British rider Mattew Brennan secured his second stage win of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana, having been perfectly set up by his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates on Wednesday.
The 173km Stage 5 route from Falset to Terres de l'Ebre ended with Brennan again hitting the finish line first, courtesy of a textbook lead-out by Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte.
The team effort ensured the Grand Tour debutant finished comfortably ahead of Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe rider Jordi Meeus in second, and Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), who was third. Brennan, 21, had already triumphed in a sprint finish on Stage 2 and his latest win underlined his growing status in the cycling world.
“It's not a bad one! It's better than a normal day job, but yeah, it's fantastic. Second one in the bag, first Grand Tour. Everyone just went full throughout the day, so I'm very thankful to finish it off again. The boys are also quite relieved,” Brennan said.
“[The Visma lead-out] was pretty spot on, to be fair. We had the two boys pulling on front until the final few kilometres, and then Wout and Christophare probably some of the – in fact, the best -guys you can have in the world for this type of thing. They supported me all the way into the final.
“I wouldn't say I'm a sprinter, but I can climb a little bit, so on this type of terrain, it works really nicely – especially with the support I have here.”
There was no change at the top of the general classification, with Tadej Pogacar cruising home safely in the pack after his devastating display in Andorra 24 hours earlier.
The sensational performance had seen the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider leave the peloton in his wake, launching his attack with 50km left and soloing to his biggest margin of victory at a Grand Tour. It means the Slovenian enjoys an advantage of three minutes 21 seconds over countryman Primoz Roglic heading into Stage 6.
But UAE Team Emirates-XRG sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez issued a word of caution after Stage 4, despite his lead rider's astonishing performance on Tuesday.
“Tadej has made a big statement,” the Spaniard said to reporters. "[But] there's a long way to go, too. [We are] less than half the way to the first rest day. We wouldn't be showing respect to the Vuelta or to our rivals to say we had won it."
“Look at the Tour and what happened to Jonas Vingegaard … He's always been a key player in Tadej's Tours, but there was a roundabout, a bend, and suddenly he'd fallen, and he was game.
“We have to be respectful with the rivals and with the race, we haven't even done the first four stages of the first week.
“We've got through today, we did really well and tomorrow we'll try to go through the next stage. And that's all there is to it.”
Thursday's Stage 6 is a 177.4km run from Alcossebre to Castello that includes one Category 1 climb – El Bartolo – and a final 9km flat sprint to the finish line.
Stage 5 results
1. Matthew Brennan (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 3:47:02
2. Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) ”
3. Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost) ”
4. Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana Team) ”
5. Axel Laurance (Netcompany INEOS) ”
General Classifcation
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 11:26:01
2. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +3:21
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +3:32
4. Sepp Kuss (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +3:44
5. Oscar Onley (Netcompany INEOS) +3:45
