Matthew Brennan is Biking Weekly’s Male Rider of the 12 months for 2025. This characteristic initially appeared in Biking Weekly journal on 4th December 2025. Subscribe now and by no means miss a problem.
There’s a video that retains popping up on Matthew Brennan’s Instagram feed. It opens with a shot down the Carretera de Girona, an unassuming residential highway in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, onto which bursts the chaos of stage one’s finale of the Volta a Catalunya. “Right here comes Brennan,” broadcasts Carlton Kirby excitedly on commentary. And it’s at this level that the 20-year-old switches the video off. “I see the primary like three seconds, and I simply preserve scrolling,” says the Visma-Lease a Bike rider.
It’s not that he doesn’t prefer it – fairly the other, really – however he simply doesn’t want any assist remembering his first WorldTour victory, his breakthrough on biking’s greatest stage. “It was a pleasant day,” he smiles. “Effectively, the day wasn’t good, however it was very nice to complete it like that. I believe it’s one thing fairly particular that can at all times be with me.”
If Brennan had been to look at on, he’d hear Kirby develop increasingly more animated. “My goodness, Brennan is admittedly grinding into the hole right here,” the commentator says, however it appears to be too late – Alpecin-Deceuinck’s Tibor Del Grosso is driving solo in direction of the gantry, quickly passing the gap markers in conjunction with the highway: 150m to go, 100m, 50m. Then comes the bike throw. “Oh, he’s acquired it! He’s completely nailed it!,” Kirby shouts. Brennan punches the air along with his fist. “A genius at work!”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
It was mid-March when the then 19-year-old took the chief’s jersey on the Volta a Catalunya. Biking followers didn’t comprehend it on the time, however they’d come to see much more of Brennan’s genius over the remainder of the season; he gained 14 instances, a tally bettered by simply 4 different male riders: Tim Merlier, Isaac del Toro, Paul Magnier and the world champion Tadej Pogačar. The Brit started the season 349th within the UCI’s rankings, and ended it forty third, having jumped greater than 300 locations. All that, and he solely turned 20 in August.
“It’s been an excellent yr,” Brennan says understatedly. We’re talking over videocall the afternoon earlier than his ultimate race of the yr, Paris-Excursions. Does he have any regrets about 2025? “Not having my vacation earlier,” he smirks. Every little thing else exceeded expectations. “We got here into the beginning of the season with the objective of making an attempt to win one race, primarily. Then it spiralled a bit faster and a bit greater than we thought it could.”
That field was ticked nearly instantly, in March, when he gained three French one-day races on the trot, culminating within the cobbled GP de Denain, Paris-Roubaix’s little brother. {The teenager}’s subsequent cease was meant to be the Basic Brugge-De Panne, till he acquired a name from his coach, Robbert de Groot, whereas out procuring along with his girlfriend. Did he need to substitute the injured Jonas Vingegaard within the squad for Catalunya? “Taking into consideration I’d by no means heard of this race earlier than,” Brennan says, “I used to be like, ‘Proper, OK, yeah, no matter.’ However I wasn’t too satisfied… It was good that I listened to them.”
The crew plan was at all times to trip for Brennan that afternoon in Saint Feliu, and he ended up doing all of it himself. Gripping the drops of his handlebars, he clawed again the tearaway Del Grosso all by himself, and held off the peloton behind. The timing was good. “In that second, you’ve acquired to belief your racing instincts,” Brennan says. 4 days later, he proved it had been no fluke when he sprinted to a second victory. Then got here one other cellphone name: did he need to trip Paris-Roubaix? “You’re not going to show that down.”
Brennan arrived at his first Monument after every week of sickness. The youngest rider on the beginning checklist, his expectations had been low, so it got here as a shock to seek out himself within the entrance group deep into the race, driving alongside Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel, whereas his team-mate Wout van Aert suggested him over the radio to go for his personal probabilities. At nearly 260km, nevertheless, the longest trip {the teenager}’s longest-ever trip quickly took its toll.
