Britain's Cat Ferguson (Movistar) became the first double winner of the Navarra Women's Elite Classic on Thursday when she sprinted to victory at the head of a reduced bunch.

Based on Pamplona in northeast of Spain, the 1.Pro race covered a hilly 134km with nine classified muros – a southern European equivalent of the Tour of the Flanders, without the cobbles.

Ferguson led in an 18-rider sprint, with Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Fiona Mangan (Mayenne Monbana My Pie) placing second and third. Brits Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic PostNL) and Katie Scott (DAS Hutchinson) also finished in the top-10, sixth and eighth respectively.

It was a near-identical win to the one she took the year before, when the race was also reduced to a small, 16-rider group and Ferguson led in the sprint.

Her win at the Navarra Classic this year is the Yorkshire born rider's third of what has been a consistent season so far, following victory in her first race of the season at Mallorca's Trofeo Llucmajor, and then a stage of the Setmana Valenciana in February. It bodes well for her first participation in the Giro d'Italia Women later this month, which will see her using her fast finish to hunt out stage victories.

Ferguson wasn't the only Briton adding to their 2026 win tally yesterday; Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) was also victorious on stage one of the Flèche du Sud stage race in Luxembourg. He won the full bunch sprint in Stadtbredimus ahead of Roy Hoogendoorn (Metec Solarwatt p/b Mantle) and Tobias Risan Nakken (Drali-Repsol). It came at the end of a lumpy but short (94km) stage held over three laps around the town.

Just like Ferguson, this was Brennan's third victory of the year – he won a stage of the Tour Down Under in January and then Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in March. He picks up where countryman Thomas Mein left off in last year's Flèche du Sud; then riding for Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente, Mein rode consistently throughout, winning the third stage and finishing second on GC.

Brennan will wear the leader's jersey on Friday's second stage of the five-day race. He is next due to put his talent on show at the French four-day Boucles de Mayenne race, starting 28 May, before going on to race the Tour de Suisse in June and then the Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour, in August.

Matthew Brennan will not race Milan-San Remo this Saturday due to illness, his Visma-Lease a Bike team said on Friday.

The 20-year-old was set to make his debut in the Italian Monument after a breakthrough 2025, in which he won 14 times in his first season as a pro.

Brennan will be replaced by Victor Campenaerts in Visma-Lease a Bike's seven-man team for the race.

A statement from Visma-Lease a Bike, shared on social media, read: "Unfortunately, Matthew has fallen ill and is not fit enough to start in Milano-Sanremo tomorrow. Victor will replace him."

The Dutch team's full line-up for the race is: Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte, Victor Campenaerts, Edoardo Affini, Owain Doull, Timo Kielich and Matteo Jorgenson.

The team is expected to ride for Van Aert, who won the Monument in 2020.

Brennan was considered by many to be an outside contender for victory. Earlier this month, he won his first Belgian Classic in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, "and hopefully not the last," he said afterwards.

Saturday's Milan-San Remo will take the riders 298km from Pavia to San Remo on Italy's Ligurian coast. Among the favourites for victory are the defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5).

Brennan is not the only contender who has had to pull out through illness. Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan will also skip the race after becoming unwell after Tirreno-Adriatico.

Likewise, the women's race will be without Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), who has come down with a virus.

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) withdrew from Visma-Lease a Bike's women's race squad on Friday afternoon after receiving news that her father's health is "critical", the team said. She has since returned home to the Netherlands.

Brennan's next race is expected to be In Flanders Fields - From Middelkerke to Wevelgem, previously named Gent-Wevelgem, on 29 March. He will then finish his Classics block next month with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, before building up to his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España in August.

"I hope to reach the same level as last season, and ideally push even higher," the Briton said when he announced his calendar at the start of the year.

"I hope to make my mark more and more in the bigger races, where I can hopefully play a meaningful role."

At what age did you feel old? It’s rarely when you reach a specific birthday, but when you notice other people being much younger than you. Just the other day, I got on a bus where the driver looked barely out of school, let alone allowed to operate his vehicle. People aren’t getting younger, we’re getting older.

I turned 30 last year, but that on its own hasn’t made me feel ancient; no, I’m still full of joie de vivre and youthful exuberance. What has made me feel old, however, is the age of riders winning bike races. I’d just got used to Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar, even Isaac del Toro being successful barely into their 20s, when the next group of young riders have rolled off the production line, and are mixing with the best.

It was coincidence that both Matthew Brennan (20) and Paul Seixas (19) won on the same weekend, at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and the Faun-Ardèche Classic respectively, but also emblematic that the future is now. These aren’t talents to incubate or to expect big things from in years to come, but to watch, to mark immediately.

There have been 81 editions of Kuurne, and 80 of them have been won by riders older than Brennan. It’s not the biggest event, but a run-through of winners in the last few years is a who’s who of some of cycling’s biggest names: Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen, Mads Pedersen. Add Brennan to that list.

He has not come from nowhere; he won 12 pro races last year, has won five times at WorldTour level already, and was Cycling Weekly’s male rider of the year for 2025, but this is proof Brennan can mix it in the Classics. While there’s no need for undue pressure on someone in his second year as a pro, he seems able to handle most things thrown at him – how far are we away from a first-ever British male win at Paris-Roubaix? Why couldn’t he deliver at Milan-San Remo? Anything is possible.

If you think this hype around Brennan is too much, then you need to see what is being written about Seixas. The 19-year-old, surprisingly the second-youngest winner of Faun-Ardèche, is already the heir to Bernard Hinault, the best male French hope for the Tour de France. L’Équipe had him on their front page on Sunday, and are now building up expectations of a Tour debut this summer. The hype is justified, but it feels unsustainable.

First, Seixas will race Strade Bianche, a chance to compete against Pogačar. If the unbeatable is knocked off his perch, if the unthinkable happens, then I cannot imagine how out-of-control the fever of Seixas-mania will be. Perhaps he is better off not winning, if he has the choice. He’s only 19.

There is nothing new about young riders delivering in cycling, of course, it’s something we’ve grown used to in the last decade – Evenepoel won the Clásica San Sebastián at 19, Pogačar the Tour de France at 21 – but we should not grow accustomed to it. It remains incredible for young riders to beat experience, for cycling’s traditions to be upturned.

These are also real people, who need to be treated with care. Seixas apparently has his own press officer at Decathlon, and I hope that there are support networks in place to protect him and Brennan, to help them develop at their own pace. The risk of burnout is real, and with success comes pressure.

Ultimately, though, the pair make me feel old. That’s the passing of time for you, and it’s thrilling to watch the future happen, now. We’re still in the era of Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel for now, but that will pass. Will it be the era of Seixas and Brennan next?

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

It took just 24 hours for Matthew Brennan to bounce back from his crash at Omloop Nieuwsblad and return to winning ways, claiming a first Flemish Classics victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider sprinted to a convincing win in the Belgian one-day race. He launched his dash with 150m to go, following a lead-out from team-mate Christophe Laporte, and won by a bike length ahead of Luca Mozzato (Tudor Pro Cycling).

The victory marked Brennan's second of the season – his first came on the final day of the Tour Down Under – and made him the first British winner of the race since Mark Cavendish in 2015.

“It’s special to be able to say that I’ve won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne,” Brennan said afterwards in quotes shared by his team. “As a junior, I often stood here watching the pros race, so it still needs to sink in. Everyone went above and beyond today. We took the initiative as a team, so I’m incredibly happy that it paid off.”

