Brennan, Vingegaard and Visma's luxury Tour de France selection dilemma

“What’s next?” is the simple question asked of the most valuable player as part of Disney’s traditional advertising campaign around the Super Bowl. In return for a generous financial windfall, the player gleefully bellows out the required answer: “I’m going to Disneyland.”

Grand Tour debutant Matthew Brennan’s sparkling performances on this Vuelta a España have begged the very same question asked of a Super Bowl MVP – what’s next?

By winning at La Rábida on Tuesday, Brennan became the first man to win four stages in his first Grand Tour since Fernando Gaviria achieved the feat on the 2017 Giro d’Italia. Brennan saw little reason to be coy when reminded that Gaviria went on to wear the first yellow jersey of the following year’s Tour de France.

With the 2027 Grand Départ set for Great Britain, Brennan has set himself the increasingly reasonable ambition of making his Tour debut next year and targeting victory on the opening stage in Carlisle. Why pretend otherwise?

“I already said it to the team two years ago now, when I heard about the UK start,” Brennan said. “For myself, I’d really like to be there on the start line and to have guys like Wout [van Aert] and Christophe [Laporte] there also. If we can do the same thing as we did here, we can really try to copy what we do and replicate that into a yellow jersey on day one.”

It wasn’t simply a case of getting caught up in post-stage euphoria. Brennan revisited the idea when he met with the written press after the podium ceremony, making clear that this is something he has already thought about in some detail.

“I’ve seen the first stage, and also the second stage,” Brennan said. “The third stage, I think, will also be actually quite a hard stage, so there are definitely opportunities to try to do something within my strengths.”

Although Brennan is still only 21 years old, he is no wide-eyed neophyte, and he described this Vuelta as “a nice stepping stone” towards bigger goals. Next year’s Tour is not some far-off dream, but the next logical step in his progression after rattling off four wins in his first Grand Tour and notching up 23 wins across his first two seasons as a professional.

Even so, Brennan knows that being among the fastest finishers in the peloton isn’t enough to guarantee a spot in a Visma | Lease a Bike Tour squad built around trying to score overall victory with Jonas Vingegaard. 

Just look at Olav Kooij. The Dutchman went close to half a century of wins during his time at Visma, including victories at the Giro d’Italia, but he had to leave for Decathlon CMA CGM to get his start – and win – at the Tour.

Small wonder, then, that Brennan paid due deference to Visma’s GC ambitions while gently pointing out that his range extends well beyond his turn of speed in the finishing straight. Indeed, he already demonstrated as much on this Vuelta, most notably on the rugged road to Loja on stage 13, when he repeatedly shut down attacks in the finale to tee up his teammate Wout van Aert for victory. When it comes to making Visma’s selection next July, that cameo might be a more compelling argument than his haul of stage wins.

“I’d really like to be on the start line,” Brennan said. “I also understand that the best squad has to go with the ambitions that the team has. I think we can probably use me in different ways as well in the Tour to help Jonas bring out his strengths even more and play the cards. 

“But I think this is also just something that the team will discuss in the future and there’s no kind of decision being made yet. I think we just take it as it is and go from there.”

In truth, and much like Brennan’s tandem with Van Aert on the Vuelta, it’s a luxurious kind of selection headache for Visma ahead of the 2027 Tour. After winning this year’s Giro d’Italia and then crashing out of the Tour, Vingegaard will surely be motivated to go again next July. But faced with Tadej Pogačar’s ongoing supremacy, Visma might well be minded to build their team a little differently. The avenue that was closed off to Kooij might be kept open for Brennan.

It surely helps that Brennan has combined so smoothly with Van Aert at the Vuelta. The Briton has delivered every time Van Aert (and before him, Christophe Laporte) has been deployed as his lead-out man, but he has also returned the favour for his more experienced teammate. 

Above all, the harmony between master and apprentice has appeared to be total, and that, too, will surely help Brennan’s case when Visma decide on their septet to accompany Vingegaard at next year’s Tour. 

In the here and now, Brennan will chase a fifth stage win in Seville on Wednesday, but his 2026 season will come to an end when the Vuelta concludes at the weekend. In the opening week of the Vuelta, he revealed that he had withdrawn himself from consideration for the World Championships in Montreal, believing the journey and the race would be too much of a burden after his exertions in Spain.

On Tuesday evening, Brennan confirmed that his head hadn’t been turned by his displays in the intervening period. “Yesterday I already booked my holiday, so I think that’s pretty clear…” he smiled.

Brennan, it seems, is a rider who knows precisely what he can and cannot do. Visma will surely find a way to accommodate his yellow jersey dream.