Bryan Coquard has 56 wins in his palmares and at 34, the experienced French sprinter only recently clinched his first Grand Tour stage victory in the ongoing Vuelta a España. But the Cofidis fastman recognised at the finish at La Rábida on Tuesday that despite his top condition, when it comes to defeating Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) in Spain, the Briton is seemingly in a class of his own right now.
Already beaten into second place by Brennan in Lorca on stage 11, receiving a faultless lead out by Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert, Coquard was once again unable to stop the Visma-Lease a Bike fastman from dealing out a repeat blow six days later.
Interviewed by Eurosport, Coquard underlined he had done everything right and that tactically there were no other options than simply trying. As he said jokingly afterwards: "If he was badly placed, then I'd have won, but it's not like we can block him off with one kilometre to go".
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"I waited, I was on his wheel, it wasn't so easy on those surfaces weighing 58 kilos like I do," Coquard said, "then there was a big fight, a long one to try and get past him.
"I had the idea of going early. But he was going too fast and with Wout van Aert to lead him out, too, I got second."
Coquard's words were echoed by third-placed Vito Braet (Lotto-Intermarché), who pointed out that Brennan might have been lacking his other lead-out man, Christophe Laporte, who abandoned late in the second week, but it made no difference to the result.
"With only Van Aert, he still won," pointed out Braet, who himself was expecting to lead out Steffen De Schuteneer but after the two lost contact, ended up racing for himself.
"Brennan is very strong and it's not just on the sprints, you can see that on way he handles the climbs, too," Coquard said to Eurosport.
"Wout dropped him off at 150 metres to go, but as I said, he was just too fast."
Coquard said he will try again in what looks very likely to be the last bunch sprint of the 2026 Vuelta, in Seville on Wednesday afternoon. As he pointed out, Visma-Lease a Bike had multiple options to play, a lot of strength in depth and team support for their sprinter, and it was very hard to get on terms.
"There are six of them, [Sepp] Kuss for the GC, Van Aert to lead him out, three others to work all day. Frankly, there's not much to say," Coquard pointed out.
"We played our role and played our cards, and that's pretty much all we can do."
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