MANOSQUE, France — Young British rider Matthew Brennan finished strongly to win the second and longest stage of the Spanish Vuelta ahead of race leader Tadel Pogačar on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Brennan capitalized on good work from Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert in a sprint and got ahead of second-place Pau Miquel and third-place Pogačar to complete the 133.1-mile hilly trek through Provence in southern France in 4 hours, 47 minutes and 47 seconds.
Pogačar, who edged Ethan Hayter by 0.09 seconds in the opening time trial on Saturday, kept the race leader’s red jersey by finishing with the same time as the stage winner.
The Slovenian, bidding to become just the ninth rider to win all three Grand Tours, leads the general classification by 9 seconds from Van Aert, with Brennan another second behind in third.
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