Brennan blasts to hat-trick victory on Vuelta stage 11

Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) sprinted to victory on stage 11 of the Vuelta a España in Lorca, sealing a hat-trick of victories on his Grand Tour debut.

The stage followed a similar beat to the previous day, with a climb in the finale and a flurry of attacks over the top for Visma to try and control for a bunch sprint. 

However, unlike the chaotic nature of stage 10, Visma were take control early doors, and were supported in their efforts by Netcompany-Ineos, Pinarello-Q36.5 and Uno-X Mobility, nullifying the opportunity to attack with high speeds on a downhill run-in to Lorca. 

Inside the final 10km, the GC teams, including Movistar and Decathlon CMA CGM, also fought for position at the front of the peloton, as the nerves increased. 

Visma led the peloton with 5km remaining and had three riders in front of Brennan: Bruno Armirail, Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert.

Over the next few kilometres, the Dutch team were swamped by Uno-X Mobility at the front, who had three riders in front of Danish champion Magnus Cort. 

It was NSN and Pinarello who led under the flamme rouge, but Visma quickly moved into the position with Laporte, before Van Aert led the race through the final left-hand corner.  

Van Aert led out the sprint before Brennan launched with 150m remaining, and nobody could come past the Briton who delivered the goods once more ahead of Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). 

Van Aert managed to still hold on for fifth, adding important points in his bid for the green jersey.

The first attack came from Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step), Alessandro Covi (Jayco AlUla) and Domen Novak (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and the trio were eventually joined by Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH) as Visma took control of the pace-setting in the peloton, setting their stall out early. 

Like stage 10, Visma were joined at the head of the peloton by Cofidis and the two teams kept the breakaway’s advantage slim. 

The peloton started to split with around 90km remaining, as the breakaway was reeled in. The split was short-lived as the race came all back together with around 80km remaining.

Continuing to be one of the most combative riders in the race, Hayter attacked once more, and was joined by Larry Warbasse (Tudor).

Hayter would claim the intermediate sprint with around 40km to go, while Van Aert would lead from the peloton behind.

Shortly after, Hamish McKenzie (Jayco AlUla) and Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) were involved in a crash, but both were able to resume as the race hit the Alto de Aledo, and the front duo were caught.

Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello-Q36.5) made a move with 34km to go, and was followed by Van Aert, who led the race over the climb.

Over the top, Groupama-FDJ United and Tudor were particularly active in launching attacks, but Visma were able to resume control, as Pinarello-Q36.5 and Uno-X Mobility also cooperated as the race looked to be heading for a bunch sprint in Lorca, as was the case when the race last visited back in 2010 where Tyler Farrar was victorious.