British teen Brennan wins again at Volta a Catalunya

Matthew Brennan wins stage five of the Volta a Catalunya

British teenager Matthew Brennan sprinted to his second stage win of the Volta a Catalunya.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, 19, edged past Dutchman Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to clinch stage five in three hours, 28 minutes and 14 seconds.

Brennan previously won the first stage of the race in a stunning sprint finish for his first World Tour victory.

Thursday's 172km fifth stage favoured the sprinters with only one categorised climb, but they were affected by strong winds in the final 20km.

"We've worked all day and we knew it would be a little bit hectic coming into the final stretch," Brennan said.

"I think the whole team was there [at the end] and we came into the finish in a good position. I'm so happy that I could finish off for them."

Spain's Juan Ayoso, racing for UAE Team Emirates XRG, keeps his place at the top of the general classification but Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's Primoz Roglic has narrowed the gap between them to just one second.

The pair are pulling ahead with another Spaniard, Enric Mas, 21 seconds behind in third place.

Stage six, the penultimate day of the race, moves to the mountains for a 159km stretch.

Also on Friday, Mathieu van der Poel won the E3 Saxo Classic in Belgium for the second successive year.

The Dutch Alpecin–Deceuninck rider launched a solo attack from 38km out to seal his third win from three races this season, crossing the line more than one minute before Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen.

Ineos Grenadiers rider Filippo Ganna was a further 59 seconds back.

Volta a Catalunya stage five results

1. Matthew Brennan (GB/Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 3hrs 28mins 14secs

2. Tibor del Grosso (Ned/Alpecin-Deceuninck) Same time

3. Pavel Bittner (Cze/Team Picnic PostNL) Same time

4. Marjin van den Berg (EF Education-Easypost) Same time

5. Corbin Strong (NZ/Israel-Premier Tech) Same time

6. Axel Laurance (Fra/Ineos Grenadiers) Same time

7. Dorian Godon (Fra/Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) Same time

8. Nico Denz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) Same time

9. Antonio Fagundez Lima (Uru/Burgos-Burpellet-BH) Same time

10. Juan Ayuso (Spa/AE Team Emirates-XRG) Same time

General classification after stage five

1. Juan Ayuso (Spa/AE Team Emirates-XRG) 22hrs 23mins 03secs

2. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +1sec

3. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +21sec

4. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-QuickStep) +22sec

5. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain Victorious) +28sec