"They were telling my wife I might not make it" - Jay Vine recounts the horror crash at Itzulia Basque Country

Jay Vine was perhaps the major victim of the infamous Itzulia Basque Country crash that took out many stars of the professional peloton. While some were able to walk away from the carnage on the Basque roads, Vine appeared motionless in the ditch - although he had never lost conciousness. The Australian, who was awaiting his first child at the time, relives the experience in an exclusive story for Rouleur.

"They hadn't told me, but they were telling my wife that I wasn’t out of the woods just yet and I might not make it." As in, they feared for his life? "Yeah," he goes on. "They weren’t sure if the swelling had stabilised, or if it was going to continue and either paralyse or end me."

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"Unfortunately or fortunately, I remember everything," Vine says. "I remember trying to brake as a wave of people came across me, then hitting roots and gravel. A Lidl-Trek guy then came on my right and Vingegaard was on my left. I tried to go straight and jump over a gutter, but I ended up in the ditch." During the crash, Vine never lost conciousness, but due to the graving pain, he didn't dare to move until the doctors took him into the custody.

Vine’s thoughts were immediately with his heavily pregnant wife. "We have a policy that I always send her a message saying 'safe' after a race because it’s a dangerous sport, but I didn’t have my phone. I felt terrible," he says. Bre Vine immediately rode to Bilbao to be by her husband's side. "When she arrived, I was coming in and out of consciousness," Vine continues. "She refused to leave and I was telling her to please get some shut-eye, but now I understand why she didn’t want to – she didn’t know what was going to happen to me."

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Forty-eight hours after the crash, local doctors and experts from UAE and Barcelona who his team had consulted agreed that he would not require spinal surgery. "That was really good news because if they’d had to fuse my spine together, I wouldn’t be able to continue my cycling career," he says.

However through little steps, the Australian was able to slowly resume training already in May. In August, four months after his crash, he was already able to win a time trial at the Vuelta a Burgos. And now he's racing the Vuelta a Espana in polka dot jersey. "I had no illusions I was brought here to help the guys, and I’m really proud I’m able to," Vine says modestly.

Above everything Vine is excited to have welcome his first child - son named Harrison - just two days before the Vuelta start. "He’s perfect, beautiful and happy," he smiles. "And thank God he is perfect because I don’t know how I’d be if he wasn’t."

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