Matthew Brennan becomes youngest stage winner in Tour of Britain race history on Stage 3 -

How the stage unfolded

Stage three began in Milton Keynes under heavy rain, but the poor weather did little to deter the large crowds lining the roads. A four-rider move quickly established itself, featuring Casper Pedersen of Soudal Quick-Step, Robin Froidevaux of Tudor Pro Cycling, Mats Wenzel of Equipo Kern Pharma, and Ben Chilton of the Great Britain national team.

The quartet carved out a modest advantage of just over a minute and contested the intermediate sprints and two ascents of the King of the Mountain climb at Hillfoot. Wenzel dominated both intermediate sprints and claimed maximum points on the second KOM, while Chilton topped the first climb to move into the mountains jersey by the end of the day.

Their time out front was limited, however, as the peloton tightened its control in the final quarter of the stage. Attacks from Axel Huens of Unibet Tietema Rockets briefly disrupted the chase, but the breakaway was caught with 11 kilometres to go. As the speed ramped up towards Ampthill, Tudor, Flanders Baloise and Unibet tried to organise their sprinters, but Visma | Lease a Bike timed their effort to perfection.

Kooij reversed his usual role to lead out Brennan through a chaotic final kilometre. The young Brit launched with 200 metres remaining and proved untouchable, opening clear daylight to celebrate as Alberto Dainese of Tudor Pro Cycling finished second and Rui Oliveira of UAE Team Emirates-XRG took third.

Reaction from the riders

Brennan was full of gratitude for the support he received from his team and in particular from Kooij:

“It was always the plan, the team said we can’t have you going to your home race and not try to win something. To be given this opportunity, especially when Olav is leading, is really special and I’m really thankful for that. It was really chaotic into the last few kilometres, there were a lot of people trying to get to the front but we bided our time a little bit. We had the guys working all day, but we moved up in the last two kilometres and took an opportunity and I followed Olav’s wheel and he finished it off brilliantly.”

Kooij, who retained the overall lead and the points classification, reflected on his role as lead-out man:

“It feels nice, another day where we worked hard to get a sprint into first place for today. I was happy to do my job to put Matthew in a good position. The rest of the week is going to get harder. But, with the team we have we know we have options and it is nice to be able to use them.”

General classification update

Brennan’s stage win lifted him to second overall, 10 seconds behind his teammate Kooij, while Dainese moved into third place at 14 seconds. Chilton’s ride in the breakaway earned him both the combativity award and the lead in the mountains classification.

The race continues on Friday with stage four in Warwickshire, the longest of the race at 186.9 kilometres. The peloton will finish at Burton Dassett Hills Country Park, where a 700-metre climb averaging 9% will be tackled three times in the finale, setting up the first uphill showdown of the week.