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Jay Vine’s year just keeps getting better. At the start of January he flew to victory at the Australian National Championships‘ time trial in his first attempt, and now he steps into the ochre leader’s jersey at the Santos Tour Down Under in his debut at the Australian WorldTour, lining up with new squad UAE Team Emirates.
”Some of the greatest Australian cyclists have worn the jersey and one of my favourite riders, Richie Porte, you know he has won this race twice. It’s pretty special to be able to put the jersey on and hopefully take it home on Sunday night,” Vine said in response to a question from well-known cycling commentator, Matthew Keenan, for the race broadcast.
If the start of 2023 is any indication of what is to come, he could well get rather used to speaking with him over the coming months and years.
Vine’s career trajectory just keeps getting steeper. From being cloistered away in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic – which shut borders and severely limited the opportunities for hopeful professional cyclists – he managed to get a professional contract through the Zwift Academy with the team that was then Alpecin-Fenix. That initial contract of a year was extended, but Vine made an early exit to join UAE Team Emirates in 2023, a move that looks to be paying off as he sits in the lead of the Tour Down Under.
“I love it when a plan comes together,” said Vine, making a reference to an oft-used line from ‘The A-Team’, a former action-adventure television series. ”But I couldn’t have done that without the team though. All I had to do was go on the last hill; they helped me all day and full credit to them they did an amazing job.”
The Corkscrew climb on stage 3 of the Tour Down Under, with the ascent topping out just 5.8km from the end of the 116km day of racing, was always expected to be pivotal for the GC. Vine had started the day in second, just three seconds back from race leader Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma). This was always a climb expected to play to the UAE Team Emirates rider’s strength. Even Dennis said, “it’s much more a Jay Vine climb than a Rohan Dennis climb.”
Dennis was right. He suffered a mechanical that set him back, ochre disappeared for the South Australian and came into view for Vine. He went on the attack with Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) and then Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) as well.
“I had no time gaps or anything, our radios didn’t quite reach over the top of the Corkscrew climb, so it…
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