Young Briton Matthew Brennan continued a stellar first season as a professional by taking a maiden victory on stage three of the Tour of Britain, becoming the youngest stage winner in the race’s history.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider was well positioned in the bunch in the closing kilometres of stage three, a sprinter-friendly 122.8km ride from Milton Keynes to Ampthill.
And he benefited from a superb lead-out by teammate Olav Kooij, unquestionably the best sprinter in this field and winner of stages one and two, who - rather than compete for himself, as had been expected - turned provider today.
The Brit peeled off Kooij’s wheel with 100m to go and proved too strong for any of his rivals, with enough time to sit up and punch the air in celebration as he crossed the line.
The 20-year-old’s victory - his 12th professional win of the season - also came with a bonus ten seconds, a useful springboard for his general classification bid over the next three stages.
“It’s fantastic, this season has been pretty incredible so far, and to still keep winning towards the end of the season as well is really nice,” Brennan said. “It was really chaotic into the last few k. We kind of bided our time a bit, moved up in the last 2k, took an opportunity and I followed Olav’s wheel. He finished it off brilliantly.
Asked about the team’s approach, he said: “It was always the plan [for Kooij to target stages one and two and Brennan to target stage three].
“They said we can’t have you going to your home race and not try and win something. To be given this opportunity when Olav is leading is really special and I’m really thankful for that.”
Alberto Dainese finished a distant second on the stage and Rui Oliveira third, with Kooij maintaining enough speed to hang on for ninth place.
Kooij remains in the overall lead, now ahead of Brennan by 10 seconds, with Dainese 14 seconds off the Dutchman in third, but the general classification will change dramatically over the coming days.
Stage four ramps up a gear with 2,122m of elevation gain packed into 186.9km, starting in Atherstone and traversing five categorised climbs before an uphill finish in Burton Dassett Hills Country Park.
The drag up to the line is quite a different finish to today’s pan-flat run in to Ampthill but could still suit the powerful, in-form Brennan, if he can keep pace with the purer climbers on the earlier hills.
“I think there’s going to be fireworks tomorrow, it’s something to look forward too and we’ll see what happens,” Brennan added.
British rider Ben Chilton, riding for the Great Britain Cycling Team, capped off a strong day for the home nation. The 22-year-old, who rides at club level in France, won the combativity prize by making it into the day’s breakaway and moved into the lead of the King of the Mountains classification.
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