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Australian cyclist Jay Vine launched a solo attack off a breakaway group in the final 20 kilometres to win stage six of the Vuelta a España on Thursday, with Torstein Traeen of Norway taking second place and the overall race lead from Jonas Vingegaard.
Vine was part of a 10-man group which got away early on the 170.3km ride from Olot to Pal in Andorra, before the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider went for broke and held off the chasers to secure the third individual Vuelta stage win of his career.
“The Vuelta wasn’t on my schedule originally, so to be able to win in Andorra in front of my son and wife is unbelievable and incredibly motivating,” Vine, who lives in Andorra, said. “That last 5km, all I could think of was ‘This is for you Harrison, this is for you’.”
The first real mountain stage of this year’s race brought the first big shake-up in the overall standings, with four of the group which escaped the peloton overtaking race favourite Vingegaard in the overall standings.
Traeen, riding for Bahrain Victorious, came in 54 seconds behind Vine, enough to move from 26th overall to the top of the general classification, with a 31-second lead over Frenchman Bruno Armirail, who finished fourth on the stage.
Italy’s Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) was third over the line and is also third overall, while Vine’s teammate Vingegaard dropped from first to fifth, two minutes and 33 seconds adrift of Traeen.
The riders were climbing from the start and the breakaway made their successful move on the first ascent, with Vine first over the summit of Collada de Sentigosa, as last year’s mountains classification winner showed early signs of his climbing prowess.
Vine and his companions steadily increased their lead, overcoming the category one climb of Collada de Toses in wet conditions. With 40km left, the relaxed peloton trailed by more than six minutes, and while they later began to eat into the gap, it was too late to haul in the riders out in front.
Vine was again first when they topped La Comella, and the Australian pushed ahead on the descent, pulling further away on the final climb to the finish and never looked like getting caught.
“I know these roads pretty well. I’m from just down the hill, and La Comella is my favourite climb in all of Andorra,” Vine said. “I decided to go at the top and with the wet descent, I know the descent really well and I thought, ‘OK, this is my chance to get away and then there’s no funny business’.”
With riders like Armirail, Fortunato and Louis Vervaeke threatening Traeen’s red jersey bid, the 30-year-old Norwegian, who three years ago was diagnosed with testicular cancer, launched his own attack.
The race continues in the mountains for Friday’s stage seven, taking the riders 188km from Andorra la Vella to another category one climb to the finish at Cerler.
