After being guided to a hat-trick of stage wins by Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the Vuelta a España, Matthew Brennan described repaying his 'superstar' teammate by putting in a mountain of work to help him win stage 13 as "even sweeter than a win."
The parcours from Almuñeca to Loja was always going to be one Visma had their eyes on, with a lumpy route through the hills in Andalucía suiting the versatile Van Aert, Brennan, and several others on the Dutch team's stage-hunting roster.
Once a 43-man breakaway had been whittled down to just 10 riders after the final climb, the undulating finale saw Brennan chase down attack after attack from the likes of Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM), Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), and Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the last 15km, before Van Aert landed a killer blow and went away with just Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) 3.7km from the line, who he easily beat in the sprint á deux.
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As the dust settled, Brennan didn't think he'd made any friends in the front group, but his superhuman efforts did help Van Aert finally land the stage win he'd been chasing, and sacrificing chances in favour of the Brit for.
"Proper racing that one," said Brennan at the finish line after shoving an ice sock down his neck and cooling down from the almost 40°C temperatures in southern Spain, then confirming the team's plan for the day.
"We wanted to try and get as many guys up front, and I thought I was probably the best candidate to do that. I wouldn't say I'm cannon fodder, but there are stronger guys behind me.
"So I got in the break, and then I don't think I was very popular in that breakaway, but I know I had a superstar behind me and the team working at full gas to put him in the best situation possible.
"When we got to the top of the climb, I knew this was what we had to do: take ownership of the race, and that's what we did immediately.
"I think we put a lot of pressure on the other guys, and yeah, I'm quite speechless for Wout. I think it's been a long time coming, and I think to do that work today for him is actually sweeter than a win."
The pair's relationship has been on show throughout this Vuelta, with Van Aert's failure to convert from Brennan's strong work in the finale of stage 10 being the only minor misstep.
Now with four wins between them and that relationship stronger than ever, it's no surprise to see Brennan more satisfied for his teammate than perhaps even himself.
"He's a super guy, he works super hard, and he also puts a lot of work in for myself, and that's who he is," said the young Brit. "He's a superstar, and I'm really, really happy that I could kind of do my bit to get him the victory that he deserves in this race."
After he took his second stage win on stage 5, Brennan warned everyone by stating how he isn't one dimensional as a rider, refusing to be put into a box of being a standard fast man: "I wouldn't say I'm a sprinter; I can climb a bit," he said, even still underselling the more than 3000 metres of elevation gain he powered over in the sweltering heat of Friday's stage.
But when he explains how he responded to each and every one of the attacks where he just wouldn't be distanced, Brennan clearly never felt for a moment that they were losing control. In fact, applying more pressure only gave Van Aert the ability to choose the perfect attacking moment, which he did.
"The attacks were hard, but I always knew if there was a guy behind me, it was always going to be his responsibility to close it down and not mine," said Brennan.
"We worked together to get relatively stronger as a team, and again, there was that breaking point where Wout hit it up the climb; no one from that group could follow properly, so then the two went off the front, and I could manage to sprint behind. I think the way we played it was pretty solid."
Was there ever a moment where they planned to play it any less aggressively than they ended up doing?
"Not really," said Brennan. "I think when you don't play it like that, then you play into the competitors' hands, and when the competitors are always on the back foot, that's how you get stronger as a team and you can play your cards a lot better.
"The goal today was to go for Wout, and I'm more than happy to kind of support that. I knew in those late stages, OK, Wout is going to hit it really hard at one point, and if I can facilitate that and make that situation even better for him, then that's how we get the success."
Brennan is so talented it's easy to forget that this is only his first Grand Tour, and so far, he's putting on a debut performance to remember, with three stage wins, a big assist today for Van Aert, and several stunning performances to show off his abilities as a versatile GT stage hunter.
Visma have a great one for the present and future in Matthew Brennan, and with his services contracted to the Dutch team until at least 2029, they can be delighted they snapped him up when they had the chance two years ago.
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