The 20-year-old explained he arrived at the start line in Kuurne “nervous”, after crashing hard on the approach to the Muur van Geraardsergen at Omloop Nieuwsblad on Saturday, and abandoning the race.

Speaking to Cycling Pro Net after his win, he said: “It was chaotic, it was busy, there was so much going on, so many close moments, and that wasn’t very helpful for bringing the confidence back,but I knew the legs were feeling pretty good, and [I] kind of leaned more on them.”

After the midway point, Brennan was gapped from the front slightly, but was brought back into contention by his team-mate Pietro Mattio. Visma-Lease a Bike then took control for the bunch sprint, shepherding the Briton down the finishing straight, and setting him up to kick ahead to the team's third victory of the year.

“The guys guided me to the front flawlessly,” he said in Kuurne. “Christophe dropped me off at exactly the right moment and made sure the hardest part was done. I still had to finish it off. It’s the first Flemish classic I’ve won, and hopefully not the last.”

Brennan is next scheduled to compete at Milan-San Remo on 21st March, before returning to Belgium for a Classics block including: In Flanders Fields - From Middelkerke to Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders. He will also ride Paris-Roubaix, the race in which he made his Monument debut last year.

The 20-year-old won Cycling Weekly's Rider of the Year award for 2025 after winning 14 times in his breakthrough first season as a pro.

It has not been the start to a season that most have come to expect from Dutch men’s super-team Visma-Lease a Bike, and things got worse for the squad at Omloop Nieuwsblad as young British sprinter Matthew Brennan pulled-out after falling heavily with 19km to go.

Brennan had been talked-up ahead of the race as the team’s leader following Wout van Aert’s withdrawal due to illness, but the 20-year-old was one of several riders in the chasing group to come down in greasy conditions on the approach to the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) went on to win the race in dominant fashion, with Visma-Lease a Bike’s Christophe Laporte crossing the line in fourth.

Brennan is said to have been able to make it to the team car “under his own power” following the fall, but withdrew from the race. The team has not yet released a more detailed update on his condition at the time of writing.

From a results perspective, it has been one of the team’s poorest starts to a season for several years. Visma-Lease a Bike currently sit 11th in the UCI ranking and have won two races in 2026 - one of them courtesy of Brennan. That’s half the number from 2025 at this same point and down from nine in 2024 and seven in 2023.

The team’s leader for the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard, is yet to pin a number on this year having pulled out of the UAE Tour following a crash after being followed by a fan on a training ride. The 2022 and 2023 Tour de France winner is set to open his season at Paris-Nice on the 8th of March.

The team also lost key climber and 2025 Giro d'Italia winner Simon Yates after a surprise retirement and Vingegaard’s long-standing coach Tim Heemskerk, while Van Aert was set to make a tentative return to competition this weekend following an ankle break during the cyclocross season before his illness. In addition, Sepp Kuss struggled with illness at the Tour of Oman and domestiques Bart Lemmen, Niklas Behrens and Menno Huising have also been ruled out injured.

The dawning of the Spring Classics season suggested an opportunity to revitalise a team which has been struck with misfortune at the beginning of 2026, but Brennan’s crash adds another problem into the mix. It was down to Frenchman Christophe Laporte to salvage fourth place at Omloop Nieuwsblad, himself in recovery after a difficult couple of seasons.

“I’m pleased that I was still able to deliver a strong result for the team today,” Laporte said on the team’s website after the race. “After an unlucky season last year, it’s nice to show myself again in races like this.”

“The rain and wind made it extremely hard. Still, as a team we were always well positioned,” Laporte added. “In the chasing group we worked well together and still came close. In the end, fourth place was the best possible result in these conditions.”

Crashes characterised this particular edition of Omloop, with several leaders of other teams coming down in wet and windy conditions including Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), Stefan Küng (Tudor) and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers).

Eventual winner Van der Poel utilised his bike-handling skills to full effect to evade a fallen Tudor rider who slipped just ahead of him on the Molenberg climb. In the end, the former world champion was peerless.

“We came to the start aiming to compete for the win, but in hindsight Christophe’s fourth place is a solid result,” Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Maarten Wynants said.

“The race was calm for a long time, but toward the finale the crashes followed one another in quick succession…Matthew [Brennan] also crashed heavily. He was able to make it to the team car under his own power. For now, that’s the most important thing.”

"Do you ever feel like maybe it's not worth it?" Asked Anders Mielke of Mads Pedersen two years ago. An excerpt from this video, included right at the end of this page, was published just days after the Dane fractured his collar bone and wrist at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana on Wednesday. Pederson answered, "Yes."

For every good race is the risk that it might end in disaster; in a broken collar bone, in severe burns and skin abrasions, or worse. And the question of rider safety is never far from the industry's collective mind, most recently been embodied in the AeroBag, a self-inflating protection mechanism worn under riders' clothes. Whether they will take the peloton by storm remains to be seen, but the company confirmed to Cycling Weekly that Picnic PostNL and Visma Lease a Bike have received kits and are ready to start testing.

But it's not all serious in this week's social media round up. We've got rider make-overs, artistic tributes to brilliant bikes and Matthew Brennan struggling to see. Eclectic. Enjoy!

1. Tadej Pogačar has been seen sporting a new hair do inspired by his childhood rap hero, Eminem. “Can the real one stand up please?” wrote Mathieu van der Poel in the comments below.

2. Matthew Brennan finished second in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday after launching an early sprint having mistaken a 300m sign for a 200m one. "I felt like I had really good legs there, so I'm just going to get my eyes tested" Brennan joked after the race.

3. After a brief bout of self-depreciation online, Brennan joined the seven-time grand slam winning tennis player Carlos Alcaraz on a plane ride home. Currently ranked first in the world, Alcaraz joined the Brit fresh off the back of his Australian Open win. A good omen for our British star?

4. Movistar also left Australia for rainier places this week. British track champion, Carys Lloyd shared a post celebrating the “many highs and a few lows” of life down under.

5. A few weeks ago, James Shrubsall wrote a piece about the state of the cycling kit industry, after Rapha closed some of its Clubhouses, Le Col lost its founder and Endura staff face redundancies amid a location switch. But have we been asking the wrong questions…?

6. After sustained criticism of Ineos Grenadiers’ questionable white-grey shorts, the team have confirmed that they will be swapping to black for the 'European spring'. Polish national champion and 2024 Tour de France Femmes winner, Kasia Niewiadoma knows something of the white-kit struggle: "One thing I learnt since becoming national champ.. white kit maintenance is nearly as difficult as staying calm when being half wheeled on an easy recovery ride."

7. "Tell us it’s not AI,” pleads the official Giro d’Italia Instagram account next to this video posted by Chris Froome. "Any guesses how many grand tour wins are sitting at this table?"

8. Ever loved a bike so much it made you make art? This illustrator has made a ten-page digital zine dedicated to his electric Surly cargo bike.

9. Biniam Girmay’s Valencia win, live from the NSN team car. Warning: prepare for screaming.

10. "Do you ever feel that it’s not worth it?" Anders Mielke asked Mads Pederson in an interview for the Paris 2024 Olympics. "Yes" he replied. The video was posted a day after the former World Champion fractured his collarbone at the beginning of this month. "Hope to see you back chasing cobbles soon."

January is finished with and the scores on the doors are in. We've had a good look at the runners and riders in races across the globe from the Tour Down Under to the Trofeo Mallorca and all points in-between, and they have turned up some interesting – and enticing results.

They won't necessarily enable us to predict the winner of this year's biggest races, but they do at least hint at who has come out of the blocks with momentum, who might be biding their time, and more.

