Jay Vine suffered a brutal crash in April at Itzulia Basque Country which saw him in a neck brace for six weeks. Still he managed to bounce back and win the KOM classification at the recent Vuelta a España, but bad luck got in his way again and a crash at the time-trial World Championships may have cost him a medal.
UAE Team Emirates has a very good time-trial setup and Vine this year has looked like more of a time-trialist than a climber, as he was previously. Since his return he hasn't been able to grab stage results on mountainous days, but he won the Vuelta a Burgos time-trial ahead of Edoardo Affini. This Sunday he began his time-trial with impressive speed and was third at the second intermediate point - 19 seconds ahead of Edoardo Affini who would go on to take the bronze medal behind Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna.
Vine was on one of his best days of the season but suffered a crash, one which left him with some road rash on his left side but also a cut in the face which required a few stitches and left him with a lot of blood through the face and his equipment. A dramatic finale for the Australian, who rode across the line with the fifth best time on the day, 30 seconds behind the Italian Affini.
"It’s gut wrenching to think what could have been," Vine wrote later in a message shared on Instagram. "Silly mistake on a non technical section of the course cost me potentially the bronze medal. I just went into a corner faster than I did in the course recon and ran out of road. Simple as that. I’m going to be beating myself up about this one for a while. Heart broken. 5th place is still good, but for the time being I’m gutted. Sorry team, I really tried," he concluded.
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