Riding for Visma-Lease A Bike, 19-year-old Brennan produced a stunning sprint finish on day one for his first World Tour win and on the fifth day, edged past Netherlands and Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Tibor del Grosso for another close victory in three hours, 28 minutes and 14 seconds.

The 172km stage favoured the sprinters with only one categorised climb but they were impacted 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.

1. Matthew Brennan (GB/Team Visma-Lease a Bike)

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

3. Pavel Bittner (Cze/Team Picnic PostNL)

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

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

6. Axel Laurance (Fra/Ineos Grenadiers)

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

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

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

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

(All finished in 3hrs 28mins 14secs)

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