19-year-old Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) won his first WorldTour level race and took his second pro victory in the space of just five days on stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya, with an immense display of power to overcome a late breakaway attempt by Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
In soaking wet conditions on the first day of the week-long race in northeastern Spain, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set a stringent pace heading into the final 30 kilometres and shredded the bunch, and though a sprint was expected at the beginning of the day, few fast men remained as the reduced peloton approached the finish in Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
Del Grosso attacked on the descent with two kilometres remaining but ran out of energy just short of the line, as Brennan powered past him with Del Grosso’s teammate – who the team had been riding for all day – Kaden Groves, unable to come past him.
Brennan takes the early lead on GC for the Dutch team, who will likely switch focus to supporting Simon Yates once the more mountainous terrain begins. Groves finished second and Del Grosso third, on a frustrating day for Alpecin-Deceuninck.
"The weather made it quite tricky today. We did everything we could to try and keep the position towards the front and minimise any losses, so we came into the finish, we knew the coast road would be a critical point in the bike race, and I managed to get in position with a few guys around me, they supported me into there and from there we managed to sprint," said Brennan.
"At the end, it was such a tricky situation to manage, you just had to go full gas really and I’m so happy it ended up like this, so big thanks to everyone involved.
"I was sat watching [last year’s stage] last night, and as soon as Alpecin went off the front I knew this was a replay from last year, and you’ve just got to really manage it and take responsibility and it ended up the best we probably could have done, in that scenario."
How it unfolded
Mas and Roglič speak at the start line of stage 1 (Image credit: Getty Images)
The 2025 edition of the Volta a Catalunya began with a lumpy circuit of 178.6 kilometres beginning and ending in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, with the peloton taking on a large loop heading up the coast and inland, followed by a shorter loop. The profile featured two third-category climbs, with barely any flat along the parcours, and would conclude with a steep ramp up to the finish line.
The race rolled out in bright sunshine but it wasn’t long before clouds gathered and rain jackets were donned as the weather took a turn for the worse.
A four-man breakaway group was quickly established but was kept on a short leash, amassing no more than a 2:30 lead which diminished heading into the latter half of the day’s racing.
The breakaway on stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya (Image credit: Getty Images)
With the break in their sights, the peloton took the long descent with caution in the wet conditions, and eventually subsumed the four-man lead group just prior to the first passage of the finish line.
From there, despite an attack from a pair of riders from Lotto and Groupama-FDJ which was quickly snuffed out, the group remained compact as they covered the remaining kilometres, the wet road surface likely contributing to the lack of interest in any long-range attacks.
Alpecin-Deceuninck controlled the pace on behalf of their sprinter, Groves, though it was Enric Mas of Movistar who put his nose in the wind to snatch the three-second bonus at the final intermediate sprint of the day.
The pace began to increase with around 30 kilometres remaining in the stage, with INEOS Grenadiers, Movistar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG joining the charge at the head of the bunch.
Ten kilometres later, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took over, protecting their leader Primož Roglič in his second race of the 2025 season. The rain continued to fall and the peloton split under the brisk pace set by the German team, with Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) among the riders dropped from the main group, which diminished in size to around 40 riders as they entered the final descent down to the finish line.
It was a rain-soaked day in Catalunya to open up the week-long stage race (Image credit: Getty Images)
With two kilometres to go, Del Grosso clipped off the front of the bunch catching everyone else sleeping, and the 21-year-old used his exceptional descending skills to build a seemingly unassailable gap over the rest of the group.
But with the final kicker up to the finish line to contend with, it quickly became clear that Brennan and Groves were closing in on the rapidly fading Del Grosso. With the Dutchman struggling, Brennan charged past just metres from the finish line to deny the U23 cyclocross world champion from taking what would have been his first World Tour victory, taking his own in the process.
A number of GC favourites were able to survive the ferocious tempo though there are already a few notable names who lost time, including Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Simon Yates (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco-AlUla) who all sit 25 seconds down on Brennan’s leading time and 18 seconds down on the best-placed GC rider Mas after the opener.
Brennan in the iconic Catalunya leader's jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
Katy is a freelance writer and journalist. She has published interviews, features, and previews in Cycling News, Rouleur, Cyclist Magazine and the British Continental. She also writes opinion pieces on her own website writebikerepeat.com and is a frequent contributor to the Quicklink podcast.
She is obsessed with the narrative element of bike racing, from the bigger picture to the individual stories. She is a cyclocross nut who is 5% Belgian and wonders if this entitles her to citizenship. Her favourite races are Ronde van Vlaanderen and La Vuelta.
In her spare time Katy is a published short fiction and non-fiction author.
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