1. Remco Evenepoel means business

Having moved teams from his long-time home at Soudal Quick-Step to Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, the Belgian has wasted no time in getting some first places on the board. He is currently sitting on a 100% record, having won two of the Mallorcan races – the Trofeos Andratx-Pollenca and Serra Tramuntana, as well as the Ses Salines team time trial.

In both individual wins, crossed the line solo, and in the case of Serra Tramuntana after a 50km solo effort. When 2026 is done and dusted, it's unlikely these races will be the ones Evenepoel will be celebrating the most, but they will have given the Belgian and his team a confidence-boosting running start to the year.

2. Matthew Brennan brimming with confidence – and defiance

Having already taken a first and a second at the Tour Down Under – as well as second in the young rider classification, up and coming Britain Matthew Brennan is clearly determined to build on the successes of last season, when he launched himself at the WorldTour with a string of victories.

He also appears to have carried plenty of confidence across the off-season too and, when he finished second again, this time at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday behind Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), he laid the blame at the feet of a confusing 300m to go sign:

"300m sign looks the same as 200," he protested on X, explaining on the team website: "Unfortunately I launched my sprint about a hundred metres too early. That was a misjudgment."

3. Human Powered Health have already beaten their 2025 pro win record

At the beginning of the new season, anything is possible. Every team wants to go one better than the year before, achieve new aims and goals. Leading the way on that front is surely the Human Powered Health team. Thanks to Maggie Coles-Lyster's victory at the Santos Tour Down Under one-dayer have already surpassed last year's achievements, at least in terms of pro wins.

Last year Thalita De Jongh's win in the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx in Mallorca was the team's only pro victory, and it was rated UCI 1.1 – lower than the Santos TDU's 1.Pro rating. It seems a little soon after the off-season to be opening the Champagne, but we wouldn't be surprised if corks were popping that evening.

4. UAE sitting pretty on top

With seven victories and a couple of handfuls of top-fives under their belts already, both the men's and women's teams at the UAE stable are already sitting pretty at the top of the UCI's team rankings for 2026. It's a defiant counter-response, perhaps, to the success of Remco Evenepoel and a reminder that UAE's Slovenian talisman is waiting menacingly in the wings.

The men's team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG has seen wins at the Tour Down Under, thanks to new Aussie road champion Jay Vine, and at the AlUla Tour, where Jan Christen scored a final-day triumph after grabbing a sticky bottle only the day before.

On the women's side, UAE Team ADQ netted a double victory at the Challenge Mallorca thanks to Karlijn Swinkels and double Tour de France Femmes stage winner Maeva Squiban.

5. Wollaston's best ever start

Rivalling Remco Evenepoel in the 'flying start' stakes is Ally Wollaston of FDJ United-Suez. You could even argue that the 25-year-old Kiwi has outdone Evenepoel, for the three races she has won already are all WorldTour ranked. In fact the stats currently show she has won 75% of all the WWT events so far this season, thanks to a double stage win in the Tour Down Under and victory in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. That only leaves one stage and the overall of the TDU – and she even took the points classification there for good measure. It's the best start to a season she's had yet.

Wollaston looks to be building on the "bit of belief" that last season's achievements gave her, but said: "I'm still feeling my way through the races and working out what works for me and what doesn't."

Matthew Brennan will take aim at the “big Classics” and make his Grand Tour debut in 2026, he and his Visma-Lease a Bike team have announced.

The 20-year-old, who won a staggering 14 times in his first pro season last year, is down to ride three Monuments this year – Milan San-Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – before starting the Vuelta a España in August.

Brennan was one of the standout talents of 2025, and earned Cycling Weekly’s Male Rider of the Year award. His win tally was bettered by just four other male pros: Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), and the world champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

“I hope to reach the same level as last season, and ideally push even higher,” Brennan said in a Visma-Lease a Bike press release announcing his race calendar. “From there, I hope to make my mark more and more in the bigger races, where I can hopefully play a meaningful role.

“This year I’m focusing on the big classics, such as Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders. I hope to play a significant role in these races and gain experience in such big events.”

Brennan made his WorldTour Classics debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last year, a race that is once again on his calendar in 2026. He was also called up late to ride Paris-Roubaix in his first pro season, and impressed on the cobbles, riding in the company of Mathieu van der Poel and Pogačar at the front of the race.

“It would be nice to go a little bit further than last year, hopefully into the velodrome with the front group,” he said.

The Brit will have to wait until August for his Grand Tour debut, planned for the Vuelta a España. “I’m really looking forward to it and curious to see how I’ll handle it,” he said.

“It’s amazing to start in several major classics, but I’m especially looking forward to La Vuelta. Riding three weeks of stages will be tough, and I don’t yet know how my body will respond, but with good preparation and a strong team, I hope to achieve a lot.”

Visma-Lease a Bike won the Vuelta through Jonas Vingegaard last year. The Dane will not defend his title in 2026, and will turn his attention instead to the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.

Brennan will open his season next week at the Tour Down Under in Australia, the first WorldTour event of the calendar.

Matthew Brennan is Cycling Weekly's Male Rider of the Year for 2025. This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 4th December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

There’s a video that keeps popping up on Matthew Brennan’s Instagram feed. It opens with a shot down the Carretera de Girona, an unassuming residential road in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, onto which bursts the chaos of stage one’s finale of the Volta a Catalunya. “Here comes Brennan,” announces Carlton Kirby excitedly on commentary. And it’s at this point that the 20-year-old switches the video off. “I see the first like three seconds, and I just keep scrolling,” says the Visma-Lease a Bike rider.

It’s not that he doesn’t like it – quite the opposite, actually – but he just doesn’t need any help remembering his first WorldTour victory, his breakthrough on cycling’s biggest stage. “It was a nice day,” he smiles. “Well, the day wasn’t nice, but it was really nice to finish it like that. I think it’s something quite special that will always be with me.”

If Brennan were to watch on, he’d hear Kirby grow more and more animated. “My goodness, Brennan is really grinding into the gap here,” the commentator says, but it seems to be too late – Alpecin-Deceuinck’s Tibor Del Grosso is riding solo towards the gantry, rapidly passing the distance markers at the side of the road: 150m to go, 100m, 50m. Then comes the bike throw. “Oh, he’s got it! He’s absolutely nailed it!,” Kirby shouts. Brennan punches the air with his fist. “A genius at work!”

It was mid-March when the then 19-year-old took the leader’s jersey at the Volta a Catalunya. Cycling fans didn’t know it at the time, but they’d come to see a lot more of Brennan’s genius over the rest of the season; he won 14 times, a tally bettered by just four other male riders: Tim Merlier, Isaac del Toro, Paul Magnier and the world champion Tadej Pogačar. The Brit began the season 349th in the UCI’s rankings, and ended it 43rd, having jumped more than 300 places. All that, and he only turned 20 in August.

“It’s been a good year,” Brennan says understatedly. We’re speaking over videocall the afternoon before his final race of the year, Paris-Tours. Does he have any regrets about 2025? “Not having my holiday earlier,” he smirks. Everything else exceeded expectations. “We came into the start of the season with the goal of trying to win one race, essentially. Then it spiralled a bit quicker and a bit more than we thought it would.”

That box was ticked almost immediately, in March, when he won three French one-day races on the trot, culminating in the cobbled GP de Denain, Paris-Roubaix’s little brother. The teenager’s next stop was meant to be the Classic Brugge-De Panne, until he got a call from his coach, Robbert de Groot, while out shopping with his girlfriend. Did he want to replace the injured Jonas Vingegaard in the squad for Catalunya? “Bearing in mind I’d never heard of this race before,” Brennan says, “I was like, ‘Right, OK, yeah, whatever.’ But I wasn’t too convinced… It was good that I listened to them.”

