Four stage wins and the overall: Brennan and Visma cap a dominant week at the Flèche du Sud

Visma | Lease a Bike had plenty to celebrate on Sunday in the Giro d'Italia thanks to Jonas Vingegaard, but there were wins elsewhere too. A double celebration, in fact, as both Matthew Brennan and the young Matisse Van Kerckhove also got to celebrate in Luxembourg. The Dutch squad wrapped up a hugely successful Flèche du Sud, taking four stage wins and the overall classification.

It was Brennan who struck on stages one and two, before 19-year-old Van Kerckhove claimed the queen stage on day three. After a bizarre finale on day four — where a race motorbike went the wrong way and brought several riders with it — Van Kerckhove was allowed to keep his leader's jersey by the race jury. Brennan then won the fifth and final stage to seal the result.

As well as the overall title, the team took no fewer than four stage wins, one of them belonging to the teenage Belgian. "It is truly wonderful to win an overall classification for the first time in my professional career," said Van Kerckhove in a press release. "The fact that I have managed to do it as a development team rider makes it extra special. I am incredibly grateful to everyone for this week. The team did an amazing job."

The final stage was still hard work, though. "On paper it looked like an easy stage, but I did not find it that straightforward," explained the young Belgian. "There were constant crosswinds, which made it really tough to stay in the wheel ahead of you."

In the end, Brennan rounded off the celebrations on Sunday. "It feels good to win here for the third time, but I am also really happy for Matisse. He has won a stage race at the professional level for the first time in his career. We did it perfectly as a team. Everyone stuck to the plan and pushed to the very limit. That I got to finish it off in the end is really special. This is a step in the right direction, and towards the bigger goals that lie ahead."

There was, naturally, great satisfaction at Visma | Lease a Bike — including from sports director Gaëtan Pons. "I am very proud of the way we showed ourselves here. Everyone was watching us, because we arrived with the strongest team. Of course you feel a slight pressure to execute everything perfectly, but I think we can safely say that we were by far the strongest team. We are very happy."