Matthew Brennan gets it done without Wout van Aert's help on stage 17 of the Vuelta a España

Matthew Brennan has also won the seventeenth stage of the Vuelta a España. The British rider from Visma | Lease a Bike had Wout van Aert as his lead-out man, but had to go it alone in the final few hundred metres against strong competition. He ultimately succeeded in spectacular fashion, securing Visma’s seventh stage victory and Brennan’s fifth.

Of the five opportunities Brennan has had these past few weeks, he has already capitalized on four of them. The latest came in the first stage after the rest day. On a flat stage, he and Visma | Lease a Bike once again proved to be very hard to beat when it comes down to a sprint. But his rivals will be even more determined to beat him, because Seville is their last chance.

And so Cofidis showed ambition when two breakaway riders, Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United) and Sinuhe Fernandez (Burgos-Burpellet-BH), rode away early in the stage. The chasers were given no chance, allowing Visma | Lease a Bike to take control. In doing so, they received surprising help from Cofidis, which, with Coquard, therefore had hope.

The maximum lead of the leading duo rose to over 5 minutes, but Visma | Lease a Bike, in particular, stepped up the pace once again with Steven Kruijswijk. The Dutchman was allowed to ride at his own pace for a brief moment, but when the gap, led by Cofidis, became too large, he had to get back to work. In this way, the yellow-and-black team kept everything under control.

As the lead dropped below 2 minutes with 50 kilometres to go and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe also put in a burst of pace, the two escapees seemed to be finished. That changed when Red Bull dropped off the front and, for a moment, no team was riding at full throttle. With 35 kilometres to go, Paleni and Fernández suddenly had a 2.30-minute lead again.

The two contenders couldn’t harbour too much hope, because with the intermediate sprint looming 16 kilometres from the finish, the pace in the peloton picked up almost automatically. In the battle for points, Coquard surprisingly sprinted alongside Wout van Aert, who was beaten to the line. This led to a brief exchange, during which Coquard appeared to explain his move.

After the intermediate sprint, the focus was on the sprint, where Brennan and Van Aert soon seemed to be in perfect position. However, Uno-X Mobility in particular was strong for Magnus Cort and so Van Aert did not have the space to steam forward with Brennan in the wheel. The Briton chose a different wheel, came out himself and still won by force majeure.