The team plan was always to ride for Brennan that afternoon in Saint Feliu, and he ended up doing it all himself. Gripping the drops of his handlebars, he clawed back the tearaway Del Grosso all by himself, and held off the peloton behind. The timing was perfect. “In that moment, you’ve got to trust your racing instincts,” Brennan says. Four days later, he proved it had been no fluke when he sprinted to a second victory. Then came another phone call: did he want to ride Paris-Roubaix? “You’re not going to turn that down.”

Brennan arrived at his first Monument after a week of illness. The youngest rider on the start list, his expectations were low, so it came as a surprise to find himself in the front group deep into the race, riding alongside Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel, while his team-mate Wout van Aert advised him over the radio to go for his own chances. At almost 260km, however, the longest ride the teenager’s longest-ever ride soon took its toll.

“Unfortunately the parachutes came out a little bit,” a dusty-faced Brennan said in the velodrome after the finish. Reflecting on it now, he’s impressed at how long he lasted. “It gives confidence that you can make it so far into that race so young. Looking back at the [power] numbers [required], they’re not something that is necessarily crazy, either. It’s exciting.”

Brennan was brought up in the north-eastern market town of Darlington, County Durham, by a bike-racing father and triathlete mother. He joined his local club, Stockton Wheelers, at 12 years old, and excelled on the track as a junior, winning two world titles in 2023. The following year, he signed a two-year deal with Visma-Lease a Bike’s development squad, but amazed the team bosses so much on his first training camp that they decided he’d turn pro a year early.

As he prepared for that step-up last winter, he recalls, it was the off-the-bike changes the he feels made the difference.

“I was able to move out [to Girona, Spain] and get my own independence. With that, you can also then change your nutrition a little bit, the style of life, and all these types of things, which I think in the end helped me quite a lot. [Previously] I’d come in after doing five hours, and have whatever my family is having.”

Brennan also focused more on gym work, with the aim of holding a more aerodynamic position in sprints. “That helped stabilise everything and make everything aggressive, but also powerful,” he says. The roll call of top-class sprinters he conquered this year is proof that it worked; he beat Biniam Girmay at Germany’s Rund um Köln, Alexander Kristoff at the Tour of Norway, Tour de France green jersey winner Jonathan Milan – twice – at the Lidl Deutschland Tour, and Alberto Dainese at the Tour of Britain.

It might come as a wonder, then, that Brennan doesn’t regard himself as a pure sprinter. He politely dismisses any comparisons to Mark Cavendish (who, by the way, won three fewer races in his first pro year). “I think I’m really quite a versatile person in terms of what I can achieve,” Brennan says. “I can survive my way through quite nicely.”

Take, for example, his stage victory at April’s Tour de Romandie, which came after more than 3,000m of climbing. There was similar elevation, too, when he won stage two at the Tour of Norway, outpunching climber Maxim Van Gils on a 7% incline. Where does he rank that win? “Which one was this?” he says, the victories blurring into one. Of the four stages in Norway, Brennan placed first twice, second twice, and won overall. “This is the problem, I don’t remember what stage is what at the moment.”

Despite all the podium visits, Brennan remains modest. He’s noticed his celebrity grow at races – “your name is shouted a little bit more,” he says – but he doesn’t get stopped for selfies in the street, at least not yet. “I look at a guy like Wout, who steps off the bus and immediately is swarmed. That’s quite overwhelming,” he says.

Instead, Brennan prefers his world of calm and understatement; he describes his last-gasp Catalunya victory as “quite cool”, and his envious season win tally as “alright, not bad”. How has he found the year? “I’ve had a great time,” he smiles.

He’s also got a sense of humour. When I ask what would be his dream race to win, he looks into the distance for a moment, and then cites the Salt Ayre criteriums in Lancaster – “I’ve never won one of those,” he grins.

This laidback attitude is his natural character, no doubt – it’s also one of his superpowers on the bike. “I think one thing I’ve taken away from this year is that, generally, I just feel quite relaxed towards everything,” he says. “I’m just in a mindset of, if it goes great, brilliant, that’s what we strive for. But if it doesn’t, it’s also not a problem. I can try another day.”

The future now is in Brennan’s hands. He’d like to go to the LA Olympics in 2028. Before that, though, there’s another event he has circled in his diary: the 2027 Tour de France, which starts in Edinburgh, a two-hour train journey from his home. “I mean, yellow jersey day one on the Tour in the UK I don’t think is a bad goal to try and achieve,” he says. “I think that would be quite cool rolling through the UK in a yellow jumper.”

If it happens, Brennan could become a household name. The moment will be watched live by millions. It’ll then be cropped into a video to be replayed over and over on Instagram. Even Brennan won’t be able to scroll past that one.

This season’s breakthrough rider Matthew Brennan has penned a new contract with Visma-Lease a Bike that will keep him with the Dutch team until at least the end of 2029.

The 20-year-old won a staggering 14 races in his first year as a pro in 2025, four of which at WorldTour level.

Brennan’s latest contract marks his third in just over two years with Visma-Lease a Bike. After joining the team’s development arm in 2024, he impressed so much on his first training camp that it was decided he would turn pro a year early.

Brennan then signed a new contract in May 2024, at 18 years old, that would make him a WorldTour rider the following season, and ran until 2027. That period has now been extended by another two years.

“The environment in this team is so unique: it is partly thanks to the team that I have already been able to develop myself so much,” Brennan said in a press release.

“Everyone can help me become a better rider, both the staff and the other riders. And on top of that, I feel the trust I need here. I am happy here and very grateful for the opportunity to take the next steps in my career over such a long period and without pressure.”

Visma-Lease a Bike’s head of racing Grischa Niermann said the Brit has “really impressed us in a positive way this season”.

"Of course, we already knew him well, because he came through our own ranks. As a team, we constantly adapted to his level and offered him races and challenges tailored to him. He has made big steps in his development this season, but still has a lot to learn.

“We see working with him as a long-term project, and that is why we are so happy that he feels the same way. In the coming years, we want to help him take the step to the highest level in cycling. He may continue to surprise us."

A two-time junior world champion on the track, Brennan earned his first WorldTour win at this March's Volta a Catalunya, aged 19. He also won stages of the Tour de Romandie, Tour de Pologne, Tour of Britain and Lidl Deutschland Tour this season, as well as the overall at the Tour of Norway.

Brennan's impressive campaign earned him Cycling Weekly's male Rider of the Year award for 2025 earlier this month.

Matthew Brennan and Zoe Bäckstedt have been named Cycling Weekly's Riders of the Year for 2025 – the top honours in our annual awards, given to the best-performing British male and female riders throughout the season.

Both riders were judged to have shown outstanding consistency this year; Brennan won a remarkable 14 races in his first season as a pro, while Bäckstedt claimed three world titles and dominated in time trials.

For exclusive, feature-length interviews with both riders, pick up a copy of our special awards edition of the magazine – out today. Below is a list of all the winners celebrated.

Male rider of the year – Matthew Brennan

In his debut pro year with Visma-Lease a Bike, Brennan won 14 times, a tally bettered by just four other male riders: Tim Merlier, Isaac del Toro, Paul Magnier and world champion Tadej Pogačar.

The Brit began the season 349th in the UCI’s rankings, and ended it 43rd, having jumped more than 300 places. All that, and he only turned 20 in August.

