Australian Jay Vine was a person on a mission on stage 20 of the Vuelta a España. His purpose was to get any many KOM factors as doable to safe the polka-dot jersey earlier than the ultimate climb of the day the place GC contenders can be battling on the ascent of Picón Blanco. To take action, the UAE Staff Emirates rider made his approach into the break of the day early on, the place he was quickly joined by his teammate Marc Soler who led the mountain classification with a slim 1-point lead on Vine.
Whereas Vine took the factors within the first three ascents, Soler went on a solo assault which led to the teammates being tied within the digital mountain classification with two climbs left to go within the stage. The ways left many to surprise if the teammates have been battling one another for the factors, however Vine said that Soler was merely “a very nice teammate.”
“We spoke about it on the remainder day that I had unfinished enterprise, and Marc and me agreed that he would assist me on the final day,” mentioned Vine who had lead the KOM classification on the 2022 Vuelta earlier than crashing out within the third week.
Becoming a member of Vine and Soler within the 10-rider breakaway have been Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) and Marco Frigo (Israel-PremierTech) who have been 20 factors and 31 factors from Soler respectively.
As a part of the 10-rider breakaway, Vine took high factors on the 2 cat. 3 climbs of the day, the Las Estacas de Trueba and the Puerto de la Braguía, and have become the digital KOM chief on the street. He added extra factors on the primary cat. 2 of the day, the Alto del Caracol, following Soler’s acceleration. Each Castrillo and Frigo additionally jumped for factors so Vine knew that he had a battle on his fingers.
The break shattered as Soler made his trademark solo assault on Portillo de Lunada, the primary cat. 1 ascent of the day. The Spaniard crested first, lowering Vine’s result in solely 2 factors.
Castrillo and Frigo made it again onto the chase group with Vine and Clément Berthet (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) because the Spaniard continued solo up the street taking the highest factors on the subsequent climb, the Portillo de la Sia. Vine accelerated away from the chase group to gather the subsequent serving to of mountains factors. adopted by Frigo, and a struggling Castrillo with Berthet within the wheel.
With two climbs remaining on the stage, Soler and Vine have been now tied within the digital KOM standings, every at 76 factors.
Castrillo, Berthet, Frigo and Vine reeled Soler again in because the penultimate climb, Puerto de Tornos, loomed on the horizon. To win the KOM jersey, Vine needed to get at the least one level on the cat. 1 ascent, however simpler mentioned than achieved, as time bonification seconds have been additionally on the road for the primary three riders.
Soler put in a single final dig, sacrificing himself for his teammate, leaving Vine to tackle the pacemaking however the purple jersey group wolfed them up with 6.4km to go on the climb, and Vine needed to grasp onto the elite group.
Whereas the GC contenders took the highest 3 positions on the climb, Vine was in a position to grasp on for fourth place, and the related two factors, securing the polka-dot jersey.
“I used to be advised that I wanted to take only one extra level, and it was all safe. We have been actually, actually below stress from the fellows behind, as a result of they caught us on that cat-2 climb earlier than the cat-1, then would have been all of the play for the GC guys to attempt to take the jersey, so we needed to go a very good distance into the ultimate.”
Vine finally completed twenty second, 6 minutes behind stage winner Eddie Dunbar (EF Schooling-EasyPost), and 18 seconds behind his teammate Isaac del Toro.
Vine thanked his teammate Soler after the stage.
“He was in a position to assist to tire out the opposite two that have been making an attempt to go for the factors, we noticed that very early on after which additionally to maintain me tremendous contemporary, in order that I might go into the ultimate of the stage and attempt to preserve the workforce GC as nicely. It seems we didn’t want that as a result of we had Isaac ending simply in entrance of me, however he helped out rather a lot and his legs have been tremendous sturdy. He’s a very nice teammate.”
Vine is assured of successful the general mountain classification barring disaster on the ultimate stage on Sunday.
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