“I'm less than 12 months out from a life-changing crash, so I'm just taking every race in my stride" - Jay Vine leads dual-pronged UAE at Tour Down Under 2025

It's fair to say, 2024 won't go down in the history books as the most successful of Jay Vine's career. Despite adding a 6th career victory to his palmares at the Vuelta a Burgos, the Aussie's year will mostly be remembered for his involvement in the horrific crash at the Itzulia Basque Country.

The crash brought worldwide headlines as the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel were hospitalised in the aftermath. Arguably the worst affected though, was Vine. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG star fractured several vertebrae and spent two and a half months off the road in a key part of the season, most of which in a neck brace. After ending the year on a high and taking the polka-dot jersey at the Vuelta a Espana though, Vine now kicks off his 2025 season high on confidence and full of optimism.

“I'm less than 12 months out from a life-changing crash, so I'm just taking every race in my stride, really looking forward to enjoying my time here,” Vine says ahead of the 2025 Tour Down Under, in quotes collected by Cycling News. ”It's already been a really, really nice summer in Australia but this is January – this will be six days of a 70-odd race day calendar. So to not blow everything in the first six days. That'd be good.”

Part of a dual-pronged UAE attack alongside Jhonatan Narvaez, the pressure isn't fully on Vine's shoulders either. “You know, Johnny came second last year so we've got two options,” he previews. “So even if I muck it up, we've got someone else that can step up."

“I think it suits exactly what my style of racing is to have him (Narvaez ed.) on the team. I mean, they have a unique situation that I have a guy that is a threat on GC that people aren't going to want to ride within the wheel and who can be there in the select group as well. I don't think it's going to be very easy for other teams to attack us.” Vine adds. “I'm really excited to have him race alongside me.”