Vuelta a Burgos: Brennan wins twice

Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) continued to dazzle at the Vuelta a Burgos, taking his second victory in the race after beating Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) at the finish line in Briviesca in a thrilling finale to stage 4.

The twenty-year-old Englishman seemed to be running out of steam when, having lost contact with his last man on the train at the exit of the final corner, he found himself forced to open his sprint from thirteenth position, while in front of him Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor) and David González (Pinarello Q36.5) were already gaining metres with lightning-fast acceleration.

For a moment, it seemed as if the Spaniard González could fly to victory, but in the final 50 meters, Brennan and Pithie caught up with him and overtook him with a simply perfect movement of their legs: the Visma runner found that final spark that allowed him to beat his New Zealand rival by the skin of his teeth, in a sprint that will remain in the fans' memories.

This is the seventh victory of the season for the very young Brennan, who is building his preparation with excellent results in view of his absolute debut in a Grand Tour: he will in fact be at the start of the next Vuelta a España, where he will share the team with heavyweights such as Wout van Aert.

In terms of the general classification, the fourth flat stage offered no major upsets, and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) was able to retain the purple leader's jersey heading into the final and decisive stage. However, the overall victory is far from a foregone conclusion: Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Oscar Onley (Netcompany) remain lurking, six and seven seconds behind, respectively, ready to launch a decisive attack.

All eyes are now on the final climb to Lagunas de Neila, a brutal 6.4km wall with an average gradient of 9.1% that promises to rewrite the overall standings on Saturday's final stage. For fantasy riders, this section represents an ideal opportunity to bet on pure climbers capable of overturning the odds and exploiting every second of their remaining advantage.

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