“Sadly the parachutes got here out slightly bit,” a dusty-faced Brennan stated within the velodrome after the end. Reflecting on it now, he’s impressed at how lengthy he lasted. “It offers confidence which you could make it to this point into that race so younger. Wanting again on the [power] numbers [required], they’re not one thing that’s essentially loopy, both. It’s thrilling.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Brennan was introduced up within the north-eastern market city of Darlington, County Durham, by a bike-racing father and triathlete mom. He joined his native membership, Stockton Wheelers, at 12 years outdated, and excelled on the monitor as a junior, successful two world titles in 2023. The next yr, he signed a two-year cope with Visma-Lease a Bike’s improvement squad, however amazed the crew bosses a lot on his first coaching camp that they determined he’d flip professional a yr early.
As he ready for that step-up final winter, he remembers, it was the off-the-bike modifications the he feels made the distinction.
“I used to be capable of transfer out [to Girona, Spain] and get my very own independence. With that, you can too then change your diet slightly bit, the fashion of life, and all a lot of these issues, which I believe in the long run helped me rather a lot. [Previously] I’d are available in after doing 5 hours, and have no matter my household is having.”
Brennan additionally targeted extra on fitness center work, with the purpose of holding a extra aerodynamic place in sprints. “That helped stabilise every little thing and make every little thing aggressive, but additionally highly effective,” he says. The roll name of top-class sprinters he conquered this yr is proof that it labored; he beat Biniam Girmay at Germany’s Rund um Köln, Alexander Kristoff on the Tour of Norway, Tour de France inexperienced jersey winner Jonathan Milan – twice – on the Lidl Deutschland Tour, and Alberto Dainese on the Tour of Britain.
It would come as a marvel, then, that Brennan doesn’t regard himself as a pure sprinter. He politely dismisses any comparisons to Mark Cavendish (who, by the way in which, gained three fewer races in his first professional yr). “I believe I’m actually fairly a flexible particular person when it comes to what I can obtain,” Brennan says. “I can survive my approach by means of fairly properly.”
Take, for instance, his stage victory at April’s Tour de Romandie, which got here after greater than 3,000m of climbing. There was comparable elevation, too, when he gained stage two on the Tour of Norway, outpunching climber Maxim Van Gils on a 7% incline. The place does he rank that win? “Which one was this?” he says, the victories blurring into one. Of the 4 levels in Norway, Brennan positioned first twice, second twice, and gained general. “That is the issue, I don’t bear in mind what stage is what in the intervening time.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Regardless of all of the podium visits, Brennan stays modest. He’s observed his superstar develop at races – “your title is shouted slightly bit extra,” he says – however he doesn’t get stopped for selfies on the street, a minimum of not but. “I have a look at a man like Wout, who steps off the bus and instantly is swarmed. That’s fairly overwhelming,” he says.
As an alternative, Brennan prefers his world of calm and understatement; he describes his last-gasp Catalunya victory as “fairly cool”, and his envious season win tally as “alright, not unhealthy”. How has he discovered the yr? “I’ve had a good time,” he smiles.
He’s additionally acquired a way of humour. After I ask what could be his dream race to win, he seems to be into the gap for a second, after which cites the Salt Ayre criteriums in Lancaster – “I’ve by no means gained a kind of,” he grins.
This laidback angle is his pure character, little doubt – it’s additionally one in every of his superpowers on the bike. “I believe one factor I’ve taken away from this yr is that, typically, I simply really feel fairly relaxed in direction of every little thing,” he says. “I’m simply in a mindset of, if it goes nice, sensible, that’s what we attempt for. But when it doesn’t, it’s additionally not an issue. I can attempt one other day.”
The longer term now could be in Brennan’s palms. He’d prefer to go to the LA Olympics in 2028. Earlier than that, although, there’s one other occasion he has circled in his diary: the 2027 Tour de France, which begins in Edinburgh, a two-hour practice journey from his house. “I imply, yellow jersey day one on the Tour within the UK I don’t suppose is a nasty objective to try to obtain,” he says. “I believe that might be fairly cool rolling by means of the UK in a yellow jumper.”
If it occurs, Brennan may change into a family title. The second will likely be watched reside by hundreds of thousands. It’ll then be cropped right into a video to be replayed time and again on Instagram. Even Brennan gained’t be capable of scroll previous that one.
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