A lot has changed in Jay Vine’s life since the Tour Down Under was last held in 2020. Back then he was a 24-year-old rookie still pursuing, seemingly against the odds, a pro contract, and missed out on selection by the Australian national squad. This year, he entered the race leading one of the biggest teams in the WorldTour as a top pre-race favourite, having won the Zwift Academy, and subsequently established himself as one of the most exciting prospects in the peloton.
His is a unique, endearing story, and, by taking overall victory at the race last week, it’s one that continues to develop into more and more of a fairytale. It was only late last summer that Vine claimed the first two victories of his pro career at the Vuelta a España; and not only was this his first overall victory at a WorldTour race, but the first time he’s finished anywhere near the top of GC. By sealing this title, he’s made the first steps towards proving himself to be consistent and complete enough to be a stage race GC contender — with leadership for UAE Team Emirates at the Giro d’Italia beginning to seem like a very real possibility.
Australian cycling boasts a lot of bright talent gracing the peloton at the moment, but victory here suggests Vine might just be the pick of the bunch. To win the overall here, he had to defeat most of his most established compatriots; unlike most other riders, for whom January is still a time for them to slowly build back up to racing condition, Australian stars make a point of arriving at their home race at a strong level. The nation’s only Grand Tour winner of recent years, Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), was present, but only followed managed to stick with Vine on the first hilly stage on none of the subsequent ones; Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), by contrast, had a slow start before only finding his legs on the final day of the race, to move up to sixth overall; and Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) excelled on stage two to take the stage and the leaders’ jersey from Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) with a well-timed late attack, only to be dropped out of contention the following day on the Corkscrew climb.
Vine’s climbing was superior to all of these more firmly-established GC riders, but similarly important was the ride he did on the opening day prologue. In a race that didn’t feature much climbing and bypassed the usual Willunga Hill climb altogether, this test against the clock proved to be…