“We came into the start of the season with the goal of trying to win one race, essentially,” Brennan told Cycling Weekly. “Then it spiralled a bit quicker and a bit more than we thought it would.”

Female rider of the year – Zoe Bäckstedt

This year was one of interdisciplinary dominance for the young Welshwoman. From a double victory at January’s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, rainbow jerseys collected in the mixed team relay and the under-23 race, she went on to rule supreme in time trials, winning five out of the six she competed in, and earning a national and under-23 world title.

“If I look back [to last year], compared to where I ended the road season [this year], it's a day-and-night difference,” the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider told Cycling Weekly.

“I had a lot of wins this year, which I didn't expect. I didn't expect to win a road race [Baloise Ladies Tour] – that was probably one of the big things, and also to win Nationals… Everything just fell into a good place.”

International rider of the year – Pauline Ferrand-Prévot

Everyone knew that the Frenchwoman – a world champion in four different disciplines – was an exceptional bike rider. As such, very few doubted that her return to the road scene in 2025 after a six-year hiatus would be a success. But no-one could have foreseen the comprehensive glory that she enjoyed this year.

Podium finishes at Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders were perhaps to be expected – after all, short, punchy climbs were what she excelled on during her mountain bike years – but a 58-second victory at Paris-Roubaix, a flat brute of a race devoid of any significant climbing challenges, was not.

Even more unexpected was winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on debut, especially in so crushing a manner.

Rising star – Erin Boothman

This season, in her final year as a junior, the 18-year-old’s medal collection ballooned in size. Boothman doubled her tally of world titles to four, earned three new European track titles, plus three national titles, all the while stamping her name on three world records: the junior women’s team pursuit, individual pursuit and kilometre time trial.

The Scot knew her form was good when she clean-swept seven out of seven events at a track meet in January. Everything after that, she told Cycling Weekly, was “eye-opening – I couldn’t be happier with how it has gone this year.”

Next season, Boothman will join Liv AlUla Jayco’s development team, before stepping up to the WorldTour squad in 2027.

British domestic rider of the year – Robyn Clay

The DAS-Hutchinson rider had a lot of success in 2025. There were five race wins, both the National Road and National Circuit Series, and the inaugural Rapha Super-League too – all by a 21-year-old who had only started racing at elite level a couple of years previously.

“Even being injured at the start of the season was a blessing in disguise, because it forced me to not start too early, and then I was ready at the right time,” she told Cycling Weekly.

The stand-out year has seen Clay earn a transfer to Women’s WorldTour squad Picnic PostNL for 2026.

Lifetime achievement – Pippa York

"I often tell the story of how I came last in my first race and I was first in my last race, [the 1995 National Championships],” York told Cycling Weekly. “In between, things happened."

These days most British bike racing fans can easily reel off handfuls of world-beating home nation luminaries. So much so, it’s becoming hard to remember when British cycling had practically zero presence on the Continent. But that’s how it was: in the 1980s, you could count on one hand all the UK riders you might spot at the Tour de France. One rider you most certainly would have included in that tally was Pippa York – known then as Robert Millar.

Glasgow-born York became the most successful British pro in years, with Tour de France stage wins and a historic fourth on GC, plus the mountains classification win in 1984 elevating her to a superstar status among British fans. At the same time, York was enduring a personal struggle with body dysphoria, and ultimately underwent gender transition in the 2010s. She has since forged a successful career as a cycling journalist, drawing on her racing experience to comment insightfully on today’s action.

Local hero – Bhima Bowden

In the first of our two reader-nominated awards, Macclesfield Wheelers put Bowden forward for Local Hero with a long testament to his work, from which the below is a short excerpt.

“Bhima runs the weekly hill-climb series in a way that I just don’t think can be topped. Before it starts, he works on photoshoots of every hill, writes compelling narratives about the climbs, and rallies a great team of volunteers. He really supports bringing in people who may not see themselves as traditional racers. While cycling home, we receive individual messages with our time and placement, which then goes into his fancy website and series leaderboard – he truly celebrates everyone.”

Club of the year – Newbury Velo

Newbury Velo's entry for this year's Club of the Year award was so comprehensive, so saturated with innovative, inclusive and wide-ranging membership offerings, it was clear right away that they were going to be hard to beat.

Formed in 2020 and already almost 400 members strong, the offers something for everyone, with a time trial series and a summer cyclo-cross series too, plus open time trials and a round of the local Wessex Cyclo-Cross League in winter. And that's not all; Newbury Velo also organises the Newbury Triathlon, numerous three-day touring trips throughout the year, plus a children's tour, and trips to Mallorca and the Newport Velodrome.

"We're not just serious racers," club chair Simon Bowden told Cycling Weekly. "It gives people a chance to have some fun and not take it too seriously. That's the key."

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Twenty-year-old Matthew Brennan continued his breakthrough season on Thursday, earning his 12th pro win of the year on stage three of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider’s team-mate Olav Kooij, who won the opening two stages, turned provider on day three, leading out the Brit to sprint in Ampthill.

So fast was Brennan’s acceleration that he afforded himself a second to sit up in his saddle and punch the air as he crossed the line. Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling) finished second, with Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) third.

“It was always the plan,” Brennan said afterwards. “[My team] said, ‘We can’t have you going to your home race and not try and win something.’ To be given this opportunity, especially when Olav is leading, is really special and I’m really thankful for that.”

After graduating from Visma's development arm this year, Brennan has enjoyed a rapid rise through the pro ranks, winning his first WorldTour races and beating the sports best sprinters. “It’s fantastic,” he reflected on his first pro year. “This season has been pretty incredible so far, so to keep winning towards the end of the season as well has been really nice.”

Brennan’s victory takes him to second in the general classification at the Tour of Britain, behind his team-mate Kooij. Speaking to Cycling Weekly ahead of the race, the 20-year-old revealed he had GC ambitions for his debut.

“It’d be nice to get a stage win,” he said – a box he has now ticked – “and then each day we’ll kind of just assess where we are on GC. If GC looks like an option, we’ll push for that.”

“We’ll give it a try,” he added. “There’s no harm in trying, is there? We’ll just see what happens. If I’m up there, I’m up there, if I’m not, oh well.”

Thursday’s third stage of the Tour of Britain brought the last of a triptych of flat days, before the hills arrive.

Leading the GC, Visma-Lease a Bike were forced to do the lion’s share of the pulling in the peloton throughout the 122.8km stage into Bedfordshire. The Dutch squad barely allowed the breakaway as much as a minute’s lead, as four riders, including Great Britain’s Ben Chilton, ploughed ahead up the road.

An acceleration by Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) in the peloton with around 10km to go eventually put paid to the breakaway’s foray. The lead-out trains then assembled, with Kooij swapping duties with Brennan in the finale.

“We had a plan to turn it around for today, and I was happy to do my job and deliver him in a good way,” Kooij said. “We knew in the first three stages we would definitely have a good shot. The rest of the week is a bit harder, so we will see.”

The six-day race continues on Thursday with its first uphill finish in Burton Dassett Country Park. “I think there’s going to be fireworks tomorrow,” stage winner Brennan smiled.

