Why Brennan is such a good fit at Visma | LaB: 'You learn a lot about a rider in that kind of situation'

Brennan has been part of Visma | Lease a Bike’s development pathway since 2024, but before that he rode for British Continental team Fensham Howes-MAS Design. It is a squad built to prepare young British talents for racing in Europe. And who manages it? Giles Pidcock — father of Tom Pidcock.

Pidcock quickly realised Brennan was no ordinary talent. “I remember one race a few days later. He crashed on a cobbled sector and had to stay on the ground for at least five minutes because his leg hurt too much,” he told L'Équipe. “But in the end he got back on his bike and managed to rejoin the peloton after about thirty kilometres. It was brilliant. You learn a lot about a rider in that kind of situation.”

Few riders have broken through as quickly as Brennan in recent years. In 2025 he went from a Continental rider in Visma | Lease a Bike’s development set-up to a genuine dark horse for Paris–Roubaix in a matter of months. Pidcock sees the 20-year-old sprinter as the archetype of a modern top rider. “He’s a little bull who likes to push big gears, but not at a high cadence.”

Brennan grew up in Darlington and learned to ride in the hills of north-east England. “Those shaped me into the rider I am now. There was a group of riders I raced with every Saturday when I was younger; the idea was to ride out to a café and then come back. Then I started racing, did a bit of mountain biking for fun, a bit of indoor training... and I started getting better.”

His talent was obvious in the junior ranks, but his development suddenly stalled. For a long time it was unclear why, but Brennan was eventually diagnosed with coeliac disease, which means he cannot tolerate gluten. “So he was racing without energy and still performing well,” Pidcock explained. “Then we saw him take a big step forward. In his first year at Visma he changed completely and came into much better shape.”

With the Killer Bees, the young Brit blossomed quickly. After an excellent year at under-23 level, he won no fewer than 12 races in 2025, four of them in the WorldTour. Growing up has clearly never been a problem for Brennan. Pidcock senior already noticed it when he was just 17: a maturity that set him apart from his team-mates, who looked up to him.

“When Matty was there, all the kids called him ‘dad’, because he was the sensitive, exemplary guy, the leader who gave advice,” said Pidcock. “I remember long trips with him sitting in the front and us talking about everything — politics, economics, the world... He was always curious about why things are the way they are. I think that trait fits perfectly with the Visma model, the scientific, prescriptive approach.”