Matt Brennan out-sprints Pogacar to win Vuelta stage two in Manosque

Matt Brennan of Britain won the second stage of the Vuelta a España in Manosque, France, on Sunday, outsprinting Pau Miquel and Tadej Pogacar, with Pogacar retaining the overall red jersey. It was Brennan’s first stage win in a Grand Tour in his first appearance at this level.

The 20-year-old was making his Grand Tour debut. The stage covered 214.3km and featured over 3,000m of climbing, leaving Monaco and heading to Manosque in France. Brennan joined the Visma-Lease a Bike team’s World Tour squad in 2025. "Hopefully it’s not the last one," he said.

Wout van Aert made a move under two kilometres before the finish with Pogacar on his wheel, but the peloton closed down their attack and allowed Brennan to take the victory in a bunch sprint, with Pau Miquel finishing second and Pogacar third.

Ethan Hayter was part of a four-man breakaway that led for much of the race and won the intermediate sprint to claim six bonus seconds, giving him a chance to take Pogacar’s red jersey. Hayter had been pipped by Pogacar in Saturday’s opening individual time-trial and could not stay with the UAE Emirates rider on the slight uphill finish.

Brennan described the move and his role in his team’s plan, saying, "We thought there ⁠was a nice opportunity to attack," and added, "I was ​super-happy ‌to finish it ​off." He also said: "We started off with the ambition of Wout trying to get in the red jersey today. We had that plan and then I was always going to be in the background for the sprint in case that [didn’t work] … and that’s exactly what happened."

Hayter was dropped and crossed the line 31 seconds behind Pogacar, who picked up four bonus seconds for his third-place finish. Pogacar, a five-time Tour de France winner, is described in the race coverage as the overwhelming favourite to win the Vuelta and complete a Grand Tour career hat-trick; only a huge shock, the report says, will prevent him finishing the race in Granada on 13 September as the ninth rider to pull off the feat and just the fourth to do a Tour-Vuelta double in the same season.

On Monday the race continues with stage three, a 174km route from Gruissan to Font-Romeu for the first high-altitude finish; Pogacar will start that stage with a nine-second cushion over Van Aert, with Brennan third on the general classification.