"We’ve got such a strong position now" - Jay Vine stars perfect UAE plan on Tour Down Under's queen stage

The Tour Down Under has imploded on the Corkscrew climb, and by the time stage 2 finished, UAE Team Emirates - XRG have placed themselves in a position where losing the overall classification looks nearly impossible. A terrific climbing performance on today's stage saw Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narváez gain a minute on the competition.

Positioning was nailed to perfection ahead of the final climb, and the pace of Adam Yates was enough to split the peloton to pieces on the 2-kilometer long climb. By the time Jay Vine attacked only 1 rider was on his wheel, and as Filippo Zana cracked, Jhonatan Narváez came from behind and joined him. The gap at the summit, with 13 kilometers to go, was already of almost 20 seconds.

“It’s been on my mind since the last time I wore it. I really love this jersey. It’s incredible to win on such a hard stage. We’ve got such a strong position now with me and Johnny, and being led out by Adam is pretty incredible as well.”

Vine could then collaborate with the Ecuadorian, defending champion, to build a gap that grew into 58 seconds by the time the duo reached the finish line. He has taken the ochre jersey and has placed himself in position to win the race, but with bonus seconds available and the Old Willunga Hill summit finish yet to be tackled, the victory could go either way.

For UAE however, it was the absolute best case scenario, and the team want to keep up the momentum. “We’ve got a sprinter here in Molano, so we’ll try to take as much as we can from this Tour. The guys are riding really strongly. Mikkel Bjerg and Vegard Stake Laengen rode their hearts out early on, and it was a huge ride from the whole team today.”

Whilst he was not on the one-two picture that is already marking this early-season period, anticipating another dominant UAE season, Adam Yates put on a show on the steep ascent where his teammates attacked. The Briton put himself in the front, putting his GC on a hold so as to prepare Vine's attack. In the end however he arrived in the first chasing group, and he himself has climbed to ninth place in the overall classification.

“With two guys in the front, it’s pretty simple what’s going to happen. I just followed the guys that were attacking and we ended up with a group of five or six," he said. "They were working quite well together, but we had two super strong guys in the front. So yeah, it was a good day for the team.”