Grand Tour debutant Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) stormed to a dominant sprint victory on stage 2 of the Vuelta a España after a thrilling finale into Manosque, where the superstars came to the fore but failed to claim the day.
After more than 200km of racing, Brennan's teammate Wout van Aert lit things up with 2km to go, attacking as soon as the uphill roads arrived heading into the town and instantly getting a gap, with only race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) able to follow.
They were caught heading into the last kilometre before Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) opened up the sprint early. Unfortunately for him, Brennan was lurking on his wheel, and once he hit out for glory, no one could match the young Brit's incredible turn of speed.
Riding his first three-week race, the 21-year-old easily beat the big names to the line, Pau Miquel (Bahrain-Victorious) landing a strong result for second, with Pogačar in third and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in fourth.
Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) had moved into the virtual lead of the race after a gutsy ride in the breakaway and thanks to taking six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, but he was poorly positioned throughout the final approach to the line, finishing on a gap to the leaders and missing out on red for a second day running.
Pogačar held onto red with a now nine-second lead over Van Aert heading into stage 3. Thanks to his victory, Brennan moved into third overall and took control of the Best Young Rider's white jersey.
"We started off with the ambition of trying to get Wout in the red jersey today, and we said there's a nice opportunity to attack in the final, and Wout was really keen to do that. So we had that plan, and I was always going to be in the background to sprint in case that sat up," said Brennan.
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"That's exactly what happened; the guys in front sat up, Christophe did a great job of guiding me all the way through the hecticness of that, and I'm super happy to finish it off.
"Hopefully it's not the last one, because it's nice. Again, the boys worked all day really well, really gave it 100% and believed in both of us so we could achieve something successful today. I'm really happy to start off this way."
Hayter moves into virtual lead from breakaway
The longest and first road stage of the Vuelta a España kicked off with a long neutralised roll-out from Monaco heading west into France, but it didn't take long for the attacks to fly, with four riders quickly getting up the road before the first climb.
With the Alto Châteauneuf-Grasse (123km at 2,9%) approaching, Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla) and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma) formed a leading duo, with stage 1 runner-up Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) soon joining them as he looked to overtake Pogačar and take the red jersey. After some time chasing solo, Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH) chased on to make it four in front.
They weren't allowed to build a big lead by any means, though, with the peloton keeping them around a 1:45 lead for much of the opening half of the race.
After the second and final categorised climb on the 214km route, Col de Saint Abdrieu (5km at 4.8%), an aggressive pace being set by Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike saw the break's advantage cut down to just 1:28 with 110km to go.
This pattern stayed the same for much of the middle portion of the race, with the gap coming down to under 30 seconds in the final 50km. As the intermediate sprint in Gréoux-les-Bains approached – and with it six bonus seconds and a potential red jersey – Ethan Hayter set off on his own from the breakaway.
Hayter completed his individual effort to take the maximum six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, leapfrogging him into the virtual lead of the race ahead of Pogačar. Just 20 seconds behind, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) took the remaining maximum four bonus seconds on offer.
The build-up to a thrilling final sprint
With Hayter back in, the pace lulled for a number of kilometres as the teams eyeing a sprint finish started to come to the fore. It wasn't until the final 10km that racing would kick off properly, though, when the likes of Visma-Lease a Bike and Netcompany Ineos moved into commanding positions on the front.
During the accelerations, Hayter stayed towards the back of the bunch, as is typical for him in recent years, but he couldn't risk getting gapped in the finale with how tight the race for the red jersey was.
Pogačar's UAE teammates kept him right towards the front in the yellow jersey as he threatened to take a run at the drag to the line, and on the entry into the finishing town and much narrower roads, he was in the perfect place to react.
It was Van Aert he had to respond to, who made a daring move with 2km to go, in pursuit of a potential stage win, red, and softening up of Brennan's rivals. In the end, Pogačar didn't pull through, and Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) bridging across wasn't enough to keep them away from the Lidl-Trek-led peloton.
With the big stars caught, the sprint started to unfold with Visma still in the perfect position, as Christophe Laporte guided Brennan into the final few hundred metres, dropping him off onto the wheel of Fisher-Black, who went for a long one.
Brennan confirmed all of the talent he has already shown as a rapidly rising young star, surging away from Pedersen, Pogačar, and the rest to win by a relatively massive margin when it comes to a Grand Tour sprint.
In the end, Hayter's failure to position himself at the front proved decisive, as he missed the moves in the finale and perhaps paid for his earlier effort in the break, getting gapped and failing to claim red. Pogačar maintained his lead and it's now unlikely someone will take it off him again – unless a breakaway is allowed to get up the road and take significant time on tomorrow's third stage.
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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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