'Van Aert told me to go for my own opportunity' - Youngest rider Matthew Brennan impresses as Belgian misses Paris-Roubaix podium
Van Aert finishes in f⛄ourth after crash, as Briton rode aggressively and✨ made the lead group before fading

Ahead of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Paris-Roubaix, all eyes were on 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Wout van Aert when it came to the contenders in the y🌱ellow colours of Visma-Lease💧 a Bike.
There was equally as much excitement about their so-called 'secret weapon', 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:the Gravaa adaptable tyre system, that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot deployed to gre🐈at suc♐cess as she ran out victorious in Saturday's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Paris-Roubaix Femmes.
However, by the time the grey clouds parted and the cobblestones arrived, the Dutch team's debutant and youngest rider in the race, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Matthew Brennan, was proving to be as much of a driving force.
The British 19-year-o💧ld made it into a select group of riders as the race splintered across Paris-Roubaix's remorseless pavé sectors. Brennan ignited proceedings on several occasions but eventually succumbed to the pace of those at the front, subsequently dropping away and arriving into the velodrome in 44th position.
Nonetheless, Visma an🐟d Van Aert, who narrowly missed out on a podium spot, clearly believed in the yo🌠ungster's potential to make a mark on the Hell of the North.
"It was more just to see how far I can get, and th🌱en at that point, try and support Wout. [That] didn't necessarily pla🥀y out," the Briton revealed to press at the finish.
"I think♕ Wout maybe struggled on some of the sectors earlier on, whereas I felt a little bit better, and he told me to go for my own opportunity, which was really nice.
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"Then [Van Aert] started to work a little bit 🍸for me, just to try and keep the pace going, but unfortunately, a couple of kilometres down the road, I didn't feel great and I just said 'I can't go on anymore and look after yourself.'"
Despite crashing in th🔯e Arenberg Trench, Van Aert managed to recover and still challenge for the pod﷽ium, even if he was in a world of pain.
"It was a surprise that I could st🎉ill fight for the podium.ꦯ Fourth was my place today," he told .
On his crash, Van Aert said:🌄 "I really wasn't feeling well at that moment. I had already fallen before the first sector. I had to race from the back for a long time. In the Arenberg I didn't have the legs yet."
He praised his young teammate for his te🧜amwork and support.
"Matthew stayed with me for a long time. That was really nice to see. We tried to work t♌ogether as best we could."
Brennan, who has already 𝔍won four times in his debut professional season, including twice in the WorldTour at the Volta a Catalunya, was more than pleased with his performance despite losing sight of the front of the race as the sectors were ticked off.
"I felt pretty good when it started to kick off♍, and then I just fell off a cliff basically. Wout was there as well, but we did what we could," he added.
He confessed that his Paris-Roubaix debut was the furthest he'd ever ridden, with the company h🌱e found himself in as the race broke apart as almost surreal.
"It was just a cool experience. I think when you look behind and see that there's no one left, and then you're left with some of the best cy♛clists of all time, and this is your first Paris-Roubaix, and it's kind of like, 'Oh, what do I do now?'"
It's understandable that a debutant would have a 'p🍒inch me' moment like that in the circumstances, but Brennaﷺn by no means sees that as his ceiling.
Reflecting on what he can take from the day and for when he likeജly returns in 12 months, he added: "That's part of the game, you know, [I'm] still young, to be in that po💎sition is really quite [the] confidence booster for the future."
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Pete joined Cyclingnews as Engagement Editor in 2024 having previously worked at GCN as a digital content creator, cutting his teeth in cycling journalism across their app, social media platforms, and website. While studying Journalism at university, he worked as a freelancer for Cycling Weekly reporting on races such as the Giro d’Italia and Milan-San Remo alongside covering the Women’s Super League and non-leཧague football for various titles. Pete has an undeniable passion for sport, with a keen interest in tennis, running and football too.
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