Stage 5 Vuelta a España winner Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) has recognised that generally speaking trying to beat the best rider in the world, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is virtually impossible. But in terms of stage wins, there is still room to try to challenge the Slovenian.
Brennan was talking minutes after capturing his second victory in the Vuelta in four days, which he'd claimed in part thanks to a textbook leadout from Visma teammates Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert, which he followed up with his own unstoppable dash for the line.
On Tuesday, Pogačar didn't even take part in the sprint, but Brennan pointed out that on certain types of terrain "the chances of Pogačar are a lot slimmer than usual and that will play into our hands a lot more."
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The 21-year-old didn't mention it, but stage 2 on Sunday was a case in point. Riding on hilly terrain where there was no major GC battle - where Pogačar is proving unmatchable in the Vuelta - Wout van Aert launched a late attack to which the UAE leader responded, but then failed to collaborate. That set things perfectly for Brennan, waiting in the wings when the peloton then swamped the two breakaways, to follow up Van Aert's neutralisation of Pogačar with a bunch sprint win.
Brennan recognised that Pogačar was virtually impossible to beat, responding to a question about what it was like to race in the 'Age of Tadej' with an expressive "Tadej? Phwoa."
"It's not just him, it's the team he has, they're so strong, they're diesels, they can go all day," he added. Some courses were simply perfect for the Slovenian star, he said, but on the other hand, "when the course is built in a certain way, you almost know that the chances of Pogačar are a lot slimmer than usual, and that will play into our hands a lot more.
"That's when we have guys like Wout, strong riders who are capable of trying to follow Tadej or even to take advantage of this.
"But we're still two and two," he said, referring to the stage wins taken by Visma and UAE so far. "There's still a battle going on."
As for Brennan himself, the 21-year-old may not be able to beat Pogačar on the climbs, but he's already clinched both of those victories for Visma in his first Grand Tour. It's a major statement of intent for the seasons to come by the young British rider, and it also sees him form part of a long line of fastmen and all-rounders who took their first Grand Tour stage in the Vuelta. To name but a few in the last decade or so, these include Jasper Philipsen in 2020, Michael Matthews in 2013, Caleb Ewan in 2015 and Kaden Groves in 2022.
Quite apart from his own level of achievements, Brennan paid fulsome tribute to his squad for his second success, singling out Van Aert - "he understands exactly what to do, it just happens, and that's what you need to be successful in a race like this - and Laporte as instrumental in the closing kilometres.
"It was really important to be on Christophe's wheel, I found myself sliding on the paint on the corner so that was a bit scary, but we managed to get through it OK. Then I was able to open up my sprint exactly as I wanted to," he explained.
"Christophe is one of the best leadout guys in the world, or maybe I should say he is the best lead-out? In any case, when you complement that with Wout, such a successful pairing."
Brennan also had his own sources of inspiration on Wednesday, given he'd taken one of his breakthrough WorldTour wins in the 2025 Volta a Catalunya in Amposta, just a few kilometres away.
"That was quite nice, I remembered the crosswind sections in Catalunya last year, too, so they were nice memories. I was also saying to myself - I've won in this area before, maybe I could do it again.
"So I also believed in myself, and I am very happy to finish that one off."
Looking further back in cycling history, Brennan revealed that he was also an admirer of Mark Cavendish, who, as he put it, "would never produce the most power but was always able to finesse the peloton very well, and get himself in the position to succeed."
Coincidental or not, there was a certain similarity in tactics between Cavendish and the way Brennan and Visma-Lease a Bike knew that the terrain on Wednesday, with its hilly finale, was ideal for weeding out the pure sprinters. Brennan was then perfectly poised to pounce.
It remains to be seen what such a versatile fastman like Brennan, the winner of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne this spring and of stages in Burgos prior to the Vuelta, can achieve in the rest of the race -and the rest of the season. But even if he would not be doing the World Championships, Brenann said, figuring it might be pushing himself too hard to go there straight after doing his first Grand Tour, his current strike rate in Spain and victory in Kuurne this spring already combine to make 2026 a runaway success.
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