Matthew Brennan won stage 17 of the Vuelta a España into Sevilla on Wednesday, his fifth stage victory of a race that is also his first Grand Tour — and, in the process, he became the youngest rider ever to reach five Grand Tour stage wins.
The 185km run from Dos Hermanas was flat by this Vuelta's standards, with no categorised climbs, but it was not quiet. A brief crosswind split, a nine-rider counterattack containing sprinter Bryan Coquard, and a stand-off in which Visma-Lease a Bike and Cofidis both stopped pulling and let the break's lead balloon to five and a half minutes all threatened to unpick the sprint. Enzo Paleni went solo with 15km left and held around a minute before he was caught 3km from the line.
Visma had spent the day controlling the race and arrived in the final kilometres short of riders, with Wout van Aert forced to close down a late three-man move himself. Uno-X Mobility filled the gap with a six-man lead-out train, and Van Aert simply dropped Brennan onto the back of it. He opened up later than usual and still won by more than a bike length. Jordi Meeus took second, Magnus Cort third.
It is Visma's seventh stage win in 17 days here. The general classification did not move: Enric Mas finished safely in the bunch and keeps the red jersey ahead of Thursday's 32.1km time trial, the stage most likely to decide the race before it reaches Granada on Sunday.
Source
Original summary by Proventier.