuesday. "I spotted a gap on the left side of the road and decided to go for it. I think I had a strong sprint, but in the end I couldn’t get through," he explains. "At this level, there’s no shame in that. Before the race, I would have happily signed up for a podium in my first WorldTour event. Of course, it stings a bit to lose the win by such a small margin".

Still, he was rewarded with a youth classification jersey, which he will be wearing tomorrow in a more difficult stage. "But it’s great to start tomorrow in the white jersey. It’s been a hectic season opener, but one I’ll remember for a long time. This second place gives me a lot of confidence. I think we’ve started this Tour Down Under on the right foot as a team.”

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