"The stage was definitely the main goal" - Jay Vine flies into second Vuelta a Espana win

The eighth stage of the Vuelta a Espana promised spectacle and it delivered, Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jay Vine had taken his first pro win two days ago with an incredible performance at Pico Jano, and today he repeated his achievement at Colláu Fancuaya.

“At the start, literally on the first climb I thought, ‘I don’t know if we are going to be able to stay away'. They seemed to be chasing us pretty intently," Vine said in a post-race interview. A day where the breakaway had good chances, a strong group went up the road early on, one which no team tried to reel in throughout the day. "I decided to definitely target the first couple of KOMs. But then in the valley we had a really good group. The FDJ guys had three in the move, and Quick-Step were just controlling. From that point on I went, ‘okay, if I can get the KOM points without too much of a struggle, I will go for them.’ But the stage was definitely the main goal," he confirmed.

From there on it was a controlled day. There were no moves in both breakaway and peloton until the final climb, and all was to play for in the 10-kilometer ascent. Vine was the man to beat, and he showed again why. “[Alexey] Lutsenko did a starting move. I was sort of in the wheel so I decided to follow. After he pulled off there was no indication that he was going to do a second attack or anything like that, so I decided that—it is about a 25 minute effort from here, similar to what I did two days ago—I decided to keep the pressure on," he described.

As soon as the Australian got a gap it seemed clear he was heading for a new win, and he confirmed the expectations by crossing the line alone in another foggy day. As Tim Merlier struggled through the opening week, Vine's success has brought Alpecin-Deceuninck back into the top.

“After about a minute and a half I looked down and there was no wheel. I forced myself to get to that next hairpin. After that hairpin I looked back and there was no-one, so I kept going," Vine said of his attack. Whether he will chase other stages and the KOM classification or the overall classification is something to be discovered over the coming week, but either ways his race has been a success already.