Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) moved into the top spot in the Vuelta a España’s mountain classification ranking on stage 16 after the previous leader, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), crashed heavily on the descent of the mid-stage cat. 1 Collada Llomena and was forced to quit.
Vine’s advance on the mountains ranking paralleled his compatriot Kaden Groves' (Alpecin-Deceuninck) move into top spot in the points competition, also previously led by Van Aert, with Ben O’Connor’s success in keeping the red jersey, meaning that Australians are currently leading three of the Vuelta’s four individual classifications.
That curious situation has only arisen, though, after Van Aert’s exit, crashing out on the descent of the Collada Llomena in a break also containing Vine and teammates Marc Soler and Isaac del Toro.
As the Australian pointed out the main aim for him in the move had not been fighting for the jersey, rather it was to ensure that the Catalan and Mexican racers were in the best position to go for the stage win.
At the end of the day, Vine was more than delighted that Soler could get the stage win on the hugely prestigious summit finish of Covadonga, and while not downplaying the importance of getting the mountains jersey into the bargain, he frankly described it as “a bonus.”
The crash itself that will indirectly lead to his wearing the mountains jersey in his own right on Wednesday - Vine had already done so as Van Aert was clad in the green of points leader - was “a bizarre one”, Vine told reporters, as everybody in the break thought the main dangers of the notoriously technical descent were behind them when the Belgian and two other riders fell on a left-hand curve.
“We’ actually took the first part of the descent really slowly” - because of the risks of crashing in the wet - “and I was running sixth in the line. But then there was this wet patch on a left-hander, and the first three guys hit the deck.
“I hope he’s OK, it’s unfortunate because he was kicking my arse on all the sprints on the tops of all of these climbs. And there wasn’t much I could do without emptying myself completely and possibly us not getting a stage win today. For the team, that was the goal, and the mountains jersey is a bonus.”
While Vine returns to leading a classification he previously held in the 2022 Vuelta - before crashing out in the third week himself - the main focus of UAE’s celebrations on Tuesday were undoubtably about Soler’s stunning stage win at Lagos de Covadonga.
“I’m really stoked he’s done it - I definitely haven’t been in every breakaway he’s been in, but he’s been in every breakaway I’ve been in this race,” Vine said, “And for him to get a win after working for others the entire race is incredible.
“I let him know that I wasn’t feeling myself after the first cat. 1 climb that, and it was probably best we put our eggs in the other two guys’ baskets. So I set a reasonably hard pace at the foot of the climb and then tried to follow moves.”
“But I knew that Mark would just ride at his own pace, and when the road flattened off, and no one wanted to pull into a flat section, Mark just went for it. It was great.”
The strategy of Vine sacrificing himself for the others worked out perfectly, and although UAE had a numerical advantage in the 12-man break of the day, Vine said it was anything but straightforward to be sure they could secure the victory.
However, an advantage of six minutes on the main chasers on the lower slopes of the final climb made it certain that the win was coming from the front group, then Soler was in the right place at the right time, and for the third time in this year’s Vuelta, the triumph went to UAE Team Emirates.
“Max Poole (DSM-firmenich-PostNL) was one of the favourites for today and so [Matthew] Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech). Both had teammates as well in the break, so there was a bit of fun games as well after the second cat.1 when things got a bit jumpy,” Vine explained.
“But I think finally everyone just decided to stuff it, and just ride the last 12, 15 kilometres to the foot of the final climb and then see who had the legs. And that was when Marc showed that he’s hors classe.”
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