Tour Down Under chaos as kangaroos hit the peloton and leader Vine - 'Like pinballing inside the group'

Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates-XRG was caught up in the incident and hit the deck, but managed to get going again and continue the stage. Teammate Mikkel Bjerg was less fortunate and was forced to abandon.

“People always ask me what the most dangerous animals are in Australia and I always say kangaroos,” Vine said afterwards to reporters, including Domestique. “They hide in the bushes and suddenly they are right in front of you. Today proved that point. We were going about fifty kilometres per hour and a kangaroo jumped into the peloton. One stopped and moved left and right and I could not avoid it. I am okay, but my thoughts are with Mikkel.”

From the helicopter it initially looked like a routine mid stage tangle, riders scattered across the road and bikes strewn behind them. Only a moment later did the explanation appear on screen, a kangaroo bounding away from the roadside, visibly shaken after the impact.

Vine suggested the incident unfolded in a split second inside the pack. “Mikkel knocked the kangaroo into me,” he said, describing the chaos as “like pinballing inside the group.”

For UAE Team Emirates XRG it was the latest blow in a weekend that had already been draining their roster. The day before, Jhonatan Narváez and Vegard Stake Laengen had both left the race with injuries. After the kangaroo crash, Vine suddenly found himself with minimal support for the run in.

“I can’t fathom how we’ve had so much bad luck as a team over the last couple of days,” Vine said. “We’ve got guys in the hospital.”

Despite the disruption Vine was able to limit the damage. After a bike change and a brief chase he made his way back as the pace eased, helped by the way the finale was shaping up. “The terrain was such that other teams also wanted to bring the race back together to have a sprint,” he explained. “We had allies there.”

Vine then credited Adam Yates for getting him through the closing phase with control, noting the dynamic was unusual for them. “I’m usually leading him out, but he was doing the job for me today,” Vine said.

Vine ultimately defended his overall lead to the finish, while Matthew Brennan took the stage win for Visma Lease a Bike.

And after everything that happened, he ended the day with a grin. “I think I’ve got a pretty big bar tab that I’m gonna pay tonight.”