Recap: Vuelta
A week of streaks and echoes
The first week of the Vuelta opened with a familiar sight: Jasper Philipsen crossing the line first. Two months after winning the opening stage of the Tour de France, he repeated the trick in Spain — becoming just the ninth rider ever to win the opening stage of two Grand Tours in the same year.
Double openers, double rarity
Philipsen joined a list that stretches back to Edward Sels and Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx, and Francesco Moser. Yet within that list, only Sels (1964) and Van Looy (1965) managed to win two road openers in a single year. Philipsen’s sprint in Novara was not just a victory; it was an echo of Belgian cycling’s deepest traditions.
📊 Winners of two Grand Tour opening stages in a single season
2025 | 🇧🇪 Jasper Philipsen | Tour & Vuelta
2009 | 🇨🇭 Fabian Cancellara | Tour & Vuelta
1986 | 🇫🇷 Thierry Marie | Tour & Vuelta
1984 | 🇮🇹 Francesco Moser | Giro & Vuelta
1977 | 🇧🇪 Freddy Maertens | Giro & Vuelta
1973 | 🇧🇪 Eddy Merckx | Giro & Vuelta
1968 | 🇫🇷 Charly Grosskost | Giro & Tour
1965 | 🇧🇪 Rik Van Looy | Tour & Vuelta
1964 | 🇧🇪 Edward Sels | Tour & Vuelta
Belgium’s streak
Philipsen’s win also extended a record of its own: eleven consecutive Vueltas with a Belgian stage victory. No other nation matches that kind of consistency in Spain. The streak began with Jasper Stuyven in 2015 and now includes names like Philippe Gilbert, Tim Wellens, Remco Evenepoel, Wout Van Aert, and Philipsen himself.
📊 Most consecutive years with a stage win in Vuelta (active streaks):
11 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 2015–2025
6 | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 2019–2024
4 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 2021–2024
3 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 2022–2024
2 | 🇺🇸 United States | 2023–2024
Belgium’s streak in Spain is now the third-longest active run of Grand Tour stage-winning consistency across all races, behind only Italy’s unbroken Giro streak (since 1946) and France’s Tour sequence (since 2000).
📊 Active national streaks in Grand Tours:
80 | 🇮🇹 Italy | Giro d’Italia | 1946–2025
26 | 🇫🇷 France | Tour de France | 2000–2025
11 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | Vuelta a España | 2015–2025
7 | 🇫🇷 France | Giro d’Italia | 2019–2025
7 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | Tour de France | 2019–2025
6 | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | Tour de France | 2020–2025
6 | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | Vuelta a España | 2019–2024
Philipsen, the collector
With the Novara sprint, Philipsen moved to 14 Grand Tour stage wins, level with Chris Froome and Wout van Aert, and now in joint fourth among active riders. Only Tadej Pogačar (30), Primož Roglič (22), and that same van Aert are ahead of him. For a rider still only 27, it underlines a shift: Philipsen has become one of the defining collectors of the sprinting era.
📊 Most stage wins in Grand Tours (active riders)
30 | 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogačar
22 | 🇸🇮 Primož Roglič
14 | 🇧🇪 Wout Van Aert
14 | 🇬🇧 Chris Froome
14 | 🇧🇪 Jasper Philipsen
12 | 🇩🇪 John Degenkolb
11 | 🇬🇧 Simon Yates
10 | 🇮🇪 Sean Bennett
10 | 🇫🇷 Arnaud Démare
10 | 🇦🇺 Kaden Groves
10 | 🇦🇺 Michael Matthews
10 | 🇩🇰 Mads Pedersen
Vingegaard’s double strike
Stage two belonged to Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane claimed the win and the leader’s jersey — his second career Grand Tour stage-and-leader double, after the Tour de France in 2023. Denmark had waited fourteen years since Jakob Fuglsang (2011) for a Vuelta leader; now Vingegaard adds his name to a list that began with Lars Michaelsen in 1997.
📊 Danish leaders in Vuelta a España:
4 | Lars Michaelsen (1997)
1 | Jakob Fuglsang (2011)
1 | Jonas Vingegaard (2025)
Youthquake in Germany and beyond
Beyond Spain, the Deutschland Tour provided its own record. Matthew Brennan, still only 20 years and 15 days, took his tenth professional win of the season — and has already added an eleventh. All of them have come in 2025. In doing so, he became the youngest rider in history to reach double digits in a single season — surpassing Giuseppe Saronni’s mark from 1978.
📊 Youngest riders to reach 10 pro wins in one season
20y 015d – 🇬🇧 Matthew Brennan (2025)
20y 218d – 🇮🇹 Giuseppe Saronni (1978)
20y 303d – 🇳🇱 Olav Kooij (2022)
20y 338d – 🇦🇺 Caleb Ewan (2015)
21y 022d – 🇮🇹 Gino Bartali (1935)
21y 117d – 🇧🇪 Eddy Merckx (1966)
21y 190d – 🇸🇰 Peter Sagan (2011)
21y 199d – 🇧🇪 Arnaud De Lie (2023)
21y 223d – 🇩🇪 Dietrich Thurau (1976)
21y 257d – 🇮🇹 Giuseppe Saronni (1979)
It is not just a sign of Brennan’s talent; it places him in direct comparison with the sport’s eternal prodigies — Bartali, Merckx, Saronni, Sagan. Echoes of the past, refracted into a new generation.
Youngest riders to reach 10 pro wins
Matthew Brennan’s 2025 season has been nothing short of meteoric. At just 20 years and 15 days, he became the youngest rider ever to reach double digits in a single year — edging out Remco Evenepoel by two weeks. The list reads like a hall of fame of cycling prodigies: from Sylvain Grysolle and René Vietto in the pre-war and interwar eras, to Miguel Poblet, Olimpio Bizzi, and Giuseppe Saronni; and into the modern era with Olav Kooij, Arnaud De Lie, and Gerald Ciolek. Brennan’s achievement does not just place him in historical company — it underscores the accelerating rise of young talent in contemporary cycling, where 20-year-olds can now rival the legends of previous generations.
📊 Youngest riders to reach 10 pro wins
20y 015d – 🇬🇧 Matthew Brennan (2025)
20y 029d – 🇧🇪 Remco Evenepoel (2020)
20y 101d – 🇧🇪 Sylvain Grysolle (1936)
20y 156d – 🇫🇷 René Vietto (1934)
20y 170d – 🇪🇸 Miguel Poblet (1948)
20y 188d – 🇮🇹 Giuseppe Saronni (1978)
20y 238d – 🇳🇱 Olav Kooij (2022)
20y 253d – 🇮🇹 Olimpio Bizzi (1937)
20y 312d – 🇧🇪 Arnaud De Lie (2023)
20y 333d – 🇩🇪 Gerald Ciolek (2007)
Closing note
The week began with Philipsen and Belgium’s long Vuelta echo, continued with Vingegaard’s Danish breakthrough, and closed with Brennan’s youthquake in Germany. One a sprinter confirming his era, one a GC champion extending his, one a teenager forcing open the gates of history. Three stories, separated by borders, tied together by streaks.