Jay Vine confirms free role at Giro d'Italia: "João is the most important man, but nothing stops me from making something of it"

Jay Vine has had a breakthrough Vuelta a Espana last year and the amount of talent he carries is hard to gauge. The Australian enters the GIro d'Italia with a free role he confirms, despite the team's GC ambitions from João Almeida.

“Yes, I really missed racing. It will be nice to finally start again on Saturday. The legs are good, I was able to do all my workouts. It wasn't much different than when you come back to training after the offseason. It went well, I'm done," Vine told In de Leiderstrui. "It's one of those things in cycling that you have to race, but personally I don't see why you need races."

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In his debut for UAE Team Emirates Vine immediately succeeded, winning the Tour Down Under. His season then slowed down as he suffered a knee injury which forced him to pull out of the UAE Tour and be out of competition since then. He will enter the Giro without competitive rhythm however he doesn't believe that will be an obstacle.

"Why do you have to race? Are riders not used to training? Do I need peloton training every three weeks to remember what that feels like? Bottom line I've done my training, I've done really good quality work at altitude. And I haven't been bothered by all those travel days and the press lately," Vine argues. Alongside João Almeida and Brandon McNulty he comes as a possibility for the overall classification taking into consideration his climbing capacity, but this Giro will be a test.

He and Brandon McNulty should have the same freedom, possibly to chase stage wins if a GC stint doesn't work out, besides supporting the Portuguese who is a big candidate for the podium. "We'll see what happens to me. João is the most important man, but nothing stops me from making something of it," Vine states.

Although the Australian doesn't think the lack of competition will be an issue for him, he concludes the interview by admitting that he has missed racing, and will be eager to kick it off in Italy. "Well actually yes. The problem is: I really like races. But besides the fact that it's mentally difficult to miss that, it hasn't been a problem lately."