On a day in which his teammate Juan Ayuso dominated the headlines, UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Jay Vine ensured the team had something to celebrate with a second stage win of this year’s Vuelta a Espana.
The Australian attacked five kilometres from the summit finish to win stage 10, repeating his stage six victory, while race favourite Jonas Vingegaard reclaimed the leader’s red jersey.
The build-up to Tuesday’s stage centred on Ayuso, who had raised eyebrows with his unwillingness to ride for teammate Joao Almeida – who sits third in the overall standings, 38 seconds behind Vingegaard – throughout this race, despite having the energy and strength to ride for victory himself on stage seven.
The team made a surprise announcement on Monday’s rest day that the Spaniard would leave the team at the end of the year, terminating his long-term contract three years early.
Ayuso then poured further fuel on speculation of a major falling-out within the team by telling media on Tuesday morning that the management were “trying to damage my reputation and image” with the timing of the news, saying the team was “a dictatorship”.
All eyes were therefore on the team on stage 10, a 175.3 km ride from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua, with Ayuso – for whatever reason – falling into line and riding in support of Almeida.
Further up the road, Vine caught and overtook Spain’s Pablo Castrillo on the climb to the finish, raising two fingers as he crossed the line after his second individual stage win of this year’s race.
The 29-year-old – who won the mountains classification last year and leads the standings so far this year – also won two stages in 2022.
“Winning is so, so hard, and it’s such an incredible feeling when it happens,” Vine said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to winning, because it’s just unbelievably hard.”
Castrillo held on to take second, 35 seconds behind Vine, with the Spaniard’s compatriot and teammate Javier Romo finishing third.
Jonas Vingegaard had lost the red jersey to Norway’s Torstein Traeen after stage six, but having begun Tuesday’s stage 37 seconds off the lead, he opened a gap to Traeen on the final climb to move 26 seconds ahead in the general classification.
The riders in the strung-out peloton were never going to contest the stage win, but the GC battle commenced on the final climb.
Almeida repeatedly made efforts to distance his rivals, but could not dislodge the likes of Vingegaard and British rider Tom Pidcock, who remains fourth overall after an impressive first half of the race, 58 seconds off the Danish red jersey.
Wednesday’s stage 11 is a 157.4km Classics-style stage which starts and finishes in Bilbao.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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