Cheeky Dane leaves Brennan and Visma | Lease a Bike hurting again in Australian finale: “I sounded like a girl!”

The riders faced 182 kilometres around the Australian city of Geelong, with the Challambra Crescent tackled four times in the finale: 1.1 kilometres at an average of 8.5%. Not exactly straightforward. On a course like that, you would usually expect chances for attackers, but the break never got much room.

Jayco AlUla and Visma | Lease a Bike controlled the early move from the start. With last year’s winner Mauro Schmid and Matthew Brennan, both teams had major cards to play for the victory. Once the break was brought back, attacks came from all angles — including from Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) — but after the final ascent, a group of around 20 riders remained.

Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) already won a stage at the Tour Down Under, and in Geelong the young Brit repeatedly shut down moves in the final lap. That meant he was the first to open the sprint — and afterwards he admitted he’d misjudged it. “I had the legs to respond to the accelerations every time, but unfortunately I launched my sprint about a hundred metres too early. That was a misjudgement,” Brennan said via his team’s channels.

His Tour Down Under rival Tobias Lund Andresen won the opening stage of that race, finished on the podium three more times, and took the points classification — and the young Dane backed it up in the one-day race named after Australia’s greatest rider.

With 300 metres to go, Andresen was sitting third wheel. He came around Francesco Busatto (Alpecin-Premier Tech), landed straight onto Brennan’s wheel, then powered past with clear speed — celebrating as he crossed the line.

“I think if you could hear the sound, I would sound like a girl, because I was super happy,” Andresen said immediately afterwards at the press moment. He wasn’t entirely sure the race would suit him beforehand either: “I felt really good, but it’s always a bit 50/50 in this race. If it’s full gas all day, it’s probably a bit too hard for me.”

While Decathlon CMA CGM have gone all-in on sprinting this season, they are already being rewarded early thanks to Andresen. Originally brought in as a lead-out option for Olav Kooij, he was given the finishing role in Australia — and he thanked his teammates afterwards. “I dropped out of the peloton a couple of times, but thanks to the support of the guys I made it back,” he said.

In the final lap, Andresen felt the win might be on: “With one lap to go, I said that if the team delivered me in the perfect position, I knew I was going to win the race.” With 100 metres remaining, he came past Brennan to take victory in the first WorldTour one-day race of 2026.