Tour of Norway: Matthew Brennan captures first overall victory of brilliant young pro career with second stage win
Visma-Lease a Bike star, 19, clinches both last day's bunch sprints for GC
Young British star Matthew Brennan has continued his relentless run of non-stop success in 2025 with the final stage and overall victory in the Tour of Norway.
Brennan clinched the last day's victory, an undulating 130 kilometre stage starting and finishing in Stavanger, in a sprint ahead of veteran local star Alexandr Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) - still searching for an elusive 100th career win before he ends his career this winter - and Picnic-PostNL's Tobias Lund Andresen.
In the tightly fought GC battle, meanwhile overall Brennan finished 28 seconds ahead of Victor Langelotto (Ineos Grenadiers) and 39 seconds up on Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). He also picked up the points and, of course, the best young rider classifications.
Already a winner on the Tour of Norway's stage 2, the Visma-Lease a Bike racer has now racked up no less than eight victories in his debut pro season. On what is already a red letter day for his team, his latest two triumphs have come just hours before his teammate and fellow Briton Simon Yates conquers the 2025 Giro d'Italia overall.
"It was really hectic in the final," Brennan said in comments reported in Sporza as he savoured the first stage race overall victory of his pro career.
"I knew I had to be well-positioned, otherwise I had no chance of winning. I used a few other riders because I knew there was a headwind.
"This is my first stage race win and I will remember it forever. Without the other guys, this would not have been possible. I am very happy with how it went."
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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