Matthew BRENNAN. 10 with honors. He's good and you can see it in how he wins, how he moves, how he chooses his position. These are clean victories, pure ones, of absolute quality. Visma pilots him as befits the chosen ones and at 21 he already seems like a seasoned veteran. Second stage win in this Vuelta: he evens the score with UAE Emirates. In short: Brennan is second to no one. He knows only how to win.

Jordi MEEUS. 7. The 28-year-old Belgian rider from Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe is a fine cyclist, but against a terrible kid like Brennan he can do very little, except acknowledge it.

Vincenzo ALBANESE. 7. The 29-year-old EF Education Easypost rider throws himself into the fray and comes out very well: a third place of substance. Now, consistency.

Alessandro ROMELE. 8. The young rider from Bergamo (he's 22 years old) from XDS Astana, at his debut in a Grand Tour, after a beautiful time trial (11th), achieves a more than flattering placement (4th) that confirms the talent of this talented rider who chose the Vuelta to make the quality leap.

Orluis AULAR. 5.5. He's a seasoned rider and one who knows how it's done, today he loses the plot a bit.

Fredrik DVERSNES. 7. The Uno-X Mobility rider takes off and goes. He's the one who lights the fuse. The 29-year-old Norwegian rider is quickly joined by Stefan Küng (Tudor), Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma) and two Italian riders: Walter Calzoni (Pinarello Q36.5) and Mattia Gaffuri (Picnic PostNL). This move fizzles out 98 km from the finish.

Stefan KÜNG. 1/7. He was in the right position, but he's slowed down and stopped by a mechanical problem that forces him to stop. In short, he misses the train. Pure bad luck.

Cian UIJTDEBROEKS. 1/7. The Movistar rider was touted as one of the purest talents at world level (he also won the Tour de l'Avenir), a sort of new Evenepoel, but between saying and doing there's always an ocean in between. In this Vuelta he's been particularly unlucky and new tests determined that the injuries suffered by the Belgian in the second stage crash were more serious than expected and his staff preferred to let him recover properly. A more than wise choice. The same fate, in the sense of withdrawal, befalls Roel van Sintmaartensdijk (Lotto Intermarchè): he crashes and stops.

Ben TULLET. 25. The Visma Lease a Bike rider turned 25 today. The best way to celebrate? Work to bring Brennan to victory. And tonight at the hotel there will be a double toast.