Matthew Brennan
Matthew Brennan (born 6 August 2005 in Great Britain) is a rising British talent currently racing for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. After a promising junior career, he joined the team’s development programme and quickly progressed to the pro level. In his first professional season, Brennan secured multiple wins, confirming his reputation as a fast finisher on uphill terrain and a strong prospect for punchy classics and selective stage finishes. Find Matthew Brennan’s latest results, stats and race calendar on this page.
Biography of pro cyclist Matthew Brennan
Matthew Brennan is a rare kind of young rider: fast enough to win sprints, strong enough to survive hard, punchy finales, and mature enough to deliver at the highest level almost immediately. His versatility has already drawn comparisons to riders like Wout van Aert.
He matters because breakthroughs this complete are rare. In a single debut WorldTour season he went from promising junior to genuine winner at the top of the sport, and his team has built around him for the long term.
Early life and rise
Brennan grew up in the north-east of England and first made his name on the track. In 2023 he became Junior World Track Champion in both the Madison and the individual pursuit, setting a new junior world record in the latter, a marker of the engine and finishing speed that would later translate so well to the road.
That track pedigree, combined with his road results as a junior, earned him a place in the Visma | Lease a Bike system, where he made the step up to the WorldTour for 2025.
A record-breaking 2025 debut
Brennan's first WorldTour season was sensational. The teenager took around twelve victories, many at the highest level, including stage wins at the Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and Tour of Poland. He also won two stages and the overall title at the Tour of Norway, claimed Rund um Köln, won a stage of the Tour of Britain, and beat established sprinter Jonathan Milan to take a stage of the Deutschland Tour. It was a debut campaign that immediately marked him out as a star in the making.
Confirming his class in 2026
Brennan carried his form into 2026, adding further wins early in the season. The standout was Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, where he became the first British winner of the Belgian semi-Classic since Mark Cavendish a decade earlier, a result that confirmed his ability to win not just bunch sprints but hard, attritional one-day races on Belgian roads.
Rider profile: strengths, style, and characteristics
Brennan is a versatile fast finisher rather than a pure sprinter. He has the speed to win from a bunch but, crucially, the strength to get over short climbs and survive aggressive racing that drops the heavier sprinters. That combination lets him win a wide range of races, flat finishes, hilly stages and cobbled semi-Classics alike, and makes him a genuine all-round threat at just 20 years old.
Personal life
A product of British cycling's strong junior pathway, Brennan has quickly become one of the most talked-about young riders in the sport. He has spoken about the trust he feels within the Visma | Lease a Bike set-up, an environment that has given him freedom to win while developing alongside the team's biggest stars.
Records and milestones
- Around 12 wins in his 2025 WorldTour debut season
- WorldTour stage wins at Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and Tour of Poland (2025)
- Overall and two stages, Tour of Norway (2025)
- Winner, Rund um Köln (2025); stage wins at Tour of Britain and Deutschland Tour (2025)
- Winner, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (2026), first British winner since Mark Cavendish in 2015
- Junior World Track Champion, Madison and individual pursuit (2023), with a junior world record
- Long-term contract with Visma | Lease a Bike through 2029
What's next for Matthew Brennan?
The ceiling for Brennan looks extraordinarily high. With his speed, strength and the backing of one of the sport's strongest teams, the next steps are bigger one-day races and Grand Tour stage wins. If his development continues at this rate, he is set to be one of the defining riders of the coming decade.
