Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) reclaimed the Australian elite time trial on Thursday, his winning margin of over 30 seconds at the Westbridge Funds Road National Championships amply indicating that the 2025 World Championship TT silver medallist has delivered on his aim of starting the season with stronger form.
“Last year I was in relatively okay shape, but it just wasn’t good enough," said Vine. "To get world-class victories, you have to be world class. I didn’t want to leave anything on the table, I worked really hard in winter, drove up and down the mountain more times than I can count in Andorra.
Vine delivered a time of 46:52.82 for the 39.1.3km effort around Bold Park in Perth in windy conditions, 31.7 seconds ahead of second-placed Oliver Bleddyn (Team Brennan) - part of the 2024 Olympic gold medal-winning team pursuit squad along with third-placed Kelland O'Brien (Jayco-AlUla), 40.9 seconds back.
The big surprise, however, was the absence of defending champion Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) from the podium steps. Plapp finished 2:44 down on Vine, a marked contrast to last year when he was up 8 seconds on the UAE Team Emirates rider.
“I paced it differently to last year," said Vine. "I really focused on just speed, speed, speed, instead of focusing on the power and being so rigid on the power.
“I’ve developed over the last 12 months based more on feeling than anything; it definitely paid off."
The men's elite race against the clock was the final time trial of this year's championships, taking place over four laps of a 9.8km circuit with a hairpin bend near the start, climbs that delivered just over 100m of elevation gain and a hairpin bend.
Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) went out hard as he stepped up at his home-town National Championships, leading after the first lap with nearly six seconds up on Vine. However, that had turned around by the second lap when the UAE Team Emirates rider carved out a gap of nearly 14 seconds.
On the third lap Vine just kept pushing the gap, though it was now O'Brien and Bleddyn that were closest with O'Connor not maintaining his fast opening pace. Bleddyn was spurred on by the shift up the rankings, saying later in an interview on Team Brennan's Instagram that "I heard on the radio that I was in the hunt for the podium and that kept me going."
Bleddyn came over the top of O'Brien on the final lap and O'Connor held on for fourth on the line, finishing 1:10.6 back from Vine.
Conor Leahy (Team Brennan), Hamish McKenzie (Jayco-AlUla) and 2023 junior men's World Champion Oscar Chamberlain all crossed the line within two minutes of Vine, and then there was a considerable gap to Plapp in eighth spot.
William Holmes (Hagens Berman-Jayco) claimed the U23 men's time trial on Wednesday while earlier on Thursday Sophia Sammons (Praties) won the U23 women's time trial and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden claimed the elite women's title.
The Australian Road National Championships continues on Friday with the criteriums and the road races play out over the weekend.
