Matthew Brennan wins stage two of the Vuelta a Espana as Lara Gillespie sprints to second at Tour of Britain

Young British rider Matthew Brennan finished strongly to win the second and longest stage of the Vuelta a Espana ahead of race leader Tadej Pogacar today. The 21-year-old Brennan capitalised 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 Pogacar to complete the 214.3km hilly trek through Provence in southern France in 4 hours, 47 minutes and 47 seconds. Pogacar, 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. Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar lost 31 seconds and finished in 84th, while Darren Rafferty was 163rd, over three minutes behind Brennan on the stage. In the final stage of the Tour of Britain Women, Wicklow’s Lara Gillespie finished second in a sprint finished behind Lorena Wiebes as Kim Le Court won the overall title.