Results

Tour of Britain stage three: Milton Keynes > Ampthill (122.8km)

1. Matthew Brennan (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 2:35:45
2. Alberto Dainese (Ita) Tudor Pro Cycling
3. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
4. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Israel-Premier Tech
5. Milan Menten (Bel) Lotto
6. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Bel) Lidl-Trek
7. Matevž Govekar (Slo) Bahrain Victorious
8. Tom Crabbe (Bel) Team Flanders-Baloise
9. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
10. Marc Brustenga (Esp) Equipo Kern Pharma, all at same time

General classification after stage three

1. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 9:48:40
2. Matthew Brennan (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike, +10s
3. Alberto Dainese (Ita) Tudor Pro Cycling, +14s
4. Tom Crabbe (Bel) Team Flanders-Baloise
5. Mats Wenzel (Lux) Equipo Kern Pharma, both at same time
6. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Israel-Premier Tech, +16s
7. Sam Watson (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at same time
8. Andreas Stokbro (Den) Unibet Tietema Rockets, +17s
9. Milan Lanhove (Bel) Team Flanders-Baloise, at same time
10. Robin Froidevaux (Sui) Tudor Pro Cycling, +18s

He’s been the breakthrough rider of the season. Matthew Brennan may only have just turned 20, but already in his first pro season with Visma-Lease a Bike, he’s claimed 11 elite wins, beating experienced WorldTour fields and some of the sport's best sprinters. Now he’s chasing another victory: his home stage race in the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men.

On a blustery afternoon by the Suffolk coast, the Brit led out team-mate Olav Kooij to claim stage one on Tuesday. His opportunities, he says, will come, as he plots out ambitions for the overall win on his race debut.

“It’d be nice to get a stage win, and then each day we’ll kind of just assess where we are on GC,” Brennan told Cycling Weekly. “If GC looks like an option, we’ll push for that.”

This June, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider earned a career-first stage race victory at the Tour of Norway, a four-day event where he won two stages, and twice finished second. The success came after a blistering start to the year, in which he won four races in a row, including a maiden WorldTour victory at the Volta a Catalunya.

Brennan arrives at the Tour of Britain from the Lidl Deutschland Tour, where he won two stages, outsprinting Tour de France green jersey winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) both times.

“It’s been a lot to take in,” the 20-year-old said of his season so far, “but it’s been really positive and it’s been really well managed by the team. They’ve done a really good job to make sure that I’m not pressured and that I’m in an environment [where] I can be really well supported in achieving my goals.”

What’s he expecting from his first Tour of Britain? “It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “The roads are a little bit different to in Europe – they’re a little bit narrower, a little bit more technical. Having grown up here, it’ll be good to have the knowledge of how to race on the UK roads, but I think it’s going to be fun, fast and exciting.”

That knowledge, he hopes, might give him an edge in the GC. Four of the race’s six stages have flat finishes that suit Brennan, though the punchier days – including the 5km climb to The Tumble on stage five – don’t put him off.

“We’ll give it a try. There’s no harm in trying, is there?” he said about his GC bid. “We’ll just see what happens. If I’m up there, I’m up there, if I’m not, oh well.”

Two of the standout British riders of 2025, Matthew Brennan and Oscar Onley, will ride the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men, as the race's provisional start list was released on Thursday evening.

The race begins next Tuesday, 2 September, with the start list now fleshed out around the already announced Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).

Visma-Lease a Bike's Brennan has won 11 professional races this year, in his debut season, one of the most successful ever. He most recently won two stages and the points jersey at the Deutschland Tour, and comes to dovetail on the sprint stages with his teammate Olav Kooij, who won four consecutive stages of the race and the points jersey on his last appearance at the race, in 2023.

Meanwhile, Onley of Picnic PostNL is likely a favourite for overall victory, given his recent fourth place at the Tour de France. He finished second and won the best young rider jersey 12 months ago at the Tour of Britain.

Thomas will be bowing out of professional cycling after the Tour of Britain, and will ride in a specially designed Ineos Grenadiers jersey. Joining Thomas for Ineos will be two-time Tour stage winner this year Thymen Arensman.

A second British Grand Tour winner will be at the race in Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), who will be present for the first time in eight years.

The riders third, fourth, and fifth in the general classification last year all return alongside Onley – Tom Donnenwirth (Groupama FDJ), Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), and Joe Blackmore (Israel–Premier Tech).

Among the more experienced riders at the race are John Degenkolb (Picnic PostNL) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility), who boast Monuments and Grand Tour stage wins between them.

In total, nine former Tour of Britain Men stage winners are on the provisional start list: Kooij, Edoardo Affini and Julian Vermote (all Visma-Lease a Bike), Alaphilippe and Matteo Trentin (both Tudor Pro Cycling), Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Matevž Govekar (Bahrain Victorious), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Mobility).

"Everything is in place for what will be another incredible edition of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men, and following on from the high quality line up we had at the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, it’s great to be able to welcome this world-class line-up of teams and riders to the race and it is testament to the status of the event," Jonathan Day, managing director of British Cycling Events, said.

"Like the fans, we now cannot wait for the racing to start in East Suffolk next week, and look forward to the joy and excitement that each of the six stages will bring to communities and spectators along the route, plus all of those watching the live broadcast at home, and around the world."

This year's race will be held over six stages, running from September 2 to Sunday 7 September. The race begins in East Suffolk, before moving to the middle of the country and then finishing in Wales after a couple of hilly stages.

The full start list can be seen on British Cycling's website.

No British rider has won more races this season than teenager Matthew Brennan, who earned his sixth victory of 2025 on Wednesday at the Tour de Romandie.

The 19-year-old Visma-Lease a Bike rider, in his first season as a pro, won the sprint on stage one of the six-day WorldTour race, accelerating comfortably ahead of his rivals, taking the leader’s jersey in the process.

The victory came a month after the Brit stunned the pack at the Volta a Catalunya, winning two stages, despite being the second youngest rider in the field.

“It was very chaotic,” Brennan said of his latest success in Switzerland. “I think once we got over the climb, we knew we had good legs and we could pull towards the end. I think the guys did a really nice position, pulling me into the early parts and keeping me out of trouble. Coming into the final, I just managed to follow some wheels.

“I actually got a bit further ahead than I thought I would, but in those moments you just have to react to the situation and just keep going.”

Born in Darlington in 2005, the teenager joined Visma-Lease a Bike’s development arm last season, having come through the UK-based Fensham Howes-MAS Design junior team.

Brennan graduated to the WorldTour squad this year, and after just seven races as a pro, was called up for his Paris-Roubaix debut, his sports director Grischa Niermann explaining he had “amazed” the team staff “several times”.

Now, with his win tally growing, where does Brennan see his limits? “I don’t know. I’m not even sure my coaches know,” he said. “We’re still searching for them, so it’s really an exciting time right now.

“Coming to this race, we really wanted to try and achieve something. To finally come out with it, I think for me, for the team, everyone involved is so happy.”

Brennan’s victory at the Tour de Romandie saw him lift the leader’s jersey off the shoulders of fellow Brit Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers), who won Tuesday’s opening prologue.

Despite leading the race, the 19-year-old explained his role will be to support his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Jørgen Nordhagen in the general classification, and aim for another stage win. “I look forward to the next few days,” he said.

Brennan was not the only British winner on Wednesday. Twenty-year-old Noah Hobbs won his second stage of France’s Tour de Bretagne, representing EF Education-EasyPost’s development squad, EF Education-Aevolo.

Matthew Brennan was not meant to ride Paris-Roubaix this year. According to his early season calendar, he was due to be away with Visma-Lease a Bike’s development squad, continuing to grow his skills as a bike rider. Only twice before had he raced more than 200km in a day. At 19 years old, just months into his first year as a pro, Roubaix would be a step too far, surely?

The answer, it turned out, was a resounding no. On a late call-up to his first Monument, Brennan tore up the script, riding in the company of Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar at the front of the race.

