Matthew Brennan stormed to a historic fifth stage win at the Vuelta a España on Wednesday, winning stage 17 in Seville.
Visma-Lease a Bike‘s British sprinter became the first fast man to win five stages in the same Grand Tour since Marcel Kittel in 2017, and won for the second day in a row to boot. All in his debut Grand Tour. He is the youngest rider to ever win five Grand Tour stages, and the younger rider to win back-to-back Vuelta stages.
The bunch sprint was closer than other days, with Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) looking good until being pipped at the last, with Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) finishing in third.
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21-year-old Brennan‘s win also marked Visma-Lease a Bike’s seventh win of this Vuelta, their biggest haul ever, with Wout van Aert winning two stages. It was a slightly more complicated bunch sprint with previous days, with Brennan being dropped off by his deluxe leadout man Van Aert earlier, onto the wheel of Cort, before he fully opened up with around 150m to go and was not caught again.
There were lessons taken after Van Aert finished second in a sprint in Seville in 2024, Brennan explained.
“We discussed it in the morning, the bits where he went wrong,” he said on TV post-race. “We didn’t want to repeat that today, we wanted to make sure that we crossed the line first. He was there by my side the whole way, which was fantastic to see, and I’m very thankful for his support.”
The stage was not simple, despite there being no categorised climbs, with a threat of wind throughout, but everything came together for a bunch sprint in the end. The day’s breakaway consisted of two riders, Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United) and Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH), with the former the last to be caught.
“It’s unbelievably special,” Brennan told Eurosport later. “We have had so many big names coming through the team and trying to achieve the same thing we have, and we’ve come to this race with a plan to win some stages. But it was never treally in anyone’s mind to break this record. We sat down yesterday and said we needed to do something now and break the record. Also now, Frans Maassen has to stand up in the dinner hall and do his thing. Something humiliating.
“I don’t think I fully believe it yet,” he continued. “Five Vuelta stages, that doesn’t really sit well in my head. It’s a lot of victories. But I also stand here with some of the best bike riders in the peloton. For myself, it’s unbelievable. In two or three weeks time I still won’t believe I’ve won five victories, but also that’s OK. Maybe a couple of weeks on from that I will believe or look back and think that was pretty impressive.
“When I try and get into the same shape again and think ‘this is getting hard now, how on earth did I win five stages, I’m crawling’. I think it’s a really good stepping stone for next year’s ambitions, and it gives me a lot of confidence to just be in the peloton with all these good guys. It’s an unbelievable situation we’re in.
“I know what this bike race is. The three races I knew were the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta. I knew what I was signing up for this year and it’s spectacular. We’re here in Sevilla and I just won a big bunch sprint. It’s a beautiful situation to be in.”
Vuelta a España 2026, stage 17: Dos Hermanas > Seville (185km)
1. Matthew Brennan (Gbr) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 3:56:33
2. Jordi Meeus (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe
3. Magnus Cort (Den) Uno-X Mobility
4. Alessandro Romele (Ita) XDS Astana
5. Steffen De Schuyteneer (Bel) Lotto Intermarché
6. Axel Laurance (Fra) Netcompany-Ineos
7. Pau Miquel (Esp) Bahrain Victorious
8. César Maciás (Mex) Burgos Burpellet BH
9. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) NSN Cycling
10. Bryan Coquard (Fra) Cofidis
General classification after stage 17
1. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, in 56:02:29
2. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +2:06
3. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:10
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +4:24
5. Oscar Onley (GBr) Netcompany Ineos, +5:44
6. Jakob Omrzel (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, +6:14
7. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +6:49
8. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) XDS Astana, +7:01
9. Clément Berthet (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +7:19
10. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +8:55
