Jay Vine on life-changing Itzulia crash, becoming a father days before the Vuelta, 2025 Tour Down Under and World Championship goals
Cycling
Jay Vine is one of the most talented riders in pro cycling but also one of the unluckiest. His career thus far has been heavily marked by heavy crashes, two of them this season have carried big consequences. But the Australian keeps bouncing back and enters the 2025 as ambitious as he's ever been.
"We definitely learned a lot about ourselves, and I really want to continue that into 2025. The worry was, was she going to be able to keep carrying and was there going to be any problems there as well," Vine said in an interview with ABC. "So, there was lots of stress for the next six weeks, while I was sort of not able to move around. But when I was in a really hard patch. I never really looked back and went 'well at least I got over the first three days' … it never really clicked that it could've been worse."
Whilst most eyes were on the seriously injured Jonas Vingegaard, but also Remco Evenepoel and yellow jersey Primoz Roglic - rightfully so - there were other seriously injured riders in the Itzulia Basque Country accident, four of which needed medical attention on the spot. Vine 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.
"That week was shaping up to be a really good week for me, I really liked racing in the region, I think I was like fifth or sixth overall going into that day. The injury was definitely not something I had on my bingo card."
A brutal set of injuries that would end the career of many, or at least the season of one in terms of results. But that didn't stop him, even if Vine became a father within only days or even hours of travelling to Portugal for the start of the Vuelta a España, he tells: "We had to get him out, because two days after his due date, I was off to a grand tour for three weeks. I don't know if I really got to enjoy his birth in the sense that it all wrapped up so quickly and I was off on a plane".
Four days after returning to the peloton, the Australian took an impressive win at the Vuelta a Burgos' time-trial. Through his growing form and freedom in the mountains, he managed to secure the KOM jersey at the Vuelta a España. He was nowhere near the climbing level he's shown in the past, but still through good tactics and a good TT setup he continued to achieve big results.
He looked to take that into the World Championships, but left the race full of blood and with a missed podium likely because of the fall. He crashed in a descent, but still raced to fifth on the day only 30 seconds off the podium.
"I've reconned it a bit too slow and then by that stage I was already halfway through the corner and had too much speed and came off on the exit. Looking back on it, it's probably better to come fifth with an accident than come fourth by a second." Similar to a rider like Wout van Aert, it's been a setback after setback kind of year, but it doesn't stop him.
Vine continued to race all the way into October, and will start his season in Australia, where he aims for the Tour Down Under where he's won the overall classification back in 2023. "Winning a stage and being able to post up would be nice in South Australia, but the goal is to take the win out for the overall."
In 2025 his goals are still rather vague. There are talks of him racing the Giro d'Italia, but the truth is there aren't many spots left and the Australian has proved to be more effective in the one-week races. He does intend on racing a three-week race however, and also has special attention to the World Championships where he eyes a potential rainbow jersey in the very hilly time-trial.
"World Championships in Rwanda in the time trial is definitely something I want to focus on. Apart from that I want to do well in a grand tour and hopefully either get a result myself or help the team to bring back a leader's jersey in one of the Grand Tours," he concluded.
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Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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