Remember his title – Matthew Brennan exhibits his teenage dash skills at Circuit de Wallonie

Remember this title: Matthew Brennan. The 18-year-old British rider is anticipated to be among the best sprinters of the subsequent era and has shortly confirmed his skills and pace, even amongst the  professionals.   

Racing for Visma-Lease A Bike’s improvement staff, Brennan sprinted to 3rd place behind Arnaud De Lie and Axel Zingle on the finish of the Circuit de Wallonie on Thursday, beating a bunch of different WorldTour riders, together with Jake Stewart and Luca Mozzato, within the bunch end in Charleroi.

“This feels actually good,” Brennan mentioned after his third place. “The race went completely for us. We have been consistently on the entrance and Loe van Belle made certain we did not must waste a lot power within the peloton.

“The final kilometres have been fairly hectic. I managed to comply with Tosh Van der Sande’s wheel and after Per did an excellent flip on the entrance, I obtained prepared for the dash.”

Stewart, at 24 nonetheless a promising rider himself, launched the dash on the ultimate straight of the hilly 184km race earlier than Zingle moved up alongside him with Brennan and De Lie lined up in his slipstream.

The pair each hit the wind within the remaining 100 metres as Stewart pale, with De Lie pulling previous to seize the win as Brennan completed alongside Zingle however a contact behind his entrance wheel, to safe third.

“I went in with loads of confidence as a result of midway by means of the race I felt I had good legs,” Brennan mentioned. “To be trustworthy, I did not count on to complete on the rostrum. That’s why I’m very pleased about it.

“You choose up from every thing and be taught from one of the best riders on the planet. That makes it lots simpler for the subsequent races.”

The Visma racer is new to the Dutch staff after becoming a member of from British junior staff Fensham Howes over the winter – having additionally been supported by the Rayner Foundation throughout his improvement.

He’s mixed highway and monitor throughout his profession to this point, final 12 months changing into a junior world champion within the latter self-discipline in each particular person pursuit and the Madison (alongside Bradley Wiggins’ son Ben).

“The guys took management of the race and rode courageously,” Visma-Lease A Bike directeur sportif Arthur van Dongen mentioned. “Loe was maybe the strongest man right now and Matthew was very near victory.

“There was definitely no disgrace in ending third behind De Lie. All in all it was an excellent day and offers loads of confidence for the longer term.”

A winner of the Guido Reybrouck Classic and Keizer des Juniores in 2023, Brennan has already taken wins on the Croatian 1.2 one-day races, the Trofeo Umag and Trofeo Poreč this season. 

Now, having overwhelmed the likes of Paul Penhoët, Luca Mozzato, and Jake Stewart in Wallonie, he’ll proceed his improvement by mixing U23 races with spells alongside the professionals.

Brennan is contracted with the event squad by means of 2025 and can hope in future to make the leap to the WorldTour, very like former Visma improvement riders together with Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates), Johannes Staune-Mittet, Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease-A Bike), Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost), and Lars Boven (Alpecin-Deceuninck).