'No funny business' - Local knowledge carries Vine to Vuelta win

It had to be him. Jay Vine is a dangerous companion in a Vuelta a España mountain breakaway at the best of times. On what amounted to home roads on stage 6, the Australian was more or less unbeatable

Vine’s back story is among the most remarkable in cycling. He earned his passage to the professional ranks thanks to a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Zwift Academy, but he quickly showed that he was far from a novelty act, picking up two towering Vuelta stage wins in 2022 before transferring from Alpecin-Deceuninck to UAE.

Like so many Antipodean pros, Vine first based himself in Girona when he reached Europe, but he soon opted for higher ground, moving to Andorra with his wife, Bre. Thursday’s summit finish at Pal took in his training roads, and Vine launched his winning move atop his favourite ascent, the Alto de la Comella, with just over 20km to go.

“I mean, I know these roads pretty well, I’m from just down the hill,” Vine said as he warmed down before the podium ceremony. 

“Comella is my favourite climb in all of Andorra. I would normally have liked to have done it way harder, but you know with the headwind it was hard to get the guys to really pull through and make it really hard, so I decided to go at the top. 

I know the descent really well, so with the wet conditions, I thought this is my chance to get away and then there’s no funny business, it’s just mano a mano.”

There was no argument with Vine’s superiority here as he soloed clear of his breakaway companions to win by 54 seconds from new red jersey Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious). Further down the mountain, however, it was a mixed day for his UAE Team Emirates-XRG leaders. While João Almeida broke even with favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Juan Ayuso’s GC challenge ended when he lost almost twelve minutes.

“My role was definitely to win the stage, but there was always the option that if the break wasn’t going to win, that I could come back and do some work,” Vine said of his task. “It was always on the cards to have me in the breakaway as an option to do something if everything came back together.”

Vingegaard’s Visma team gave the break some leeway, however, and Vine did the rest. He weighed in with his fourth win of the season, bringing UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s running tally to 75. After abandoning the Giro d’Italia in May, Vine hadn’t been expected to race the Vuelta, and he was a relatively late addition to the team.

A year ago, he won the King of the Mountains jersey at this race while awaiting the birth of his son. On Thursday, Harrison Vine was waiting at the finish to share the moment.

“It's pretty incredible, I got the call-up to do this race about four weeks ago,” Vine said. “It wasn’t on my schedule originally, so to be able to win in Andorra in front of my son and my wife, it’s unbelievable and incredibly motivating. The last 5k, all I could of was ‘This is for you, Harrison, this is for you.’ I just wanted to get there as quick as possible.”