Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) hit another milestone in his short career, winning the 2023 Australian National Elite Men's Time Trial in Ballarat ahead of Luke Durbridge and Kell O'Brien (both Jayco-AlUla).
Vine's win came down to a matter of seconds, finishing ahead of the last few riders, and then having to wait as first Luke Plapp (INEOS Grenadiers) and then Luke Durbridge came home, with the West Australian just 2.7 seconds behind the Canberran's time.
Jay's wife Bre, also acting as sports director and soigneur for Jay during the event, enveloped him in hugs and praise, while Jay slumped over his bike nearly motionless, trying to take the enormity of the victory in.
Vine wasn't favoured to win coming into the race as he hadn't put big results on the board in the time trial with Alpecin-Deceuninck in the race against the clock. A team switch to UAE and the resultant change in equipment and his time trial position produced dividends as he beat multiple national champions in Durbridge and Plapp, who dropped his chain during the race, and had to put it back on himself, eventually finishing fourth, 27 seconds down.
The last time trial Vine won, was on a road bike at National Road Series (NRS) level during the National Tour in the Tweed Valley, a massive step up from there to the top of the podium at the National Championships.
"The time trial was my pet event back in the day," said Jay Vine, "but I haven't been able to go fast in a good position on the bike since turning professional. The team got me in the right position, and I'll tell you what, there's more improvements to be made."
Vine's performance was more remarkable for his preparation for the event, where he'd held something back to save form for other major goals later in the season.
"With big goals down the track, I really had to be professional and hold back in the training," said Jay Vine. "I came in really undercooked for the road race. The goal was to play it as smart as I could and race it as if I was one of the big stars of the day, knowing that when it came to the last four laps I wasn't going to have it."
"My goals are down in May/June, you can take what you want from those dates (editor note: Giro d'Italia), so I've had to back off the power work, so I'm super stoked with that result."
With this time trialling ability combined with his proven climbing to win stages in the Vuelta a Espana, the potential is there for Jay Vine to become a force in general classification battles in the future.
"Of course, there's lots of ambitions to do things, but I'd be stoked just to top 10 a GC right now," said Jay Vine. "Last year's goal was to win a bike race, did that twice, that's that one ticked and I was able to tick another big one off as I get to wear the green and gold already in my third year. A big goal is to turn more to a GC role, but I just want to live up to this now."
Team Vine, or the #GetWreckedJay crew on socials, was in full force during nationals with Bre recruited to act in almost every support role for her husband. She spoke after the race of her role as acting sports director behind Jay in the car during the race.
"The nerves were very high, said Bre Vine, "I was actually saying to Adam, who was driving, that it's actually quite similar to training, where I'll say 'up', 'down', 'power', 'come on, keep going', and he'll actually DS for me when I do efforts on climbs and everything.
"It's actually pretty second nature for us to do this, but to see him ride so well, and when I saw him catch his three minute man I was just blown away. I actually thought, 'maybe I've cracked the whip too hard on him', but he kept powering and kept digging."
The victory was all the sweeter that it came after the disappointment of the road race, where Jay Vine pulled out early and was a subdued figure on the roadside.
"He was really disappointed after the road race, he wanted to do well of course but we knew the time trial and taking that fast TT position, we knew he'd be good," said Bre Vine. "On the descents, I said 'just have fun honey and show them the descender you are', and wow he definitely did. He gave me a few heart attacks, but he was flowing so well."
To go from that NRS win just over two years ago to the series of success and breakthroughs since has been an upward trajectory almost unimaginable at that stage.
"That one was really special one for me, because he dedicated that win to me and it was one of the first interviews he did and it was his first NRS win," said Bre Vine. "He worked so much on time-trialling, particularly in Canberra before he went pro.
"That comes back to his mountain-biking history, he likes going hard and as fast as he can. I think he could always do this, it's just so special to see him do it, I couldn't be prouder."
Luke Durbridge, three seconds behind Vine, and Kell O'Brien, 26 seconds behind, filled out the podium with Luke Plapp unlucky to miss out after dropping his chain at the top of the climb, finishing 26 seconds behind, but fractions of a second adrift of O'Brien.
