Briton Brennan bursts to Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne triumph / Photo: DAVID PINTENS - BELGA/AFP
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Briton Brennan bursts to Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne triumph
The 20-year-old British sprinter Matthew Brennan rocketed out of an accelerating pack to win the Flemish classic Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne for team Visma-Lease-a-bike on Sunday.
The Darlington native is the first Briton to win the race since Mark Cavendish in 2012 and 2015, whose finishing sprint was similar to the burgeoning star.
Brennan avoided the Cavendish comparison after the race.
"I won twice as a junior myself," he said. "I'm always there in these kind of races."
Second-tier ProTeam outfit Tudor had a pair of riders on the podium as Italians Luca Mozzato came second and the veteran Matteo Trentin third.
This was the second race of the Flemish opening weekend raced in clement weather over 193.6km and 13 hills and whose culminating 60km were winding but almost entirely flat.
Some three dozen riders played cat-and-mouse over the final 2km or so as teams jockeyed for position, Visma and Quick-Step featuring strongly.
"I was nervous all day and we got caught in a gap but we took the initiative and I'm really happy," Brennan said.
"The guys, each and every one of them. worked in the build up. I did the easy bit."
None of the pre-race favourites got a sniff with outgoing champion the Belgian Jasper Philipsen, his sprint rival the Italian Jonathan Milan and emerging French fast-man Paul Magnier out of the picture altogether.
B.Mahmoud--SF-PST