Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) took his first victory since suffering multiple vertebrae fractures at the Itzulia Basque Country crash, winning the rolling 18.5km time trial at the Vuelta a Burgos in northern Spain.
The Australian set a time of 19:51 and stayed in the hot seat as his rivals failed to beat his time. Vine smiled and punched the air when his stage victory was confirmed. He beat Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) by 12 seconds, with Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) by 13 seconds.
The USA’s Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished 15th in a time of 20:34 but just managed to keep the purple race leader’s jersey before Friday’s final hilly stage.
Max Poole (dsm-firmenich PostNL) beat Kuss by 22 seconds and so reduced the gap to Kuss in the general classification to just five seconds.
Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates), now third overall at 34 seconds, moved up from 16th thanks to his superb ride. He was only 16 seconds slower than Vine.
Vine was overjoyed to win again after his traumatic crash in early April.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” he said. “I feel pretty incredible. That’s a really nice performance in my first race back after an injury. I’m really happy with how the legs are going.
"It’s been really long. My wife has been so patient and supportive the entire time. The team was constantly in contact to get me ready to race. Four months ago I was in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), not far from here actually. To be on the top step of a stage, a time trial, after what I went through is incredible.
"This isn’t even the most special thing that is happening to me this month. Hopefully my wife gives birth in the next couple of days to my first born, so it’s incredible.”
Vine is not an overall contender at the Vuelta a Burgos and so started earlier than Kuss. He fought into the headwind and then gave it his all in the final part of the course.
“The second part was more rolling and I knew that after the headwind, I had to just I’ve everything I had,” he explained. "I talked to my coach before the stage and I knew that if I had anything left in my legs, I had to give everything I could."
Kuss tried to stay optimistic after the time trial. Poole is a threat to his overall victory but other factors could go in his favour.
“On paper it should come down to a sprint, but there’s also time bonuses and lots of things can happen, perhaps crosswinds, some short climbs. We’ll see,” he said.
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