"You shouldn't want to risk your life to create a gap in a race" - Jay Vine finds new perspective on cycling after rollercoaster year

During last week's Vuelta a Burgos, Jay Vine made return to racing after his heavy crash in Itzulia Basque Country earlier this spring. This week, he's already racing his fifth grand tour. He has good memories of winning two stages at Vuelta a Espana, but the Australian also failed to complete the race on his last two appearances.

After a long rehabilitation, the climber from UAE Emirates made his comeback to racing during the Vuelta a Burgos. There he managed to surprise with a stage win in the individual time trial. Still, Vine finds it difficult to always remain positive about his rehabilitation. "I try to do everything step by step. It was a serious injury, so I first had to be able to walk again and then be able to cycle indoors on the trainer."

Still, the step from training to racing is perhaps the biggest. "But it is completely different now to go from training back to racing at such a high level. But it has been a long road and hopefully I will continue to improve," Vine indicates after the opening time trial in which he clocked the 14th best time of the day. He lost 24 seconds to winner Brandon McNulty.

The crash and the birth of his first son have made the Australian look at professional cycling differently. "I came late from a non-professional cycling world, of course. So I always knew there was more than cycling, but the crash has definitely put everything into perspective even more. You shouldn't want to risk your life to create a gap in a race. But others may think differently about that of course. Now that I have a child and have seen what my wife has had to go through in the past year, you automatically become a lot less selfish," Vine concludes.