Brennan stands up for Van Aert and deliberately did not choose Van der Poel's wheel in Roubaix: "Way too skilled for me"

Matthew Brennan continued his crazy development in 2025 and strung the wins together. The 20-year-old Brit won no less than 12 times and also rode his first Monument with Paris-Roubaix. That day in France was an unforgettable experience, seeing a very impressive Mathieu van der Poel and standing up for Wout van Aert afterwards.

"Chaotic," Brennan remembers his Roubaix debut in the podcast Inside The Beehive. "I remember I took some caffeine quite early on, which made me really, really nervous going into the sectors." There, the Brit opted for one wheel. "I was kind of hugging Pogacar's wheel a little bit, because I knew: this guy is a pretty safe wheel to follow."

Choices for rear wheels were plentiful, but Brennan deliberately did not chose the wheel of Mathieu van der Poel. "He was all over the place, on kerbs etcetera, following everyone. I was like: I am not getting involved in that, that is way too skilled for me. I just sat on Pogacar's, and I was looking if Wout was around, or Edo (Edoardo Affini, red.)."

"A little later in the race, myself and Wout were still there," said Brennan, who had an unforgettable day at Paris-Roubaix anyway. "In hindsight there are a lot of things I wish I had known to do. But that is the reason that I went there. For the experience, go and enjoy yourself and help Wout out if you can, if not: so what?"

The Brit arrived at the Trouée d'Arenberg, after which the pace picked up considerably. "I remember coming from Arenberg and I see Van der Poel attacking and I said to myself: argh... You're tired and you just see this guy drop the biggest watt-bomb that you could see. He went full gas down the road and that was where I cracked, I think," Brennan explains the Dutchman's acceleration.

"I did that effort and after that I was gone," continued the sprinter, who recently extended his contract. "It was also a tricky situation with Wout behind. You're 19 years old and you're in the front of a bike race in key moments, your leader is behind you, and you're not sure what to do. You kind of follow the decisions you want to make."

In the end, Brennan finished 44th in the day's results, teammate Van Aert was fourth. "Wout really showed how strong he was that day. I cracked completely, but he was a proper diesel. He kept going till the end. He finished fourth that day and people mock that result," the top talent looks at the criticism of his Belgian teammate.

And so Brennan wonders aloud: "Why don't they go and ride Roubaix themselves and find out how hard it is to even get a fourth place? If you consider that as Wout having a bad day on the bike, then let's see when he is having a good day," the young sprinter concludes.