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British teen Brennan takes stage 1 of Tour de Romandie / Photo: © AFP
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British teen Brennan takes stage 1 of Tour de Romandie
British teenager Matthew Brennan took over the yellow jersey of the Tour de Romandie after winning a sprint on the opening stage in Fribourg on Wednesday.
It marked a fourth victory on the professional circuit for the Visma-Lease a Bike rider, who is just 19. He won the Grand Prix de Denain and two stages of the Tour of Catalunya in March.
Former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas worked overtime to try and get his Ineos team-mate Samuel Watson, who won the prologue on Tuesday, to the front but it was Brennan who rode away powerfully to win by several metres ahead of the peloton.
Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel, one of the favourites to win the race, came in 7sec behind Brennan in ninth.
With the weather unseasonably warm for the end of April, it was an eye-catching performance by the young Englishman to win the longest stage of the race -- 194km and over 3,000m of climbing from Muenchenstein, including two second category climbs.
Thanks to bonuses, he takes a 3sec lead over Watson into Thursday's second stage which will take the peloton on a 157km loop from the start to the finish in La Grande Beroche, before the queen stage in the mountains on Saturday and the final time trial on Sunday.
H. de Araujo--JDB