He ultimately placed 44th – less than nine minutes behind the Dutch winner – in an impressive showing for the youngest rider at the race.

“I think to be in the position I was, when you’re left with 20 guys and you look around and they’re the best guys in the peloton, maybe you’ve done something right up until that point,” Brennan said.

“After that, unfortunately the parachutes came out a little bit, and I couldn’t continue at the pace that they were going. That’s part of the game. I’m still young. To be in that position is really quite a confidence-booster for the future.”

The teenager’s instructions at the start of the day were to support his team leader, Wout van Aert, and “see how far I could get”, he explained. If everything went smoothly, Brennan would take the reins at the spiky end of the afternoon, and help set the finale for the Belgian.

“Wout maybe struggled on some of the sectors early on,” the teenager said. “I felt a little bit better, and he told me to go for my own opportunity, which was really nice.

"Unfortunately, a couple of kilometres down the road, I didn't feel great, and I just said, 'I can't go anymore' and to look after himself.

“I think this is the furthest ride I’ve actually ever done [ed - This year’s Paris-Roubaix was 259.2km]. To be able to do that and race is something different… that last hour is always a killer. Especially on a course like this, it just never ends until the finish line.”

Alone, the Brit charged into the velodrome to rapturous applause. It is a memory he will now keep for the rest of his career, which just four months in, already counts three victories, including two at WorldTour level.

“All the way in was special,” he said of the race's closing moments. Afterwards, as riders around him finished their slogs, Brennan stood on the grass of Roubaix Velodrome, taking in the day. He then staggered slowly towards the journalists.

He had raced aggressively for almost six hours. How did he feel? “The legs don’t feel too bad,” he said. “I think you just kind of run out of bullets. You run out of that explosivity. I think I’m just generally tired. If you weren’t, then you’re a weirdo.”

Still only 19 years old, there will be many more Paris-Roubaixs for Brennan.

British teenager Matthew Brennan’s whirlwind start to his pro career is about to go up another level: the 19-year-old will make his Paris-Roubaix debut on Sunday, less than three months after his first WorldTour race.

Brennan will ride for Visma-Lease a Bike in support of Wout van Aert at his first Monument. His call-up was originally unplanned, but comes as a late addition to his programme, following an impressive start to the season.

After earning his first pro win at last month’s Grand Prix de Denain, the Brit went on to score a brace of WorldTour victories at the Volta a Catalunya, where he wore the leader’s jersey for two days.

“I continue to amaze myself every week in this first professional season,” Brennan said. “Not just in terms of results, but also in the races I'm doing.

“Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was my first real Classic, and I have to say, it left me wanting more. I was in awe the whole time. GP Denain was my next pro race, and to be able to win there right away was incredibly special.

“I'm really looking forward to this Sunday. Paris-Roubaix is one of those races you dream about as a young rider. Being able to take part already feels like a very valuable investment in the future of my career.”

Born in Darlington in 2005, the teenager joined Visma-Lease a Bike’s development arm last season, having come through the UK-based Fensham Howes-MAS Design junior team. He won two junior world titles on the track in 2023, and is now signed to Visma’s WorldTour squad until the end of 2027.

“Matthew has already amazed us several times,” said the team’s sports director, Grischa Niermann. “The fact that he already has three pro victories under his belt is, of course, fantastic.

“Given his steep development curve, we've adjusted his calendar a bit. Originally, he was also supposed to ride some races with the development team, but we now feel there’s not much left for him to learn at that level.”

Brennan’s role on Sunday will be to support his teammates, and continue gaining experience in his first year as a pro.

“In a Monument like Paris-Roubaix, he still has everything to learn,” Niermann said. “We're not placing any expectations on him in terms of result. We mainly hope he carries this race with him into the rest of his career.”

After finishing second on his WorldTour debut, and picking up two wins with Visma-Lease a Bike’s development squad, Matthew Brennan has now scored his first pro victory, continuing a stellar season start.

The 19-year-old Brit won the GP de Denain on Thursday, sprinting from a breakaway group of eight riders. The victory came on Brennan’s 11th race day this year since he graduated to his team’s WorldTour squad.

The step-up, in his words, has been “perfect” so far.

“You couldn’t wish for a better season, to be honest. I’m really happy,” Brennan said in Denain.

Previously won by the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), the cobbled GP de Denain is a longstanding one-day classic, held in the same part of northern France as Paris-Roubaix. This year’s edition stretched out 197.4km, with 13 cobbled sectors totalling almost 24km.

“It’s really nice to win here. It’s something we really aimed for as a team, and I’m really thankful for the work they did today,” Brennan said. “It was tough for positioning today, but once you were there, it was alright. You go into a rhythm, you come out the otherside, and you look back, and it’s just one line.”

All 13 of the cobbled sectors came in the second half of the event, with Brennan’s breakaway group forming with around 50km to go. “It was a big group, and I knew quite a lot of the boys wanted to attack. It was quite hard to manage it,” he said.

“Coming into the finish, I kind of knew I had a faster sprint than probably most of the guys there, and that gave me a bit of confidence coming into the final.”

Former gravel world champion Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) came second, while Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Dries De Bondt finished third. Brennan was the fifth youngest rider on the 154-strong start list.

The teenager joined Visma-Lease a Bike’s development arm last season having come through the UK-based Fensham Howes-MAS Design junior team.

Brennan made his WorldTour debut this January, finishing second in the bunch sprint on the opening stage of the Santos Tour Down Under.

“We still have no idea what kind of rider I exactly am, which is an exciting thing,” he told Cycling Weekly at the time. “We’ve got quite a nice span of weapons, shall we say. The one that’s shining out a bit more at the moment is sprinting, and we’re following through with that, but if something changes, then we can work with that. The coaches are excited to see what I turn out to be.”

A fast finisher on the road, Brennan has also won track accolades, earning two world titles at the UCI Junior Track World Championships in 2023.

Hamish Armitt was never meant to become a professional cyclist. He had raced bikes for fun as a child, but put it on hold in his teenage years, choosing instead to focus on running. Despite being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 15, he became one of Britain’s best junior runners.

“When I was 17, I ran 14 minutes dead in the 5km, which was top five all-time at the time,” says the 22-year-old [Armitt remains the sixth-fastest UK under-20 of all time]. “I was very, very high-level at running. I won loads of Scottish titles all through the age groups.”

It was a trajectory that seemed to point straight to the Olympics. But years of underfuelling and the high-impact demands of running led to stress fractures in his feet and hips. “I realised my body couldn’t cope with all the running injuries,” he says. Forced to step away, he returned to the bike – and less than a year later, the Glaswegian signed his first professional contract.

No fewer than 12 Brits are taking their first steps into the pro ranks in 2025. A dozen new pros is a solid year by British standards, and includes four joining the men’s WorldTeam ranks: Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), Bob Donaldson (Jayco-Alula), Oli Stockwell (Bahrain-Victorious), and Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost). On the women’s side, Imogen Wolff has signed for Visma Lease a Bike, while Carys Lloyd and Cat Ferguson have both joined Movistar.

Armitt is among four Brits kicking off their pro careers at ProTeam level. He has signed for Novo Nordisk, a US-based UCI ProTeam made up of athletes with diabetes. Coming up through British Cycling’s talent system is the road more travelled for aspiring pros, but by no means the only one. While some young riders pen contracts as teenagers, others spend years racing abroad, passing through development teams into their early twenties.

