Brennan misses record as Mas clinches Vuelta crown

Spain's Enric Mas clinched the Vuelta a Espana title as Britain's Matthew Brennan missed out on a record sixth debut Grand Tour stage win on the final day.

Overwhelming favourite Tadej Pogacar abandoned the three-week race on stage eight, the five-time Tour de France champion requiring surgery after sustaining multiple injuries after a crash.

Brennan finished the final 112km stage in Granada in fourth after an eventful finish featuring several solo attacks which concluded with Norway's Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility pipping Italy's Alessandro Romele of XDS-Astana to the line.

Visma-Lease a Bike's Brennan, 21, has excelled in his first Grand Tour, winning five stages in bunch sprints, leading to early comparisons with the achievements of Sir Mark Cavendish , who retired at the end of 2024 having won a record 35 stages of the Tour de France.

Brennan has not come from nowhere, having been a successful presence on the junior scene and winning a handful of the sport's bigger races, including one-day classic Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

He rides for one of cycling's 'super teams', who also house two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Belgian hero and this year's Paris-Roubaix winner Wout van Aert - considered two of the best talents of a golden age of riders.

Brennan, from north east England, is 5ft 8in and weighs 68kg, and can use a lot of power on flat and undulating stages, such as one-day classics, and already possesses the race craft and timing to flummox rivals.

He represents a new era of riders, bridging between one-day classics powerhouses Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, who are both now in their thirties, and has the potential to go on and win the sport's biggest races, including the five 'monuments' such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, as well as the Tour de France's green jersey.

"We came here as team to win stages, but we never dreamed of winning seven [including two for Van Aert]. We're making history," said Brennan after his fifth victory.

Brennan's success at the Vuelta is a timely reminder of the presence of a record 49 British riders in the men's and women's World Tour in 2026 - a legacy of the UK's golden age of cycling from 2012, when Team Sky won seven Tours de France in 10 years, Mark Cavendish more Tour de France stages than anyone else and Lizzie Deignan won many of the sport's biggest races.

Next year cycling's biggest race, the Tour de France, and Tour de France Femmes, come to the UK for a double-headed Grand Depart which is likely to bring a rise in popularity for the sport and cycling participation in general.

Despite the change in recent years following the domination of road cycling's every discipline by Pogacar, 27, UK riders are starting to make an impact in sprinting, classics, general classification and time trialling.

One rider who has already won the European title in TT is Josh Tarling, who contested the first six stages of this race just over a week after the tragic death of his younger brother Finlay at 19 years of age.

Josh Tarling finished an excellent third in the Vuelta's opening stage TT in Monaco before deciding to return home.