[ad_1]
Australian Jay Vine has earned a sensational maiden win at the Vuelta a Espana, riding away from some of the world’s best on the sixth stage to take his very first victory as a professional.
In wretched conditions, with practically no visibility and as the rain drove down on a brutal final ascent to San Miguel de Aguayo on Thursday, the 26-year-old from Townsville battled home to earn his most unlikely win win by 15 seconds.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider’s late attack proved decisive as he caught Ukraine’s Mark Padun within 6.5km of the first category summit finish to go and then roared through the mist to claim victory.
There’ll be no video evidence of the Queenslander’s landmark win, though, as conditions were so bad at the finish that there were no TV shots of him crossing the line, apparently with a big smile on his face.
Belgium’s brilliant young star Remco Evenepoel gave chase to come home second, while seizing the overall leader’s red jersey.
Meanwhile, race favourite and defending champion Primoz Roglic had a bad day, losing time on the final ascent.
The 22-year-old Evenepoel now leads the standings by 21 seconds from Frenchman Rudy Molard, whose hopes of keeping in the red jersey were hampered by a mechanical.
Roglic struggled on the latter stages, finishing in a group of fellow GC contenders, which also featured Australians Jai Hindley and Ben O’Connor, one minute and 37 seconds back.
[ad_2]
Source link