Alpecin - Deceuninck tried the same trick that Israel - Premier Tech had used last year to win the first stage of the race around Sant Feliu de Guíxols. On the last descent of the day, five kilometres before the finish, Israel opened up a gap to the actual pacemaker Nick Schultz, while those behind him skilfully slowed the pace. By the time the competition realised what had happened, Schultz had enough of a lead to save himself from Tadej Pogacar on the uphill finishing straight.

Dutchman Tibor del Grosso was to be the Nick Schultz of this edition. Kaden Groves, actually Alpecin's man for the day, slowed down. But before the gap became unassailable, neo-pro Brennan had smelled a rat and set off alone in pursuit. The young sprinter had just under 2000 metres left to close the gap. And he needed almost every single one of them. While del Grosso's legs went to sleep over the last 200 metres, the Brit was able to step up a gear and fly past the Dutchman with an insane sprint. Groves on Brennan's rear wheel had no chance of keeping up.

GC aspirants already concede serious deficits

"I had watched last year's final again yesterday. And when Alpecin opened up the gap, I knew it was going to be a repeat of that," Brennan analysed in the winner's interview. "I realised that I had to take responsibility and sort it out myself," said the happy winner, who is in absolute top form and has finished each of his last four race days as the winner. Before his first WorldTour success, he won the cobbled Grand Prix de Denain (1.Pro), the Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers (1.2) and the Tour des 100 Communes (1.2) as part of the Visma Devo team.

With his victory, Brennan also takes the lead in the overall standings. While GC contenders Primoz Roglic (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) and Enric Mas (Movistar Team) made up a few seconds on Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates - XRG), Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick-Step) in a bonus sprint, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) or Lenny Martinez (Bahrain - Victorious) in a bonus sprint, Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost), Ben O'Connor (Team Jayco AlUla), Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) or Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) were already gaining seconds or even minutes. even minutes.

Tour of Catalonia 2025 - Results of the 1st stage

>> Tour of Catalonia: route, start list, TV coverage & live stream

>> All results of the Tour of Catalonia at a glance

This is how the 1st stage of the Tour of Catalonia went:

The rainy weather of recent weeks and races also affected the field in Catalonia on the Mediterranean coast. Again and again, heavy showers fell on the course as the riders passed. However, when Jan Castellon (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA), Jose Luis Faura (Burgos - Burpellet - BH), Danny van der Tuuk and Nicolas Alustiza (both Eukaltel - Euskadi) broke away shortly after the start, it was still dry.

The quartet made it to the first finish 60 kilometres before the end, with the Pole van der Tuuk winning both mountain classifications on the way there and thus also the first mountain jersey of the tour. After that, things became quite leisurely. The intermediate sprint, almost forgotten in the rain, and the associated three bonus seconds were secured almost without a fight by Mas ahead of UAE helper Domen Novak and Roglic. It wasn't until around 25 kilometres before the end that things got serious again.

On the last 15, there was a real fire in it, so that the head group shrank enormously. Barely 30 riders went into the final descent. Alpecin led the peloton and used the trick from the previous year with which Israel - Premier Tech had won. The only difference was that the train was already there, Brennan reacted in time and was able to catch del Grosso.