Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) fought his way into the breakaway after a torrid battle to form the move that extended 50 kilometres into the stage. Eventually, he and 31 other riders went clear up the road to contest the stage win, with the general classification teams happy to let the gap blow out once the move was formed.
Vine was up there in contention for the win well into the finale of the stage, but ultimately fell short as others attacked over the top of the Canberran in the final kilometes and he eventually ended up seventh.
“Gianni Vermeersch, Lionel Taminiaux, and I got ourselves into the big breakaway of the day along with another 29 riders, where we would roll the dice for the stage win,” said Vine in a social media post after the stage. “Lionel and Gianni did a fantastic job keeping the pace high on the descents and the flats, then finally launching me into the base of the climb.
“We aren’t a climbing team, but at this La Vuelta, they could have fooled me. Legends. Pure and simple.”
Vine was prominent at the front of the breakaway for the majority of the climb, but just lacked the power in his legs necessary to compete for the stage when the break slimmed down to just the elite climbers stage-winning move was launched by Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers).
“We came into the final 5 kms with only 8 of us left, and the tactics were well underway, with some cheeky attacks starting the fly, and lots of looking around,” said Vine. “I tried not covering all of the moves and relied on the others to cover some of the attacks. Then with just 3kms to go, the legs buckled under the pressure, and that’s all she wrote.”
The Australian didn’t add to his already impressive tally of two stage wins at La Vuelta, but kept his lead in the mountains classification, which he holds on 40 points ahead of teammate and fellow Australian Robert Stannard in second on 21, with his nearest rival Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) a point further back on 20.
That wasn’t great consolation for Vine, more reserved than previous days on the podium as he received the jersey, as he’d clearly hoped for another stage victory.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed not to have finish the stage off with another stage win, especially after how hard the boys worked,” said Vine. “But with all that being said, I know I can’t win them all, and that was everything I had.”
For the other Australians, it was a day of slipping positions on the general classification, with the presence of Wilco Kelderman (BORA-hansgrohe) and Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) in the breakaway meaning that Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroen) and Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) slipped two places each to 11th and 13th respectively.
O’Connor was the stronger of the Australian pair on the climb, holding onto the main group of contenders for much of the ascent of the Peñas Blancas, just unable to follow the big accelerations in the final kilometres, coming in 56 seconds behind race leader Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep Alpha Vinyl).
Hindley was a further 36 seconds behind, with the Giro d’Italia winner clearly feeling the effects of racing in the legs as he tackles his second Grand Tour in a calendar year for the first time. The 26-year-old is now 10’56 behind race leader Evenepoel, with some very hard climbing stages remaining in the second week of competition at La Vuelta. The summit finish to Sierra Nevada at an altitude of 2,501 metres looms large on Stage 15.
La Vuelta continues with Stage 13, a rolling stage from Ronda to Montilla that will finish on a tricky uphill section that may take the race outside the capabilities of the pure sprinters. Watch from 10.50pm AEST on SBS and SBS On Demand.
