With the Tour de France Grand Départ taking place in Great Britain in 2027, and a likely sprint into the Carlisle stage offering up the first yellow jersey, Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) represents the best chance at an opening day home winner. But will the rising British star even be present?
Riding for the same team as Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert means that any kind of stage-hunting opportunities are going to be limited, but Brennan has shown throughout 2026 that he can be relied upon for victories, and as a perfect accompaniment to the Belgian star's talents.
Throughout the Vuelta a España, Brennan and Van Aert combined perfectly as Visma dominated the flat and punchy days, winning a third of the 21 stages – five for the Brit and two for the Belgian – across sprints and breakaways.
"It's my first Grand Tour, but also to be as successful in this first Grand Tour is a really nice step into the ambition to try and win in the first few stages in the Tour de France next year," said Brennan.
"I've seen the first and also the second stage [of the 2027 Tour, and the third is quite hard, but there are definitely opportunities to do something within my strengths.
"I would really like to be on the start line. I also understand that the best squad has to go with the ambitions the team has, but I think that for the moment, with being successful as a team, we can probably use myself in different ways to help Jonas bring out his strengths even more and play the cards.
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"But that's also just something the team will discuss in the future, and there has been no decision made, so we just take it as it comes and go from there."
With the full route confirmed in Paris earlier this month, it confirmed more than just two or three chances for Brennan on home roads, but a Tour filled with flat days and punchy finales, where he can potentially challenge the top sprinters and the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.
Visma are considering Brennan, and team boss Richard Plugge couldn't deny that the Brit was going to make up a big part of their plans in 2027, having taken the same number of pro wins as Vingegaard this past season: 12.
"He's entered a small group of very big riders, I think. And when he came to the team, we already knew when he started sprint training, etc. We thought, 'Whoa, what is happening here?' And you see how he climbs here with the best punchy climbers on a parcours like this, then it's really promising for the future," Plugge told Cyclingnews at the finish of the last stage in Granada.
"But it's also his first Grand Tour, and I told him just now to just be really proud: five stage wins – that's incredible, but also finishing your first Grand Tour will only make you stronger and your motor bigger.
"Let's wait and see for the Tour… Let us evaluate and make plans for next year. Obviously, he's part of our plans also with Wout and with Jonas [for 2027], so we will discuss with the whole team like we always do in the coming weeks, and then in our training camp, when we have a media day, we will tell you."
Visma's media day will arrive on December 17, when the full schedules for their big leaders will be revealed, alongside provisional squads for the Tour, which Brennan will desperately hope he's on.
Plugge and all of the management at Visma will have the main goal of winning back the yellow jersey from Pogačar, as they did in 2022 and 2023, but there is little harm in including one stage hunter in Brennan to the ranks.
He's already shown his versatility as a winner and helper for Van Aert, so he would be more than willing and capable to support Vingegaard on the punchier days where victory isn't potentially on the cards. Plugge has some deciding to do, but Brennan signing his future with Visma until 2029 suggests he's confident he'll get the opportunities he wants, even with the Dutch squad's other priorities.
"Matthew knocked very hard on the door there," he told WielerFlits, referring to the Brit's five stage wins from the Vuelta. "You know that he is now one of the big stars in cycling. And this is the biggest race. So we are certainly going to consider it."
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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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