Not since a 20-year-old Tadej Pogačar tore into the 2019 Vuelta a España had a Grand Tour debutant swept up three stage wins in one race. On Wednesday in Lorca, Matthew Brennan matched him.
The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider came off the wheel of Wout van Aert inside the final kilometre of the 153.8 km run from Cartagena, beating Bryan Coquard and Jordi Meeus in a bunch sprint that closed a tightly controlled day for his teammates.
An early break with Britain’s Ethan Hayter was reeled back well before the Alto de Aledo, and the sprint teams took over from there. Van Aert delivered Brennan into the finishing straight.
Brennan credited the leadout through a nervous closing 10 kilometres.
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“We took the initiative today again, and the boys pulled as hard as they could. The boys did a fantastic job within that last 10km to really keep us in the right place, in the right position, out of trouble,” he told reporters.
A Darlington rider on the fast track
Brennan is from Darlington, in the north-east of England, and came up through track cycling before switching to the road. He is 21 and racing his first-ever Grand Tour.
Visma clearly like what they see. In December 2025 the Dutch WorldTeam extended his contract until at least the end of 2029, noting he had won twelve professional races in his first WorldTour season.
What Pogačar did in 2019
The comparison flatters, but it is not a like-for-like. Pogačar’s three stage wins at his 2019 debut all came in the mountains, at Andorra, Los Machucos and Plataforma de Gredos, and he finished third overall in Madrid.
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Brennan’s hat-trick is the sprinter’s version of the same feat. His earlier wins came on stages 2 (Manosque) and 9, before Wednesday’s finish in Lorca, all of them ending in mass gallops set up by his team.
Calar Alto summit finish on Thursday
At the top of the standings, Enric Mas of Movistar holds the red jersey after stage 11, with Primož Roglič 1:18 back and Felix Gall third at 1:39.
The race resumes on Thursday with a 166.6 km climb from Vera to the Calar Alto observatory.
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