Today, the number of Brits at cycling’s top level is roughly three times what it was 10 years ago, thanks to a network of different paths leading them there. Armitt’s, in particular, stands out as a case apart. The idea of a career in cycling only crossed his mind in the summer of 2023, when he stood roadside at the UCI World Championships in his home city of Glasgow. “I’d say that was the turning point,” he says, “but I was 21 at the time, and it’s quite a hard pathway when you’re that old.”

Alongside his running, Armitt had competed in triathlons, training between 10 and 20 hours a week on the bike. He took up bunch racing as a novice following the Glasgow Worlds, and began as a cat-four racer. “I was starting from scratch,” he says bluntly.

Soon, though, the events ticked by, Armitt collected more points, and he ended up joining a team, Project 1, who took him racing abroad. He admits that the step up was “a bit of a baptism of fire”. During one spring race in Italy, he threaded himself into the breakaway and attacked solo with 50km to go, eventually finishing 41st. “It was just stupid,” he remembers of the move, but where it failed in carrying him to victory, it succeeded in turning heads. “After that, I started getting loads and loads of attention from teams,” he says.

As a diabetic athlete, Novo Nordisk seemed a suitable home for Armitt. He reached out to the team himself, and was invited to a camp in July on the Franco-Italian border. “I did a test up the [Col de la] Madone, and I did 450 watts for 27 minutes. My 20-minute [power] is around 460,” he says. “Power-wise, I was a lot higher than most riders. But what I’m having to adapt to is I don’t have the experience of those guys, or the racecraft, or the efficiency.” These are areas he’s hoping to improve in his first season as a pro. “I’ve only been racing for a year,” he says. “I need to see how the next two years go, but I definitely want to progress into the WorldTour in the future, for sure.”

Carys Lloyd, four years Armitt’s junior, has already made it to the sport’s top level. Born on New Year’s Eve 2006, her first full day as an 18-year-old was also her first as a professional cyclist, the start date of a three-year deal with Movistar.

By virtue of her late birthday, she is the youngest rider across both the men’s and women’s WorldTours this season, and likely the youngest fully fledged pro cyclist ever. “I don’t think you can get younger than me, maybe by a few hours,” she smiles. “I looked up when Marianne Vos turned pro, and it was the year I was born. Technically, if you think about it in months, she’s been a pro longer than I’ve been alive. That’s quite scary, but it’s quite exciting at the same time.”

Lloyd was six years old when she began racing bikes. Unlike Armitt’s late awakening, though, she joined British Cycling’s regional school of racing as a teenager and later the national pathway as an under-16. “I did the endurance road and track programme,” she says.

Like Mark Cavendish and Laura Kenny, graduates of British Cycling’s academy before her, she split her time between the two disciplines, excelling particularly in the velodrome. In 2024, she won three gold medals at the Junior Track World Championships, and two at the Junior European Track Championships.

“The quality of riders we had in our year in Great Britain was really, really strong,” Lloyd says. The 18-year-old is one of three from her cohort who have leapt straight to the pro tier this year, alongside her Movistar teammate, junior road and time trial world champion Cat Ferguson, and Imogen Wolff, now of Visma-Lease a Bike.

“It’s quite crazy that two of my closest teammates have got a contract as well,” Lloyd says, “but I think it’s definitely that more juniors are getting signed early, and teams are starting to notice that you need to develop talent earlier, if you see it.”

Movistar picked up Lloyd so early, in fact, that she will need to take time out of racing in June to finish her A-levels. The teenager is studying maths, further maths and physics at sixth form in Maidstone. “[Movistar] have been really positive about school,” she says. “They said, ‘Just get your exams done, and then we can talk about racing.’ They were just really refreshing.”

Lloyd considers herself fortunate to have been part of the British Cycling academy. Only a handful of riders each year make the cut, and for those who don’t, or choose not to join, the path to the top can end up more winding, often with stints overseas. That was the case for six of the 12 British riders turning pro this year who were supported by the Rayner Foundation, a charity that gives grants to young Brits racing in Europe.

Oli Stockwell spent the last three years cutting his teeth in Italy with Cycling Team Friuli (CTF), an Italian feeder team of Bahrain Victorious, who he joined this season. “Rayner have been pretty amazing really, I think, for all the guys,” he says. “The advice they give you, you can’t beat it. Also, the cost side, they give a little bit, which for a lot of guys makes the difference. I know for me, when I first got to CTF, that probably made the difference.”

Born in Welwyn Garden City, Stockwell raced cyclo-cross and road as a child. He joined CTF when he was 20, relocating to Udine, 15 miles from the Slovenian border. The original plan was for him to turn pro last season, but an innocuous leg break on a training camp pushed his timeline back a year.

“[The team] were really good with me, and we kind of decided that it would be better to step back for a minute, to use a bit more time as an under-23 to develop and recover from the injury, and then step up later, which is now,” he says. “I feel like I’ve learned so much in the last three, four years [in the under-23 ranks].”

Now, like Lloyd, Armitt and the nine other Brits who have turned pro, Stockwell’s focus is on continuing to learn. Races are getting faster – the average men's WorldTour speed was 42.2kph (26.2mph) in 2024, the fastest in history – the best riders are breaking records with ease, and the level required to be competitive is higher than it's ever been.

The last Brit to win big in their first full season as pro was Josh Tarling, who claimed his first WorldTour victory at 19 years old at the Renewi Tour in 2023, weeks before becoming the European time trial champion. Might someone in this year’s cohort pull off a similar feat? The consensus, it’s clear, is that there’s no pressure to do so. “I think it will be a big step, but hopefully I’m ready,” says Stockwell. “I guess I’ll see.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 23rd January 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Half a bike length was all that separated Matthew Brennan (Visma Lease a Bike) from a fairytale start to his pro career, as he sprinted to a close second on stage one of the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia.

The 19-year-old neo-pro finished runner-up to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Welsford on the opening day of the WorldTour calendar. The Brit accelerated from fourth to second place in the final metres of the finishing straight in Gumeracha, and almost pipped the victory with a bike throw, held off by Welsford who had posted up to celebrate.

Following the stage, the Brit said the result is “one I’ll remember for a long time”.

“I’m really happy with it,” he said. “I have to thank the team—they worked hard for me all day. In the final kilometres, we wanted to take our chance and see how close we could get. I spotted a gap on the left side of the road and decided to go for it. I think I had a strong sprint, but in the end, I came up just short. At this level, there’s no shame in that.”

Brennan was one of three Brits who finished in the top five on the stage. Matthew Walls (Groupama-FDJ) placed third, while Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), riding in his 17th full season as a pro, was fifth.

The Visma-Lease a Bike teenager will begin stage two on Wednesday in the white jersey as the best-placed young rider.

“Before the race, I would have gladly signed up for a podium finish in my very first WorldTour event,” Brennan said. “Of course, it stings a little to miss out on the win by such a small margin, but it’s amazing to be starting tomorrow in the white jersey.

“This was a hectic season opener, but one I’ll remember for a long time. This second place gives me a lot of confidence. I think we’ve started this Tour Down Under on the right foot as a team.”

Having come through the UK-based Fensham Howes-MAS Design junior team, Brennan joined Visma-Lease a Bike’s development arm last season, scoring a notable win on the final day of the Giro d’Italia Next Gen.

He made his professional debut last Saturday at the Villawood Men’s Classic – a pre-Tour Down Under criterium event – and finished third, again behind the winner Welsford.

The six-stage Tour Down Under continues on Wednesday with a hilly second stage in Tanunda. The race will begin at 11:14 local time (00:44 GMT).