It took just 24 hours for Matthew Brennan to bounce back from his crash at Omloop Nieuwsblad and return to winning ways, claiming a first Flemish Classics victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider sprinted to a convincing win in the Belgian one-day race. He launched his dash with 150m to go, following a lead-out from team-mate Christophe Laporte, and won by a bike length ahead of Luca Mozzato (Tudor Pro Cycling).
“It’s special to be able to say that I’ve won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne,” Brennan said afterwards in quotes shared by his team. “As a junior, I often stood here watching the pros race, so it still needs to sink in. Everyone went above and beyond today. We took the initiative as a team, so I’m incredibly happy that it paid off.”
The 20-year-old explained he arrived at the start line in Kuurne “nervous”, after crashing hard on the approach to the Muur van Geraardsergen at Omloop Nieuwsblad on Saturday, and abandoning the race.
Speaking to Cycling Pro Net after his win, he said: “It was chaotic, it was busy, there was so much going on, so many close moments, and that wasn’t very helpful for bringing the confidence back,but I knew the legs were feeling pretty good, and [I] kind of leaned more on them.”
“The guys guided me to the front flawlessly,” he said in Kuurne. “Christophe dropped me off at exactly the right moment and made sure the hardest part was done. I still had to finish it off. It’s the first Flemish classic I’ve won, and hopefully not the last.”
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