Jay Vine has experienced the most successful seasons to of his career capping it all off with a silver medal in the elite men's individual time trial on Saturday in Kigali, Rwanda. The Australian said his podium performance was 'redemption' after he finished fifth in the discipline at last year's championships race in Zürich.
"It's a big redemption from last year, where unfortunately, I was not able to bring home a medal. I've been targeting this Worlds for 12 months, ever since the course was released. This sort of heavy climbing and aero climbing, altitude, heat, and all that combined was perfect for me," he said in a post-race press conference at the Kigali Convention Centre.
The men's field took on a 40.6km course, at 1,450 metres of altitude, that included four climbs; twice over the Côte de Nyanza with 2.5km at 5.8% on the way out and 4.1km at 3.1% on the way back toward the finish. They had another climb over the Côte de Peage and then the last climb of the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura, which is 1.3km at 6.3% and will also be used on the city circuits during the road races later in the week.
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Vine was the fourth fastest at the first intermediate checkpoint, but he kept getting faster as he settled into a rhythm over the challenging course, moving up to the second fastest time at the next two time checks and then finishing 1:14 behind three-time winner Remco Evenepoel from Belgium, calling his rival unbeatable.
"I think we saw at the Tour de France that you can get close to him," he said, noting Evenepoel's stage 5 victory at this year's Tour de France, where Tadej Pogačar finished 16 seconds behind him. The Belgian also won stage 7 time trial, beating Pogačar by 12 seconds in last year's French Grand Tour.
"But in the Tour de France, a stage racing time trial, it is a completely different to a one-off event. So, he needs to have a bad day, I need to have an incredible day," Vine said.
"I think I had my best TT today, but he was unbeatable today and trained specifically for it. Even if I prepared specifically for this race, I don't think there was a minute fourteen in there."
Vine explained that he had a roundabout way of preparing for the 2025 UCI Road World Championships with an unexpected and late call-up to race the Vuelta a España with his trade team UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
While he went into the event feeling somewhat out of shape after DNFing at Clásica San Sebastián, he went on to win three stages and secure the mountains classification at the Vuelta a España.
"I was always planning on doing a three-week altitude camp with the Australian team in Andorra, but four weeks out from the Vuelta, I was told that I was doing my second Grand Tour of the year, and we had to change the plan and adapt, as you probably see that my results in San Sebastián; I was not in the shape to do a Grand Tour," Vine said.
"I rode my way through the race and was able to finish in Madrid with some good form. I spent some family time before flying 12 hours to Rwanda. I had some decent shape and the conditions were good ... I was able to have a good ride that I am really proud of."
Although Vine finished fifth in the time trial last year, he was also part of the team that won the world title in the Mixed Relay TTT in Zürich. However, he said that this individual time trial was a memorable performance because he secured the silver medal for Australia.
"I'm incredibly proud of it. I would have liked one more place, but there was Remco Evenepoel out there today. It's a highlight of my career to be standing on the podium in the individual time trial," Vine said.
"It's my favourite event in the race. I've dreamed of this for the last five years of being a professional. I think I have eight podium results in the last two years in the time trial that I haven't been able to convert into wins, so that is tough."
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