Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) doubled up on victories at the Vuelta a Burgos as he narrowly pipped Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to the line in the sprint on stage 4 in Briviesca.
Losing contact with his last lead-out man through the final corner, it looked like the Brit was out of it as the sprint started, opening up his effort from 13th position as Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor) and David González (Pinarello Q36.5) surged to the front with speed.
González looked as though he was going to claim the win, but was passed in the final 50 metres by both Brennan and Pithie, with the Visma rider edging it thanks to a huge and perfectly timed turn of speed.
This was 21-year-old Brennan's seventh victory of the season, as he continues his build-up to the Vuelta a España, where he will make his Grand Tour debut alongside the likes of Wout van Aert.
The brutal finale to Lagunas de Neila (6.4km at 9.1%) is set to decide things on Saturday, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Oscar Onley (Netcompany) well within striking distance to overtake Gall at the last attempt, just six and seven seconds down respectively after the Scot gained a second at the bonus sprint in Oña.
A breakaway of three riders led for the majority of stage 4, with Caja Rural-Alea duo Nil Aguilera and Javier Ibáñez getting up the road alongside Josh Burnett (Burgos Burpellet BH) heading out of Palazuelos de Muñó.
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With only two small categorised climbs on the 178km route, last man standing Ibáñez survived in front all the way until the final 16km, when the Cofids, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Visma-Lease a Bike-led peloton finally reeled him back, allowing the build-up to the final sprint to unfold without interruption.
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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