Vine was one of the first to attack on the final major climb of the stage, with the early breakaway all but caught and 21 kilometres to go to the finish of Stage 12 of the Vuelta a España.
The Canberra local jumped away with Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) when he launched an attack with four kilometres of the 'Alto del 14%' remaining. Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-Nexthash) joined the escapees to form a strong group of four over the top of the climb, with a descent before the flat finish to Cordoba. They crested the climb with 29 seconds lead, just able to extend that advantage to 37 seconds on the descent, to enter the final flat run to the line with that advantage and 8.4 kilometres remaining.
With the sprinters dropped on the climb, they fought their way back onto the peloton and then continued the chase of the quartet of attackers, with Michael Matthews' Team BikeExchange and UAE Team Emirates doing the majority of the work to drag them back.
Just as looked as if the catch would be inevitable with just over a kilometre to ride, Vine tried an attack from the move, surging clear and holding off the charging peloton. He was eventually caught just when EF Education-Nippo launched their sprint train, 500 metres from the line, with Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education-Nippo) going on to take the victory.
Vine's finishing position of 48th didn't reflect how close he came to claiming his maiden WorldTour win, but there appear to be a number of chances over the coming stages for the talented climber to rectify that statistic.
“Heartbreak. So close,” Vine wrote on Instagram after the stage. “You have to risk it for the biscuit, and folks, today I risked it.
This wasn’t a stage you would typically circle for a breakaway day, but this is bike racing and anything can happen. The break of the day got caught with 24kms to go, and we suspected someone may try and roll the dice going over the climb, so it would be worth positioning ourselves towards the front if something was to go.
“With 21kms to go Ciccone attacked, and I was able to go with him, and shortly after we had Bardet and Henao bridge across and we formed a quartet and it was on. We knew it would be a close one if we were going to pull it off, but it was possible. So we gave it everything.
I tried to extend the time gap as much as possible down the descents, and we were holding the gap but UAE and Bike Exchange started drilling it on the front and our time gap went from 40 seconds to just 12 seconds. It started to look like it wasn’t going to be our day, I turned myself inside out. Only to be caught within the final 550m. Brutal. Absolutely brutal."
Vine has enjoyed a remarkable rise to the professional peloton, from last year having little racing domestically but still managing to get a ride with Alpecin-Fenix through the Zwift Academy. In his first season as a professional, he initially impressed with second overall at the Tour of Turkey, before showing that he was ready for his first Grand Tour with fifth on the hardest stage of the Vuelta a Burgos.
He was 11th from the Stage 7 breakaway, won by Australian Michael Storer (Team DSM), but felt closest to victory on his follow-up attempt on Stage 12.
“I really thought I had a chance to pull that one-off, but it wasn’t to be," said Vine. "I left it all out on the road, and that was everything I had.
“Massive thank you to the boys for helping me get into the best position possible to go for the stage win. No cigar, but maybe next time. Sad to see Tobias and Scott go down hard earlier in the stage, and to have Tobias shipped off to the hospital. Heal up soon mate.“
The Vuelta a España continues tonight on SBS VICELAND, SBS OnDemand and the SKODA Tour Tracker with Stage 13, the broadcast starting from 2300 AEST, with the Tour Tracker kicking in at the earlier time of 2250 AEST.
