"Nothing more that I could have done" - Jay Vine comes just one second short of a surprising time trial victory

Filippo Ganna's victory in the stage 18 time trial of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana didn't come as much of a shock, despite the shortened course adding room for errors and surprises. One such has nearly happened with polka dot jersey wearer Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) finishing within a second of the Italian time trial specialist.

"Time-wise, probably (it was one of my best time trials), but I think my best TT feeling-wise is still last year’s Chrono des Nations. But yes, to come 2nd to Ganna it’s incredible, just beaten by one of the best time trialists in the world. Nothing more that I could do," he told the media after the stage.

The Australian can be very proud of the effort he put in on Thursday, but Ganna's final push to the line was simply too strong. At the second time check, Vine had a 9-second advantage over the Italian champion, but as far as data can be trusted, Ganna's last 4-kilometer split was simply incredible, beating Vine by 10 seconds while travelling the distance in a nearly 60 kph average speed (last split took Ganna exactly 4 minutes).

An effort pretty much equal to that from 2022 when Ganna clocked a world record time (3:59.636) in the individual pursuit that stood for next two years until broken by another fast Italian Jonathan Milan.

"I was looking down at the watts and not being able to go any faster. I looked at the TV before I was setting off and he was doing 67 kph I think at one point. I don’t think I even got close to that number! So yes, he was smooth. Stage 20 is my next go-stage, so we will see what we can do."

Jay Vine currently still leads the King of the Mountains competition by 20 points in front of Jonas Vingegaard. That's the exact amount of points to be awarded at the top of Bola del Mundo on Saturday. Denying a scenario where the Dane jumps over Vine in the classification will nicely align with the Emirati team's goal to overthrow Vingegaard in the general classification. Their champion remains Joao Almeida, whose gap to Vingegaard shrunk by 10 seconds and is only 40 seconds after the time trial.

"Joao (Almeida) is clearly in good shape, the deficit is slightly smalling out, and it’s all-in for a really hard stage. Actually, I think the final climb is probably not gonna be the super decisive part of the race, I think it’s actually the all accumulated three weeks and also the stage itself being really tough. The final climb is just a bonus, I guess," Vine concluded.