MADRID, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) won his second stage in two days and his fifth of this year's Vuelta a Espana cycle race on Wednesday when he claimed another the sprint finish in the 17th stage between Dos Hermanas and Seville in the south of Spain.
Only two riders, Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United) and Sinuhe Fernandez (Burgos Burpellet BH), were involved in the day's breakaway, but with the Visma-Lease a Bike team unwilling to do too much early work and other teams trying to play smart and get their main sprint rivals to wear themselves down, the break was able to take a lead of over five minutes before the peloton picked up speed, aware that this is the last chance for sprinters.
When Fernandez began to fade, Peleni went solo for the finish with around 15 kilometers to go, but with Visma, Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe and Uno-X Mobility working hard, he was caught by the peloton with three kilometers left to ride.
The Uno-X Mobility team was working well for Magnus Cort to try and win the stage but Brennan was smart in the closing meters, latching into Cort's wheel and then launching his sprint as space opened up in the closing meters to win by around a bike length with Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finishing second.
Thursday sees a virtually flat 32-kilometer time trial, which looks like Primoz Roglic's (Red Bull) best chance to reduce Enric Mas' (Movistar) overall lead ahead of the last three stages.
Mas is two minutes and six second ahead of Felix Gall, (Decathlon CMA CGM Team), with Roglic a further four seconds behind, although Rogic is the best time-trial rider of the three.
