'I went into Australia underdone so I'm trying to fix that this year' - Jay Vine aiming for much stronger start to 2026 than in 2025

Jay Vine enjoyed a spectacularly successful 2026 season in general, but as the UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer sees it, the one part of the year that went a shade awry was how it all began when he set out on his home roads in Australia.

Fast forward 12 months and this time round, in the same scenario, the 30-year-old is very much hoping to set the record straight.

Last January, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG pro finished second in the National Time Trial – a title he took back in 2023, the same year he won the Tour Down Under overall – and sixth in the equivalent elite men's road race. He then placed eleventh in Australia's premier stage race, the Tour Down Under, with victory going to teammate Jhonatan Narváez.

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However, much of the rest of the season went remarkably well for Vine. The Giro d'Italia ended with sickness and a crash-out, but on the other hand he took victory in two stages and the mountains classification – the latter for a second straight year – at the Vuelta a España. After that, too, came a silver medal for Australia in the elite men's time trial at the World Championships in Kigali, as well as a collective victory in the mixed-relay TTT.

As Vine told Cyclingnews during his team training camp in December, while there was a lot about the year to be pleased with, he came away feeling dissatisfied with Australia. Twelve months on, the aim is for him to head towards Europe at the end of January on a more upbeat note.

"Two King of the Mountains jerseys, a podium at the Worlds was pretty special, and then I just went into Australia a bit underdone, so I'm trying to fix that this year [2026],"Vine said.

"I still went in really well, but the sport's moved on in two years since I last went to Australia, so you've now got to be on a very good level to do well there. Especially racing against the Jayco team and especially at Nationals."

"That's probably the only thing that I'd like to have changed from last year – having a better Australian season."

Jayco's combined might in the Australian Nationals is a tough challenge for any rival, particularly in the road races, when it comes to time trialling in general, though, Vine had a more mixed point of view. He recognised that even if certain rivals were almost automatically superior in the time trialling discipline, there was still room for personal improvement, too.

"If you're trying to win, that's pretty much almost impossible, if it's a super hard time trial, [Remco] Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is the best in the world, " he told Cyclingnews, "and then if it's a dead flat time trial, Evenepoel is best in the world, closely followed by [Filippo] Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and [Ganna's teammate Josh] Tarling."

"They [Ganna and Tarling] have got 15, 20 kg on me and I'm not gaining 15 or 20 kg. So for me it's about staying where I am, improving with equipment, improving with position, and that's basically all I can do. And" – he adds with a grin – "hope for people to have bad days."

Succeeding on all terrains

What was striking about Vine's run of success in 2025 was that it came in radically different terrains, with long-distance breakaways and triumphs in the mountains of the Vuelta all but balanced by top results in the time trials. Finding that balance is not easy, but Vine seems to have all but cracked it.

"Time trialling is important to me, and I mean, I think I can do both. I'm never going to be a super climber, so I'm happy where I am with climbing. Rather, it's all about improving the time trialling," Vine explained, before pointing out that the context a time trial is raced in also changes matters considerably.

"I lost to Ganna [in the radically shortened Valladolid time trial-Ed.] by one second in the Vuelta. We don't know if it had been the original course, if I could have won that, and a time trial in the final week of a Grand Tour is a completely different beast to an individual one day even, as well. So it's still possible to get [better] results there [in stage races] too."

Stage racing will certainly feature strongly on Vine's 2026 calendar as well. After the Tour Down Under in 2026, Vine will then head to the UAE Tour and follow that up with the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro d'Italia, with nary a one-day race in sight. However, as of December, he was still both uncertain about all the exact goals both in the Italian Grand Tour – barring the mid-race time trial – and was not specific about where he would be racing from June onwards.

Back to the Giro

"I'd like to finish the Giro this year, that's for sure," Vine commented.

"Obviously there's a 40 km time trial, so that's on my bucket list. It's dead flat but a bit technical at both ends, so I'm looking forward to that.

"Outside of that, I'd still like to win a Grand Tour with the team. To be able to be beside a leader who's standing on the podium with whatever trophy it is, that is still part of my career goals. And if I'm not doing it with Tadej, it's doing it with Isaac [Del Toro] or João [Almeida] or something like this is. It's one of my career goals."

On paper, the UAE team in May will be built around Almeida pushing for GC success. After racing as a teammate with Almeida when the Portuguese star made third in the 2023 Giro, as well as second in the Vuelta a España last September, Vine will be back racing alongside Almeida when he looks for another top Grand Tour result in Italy.

As for whether Vine retains any GC ambitions himself in the Giro, as of December, he was still uncertain about whether he would have a free rein, although he argued that could change rapidly in the weeks to come.

"I haven't been told anything. I'm just focusing on my Australian block, UAE Tour, and then – right, OK, we'll get to that when we cross that bridge."

Last-minute changes of plan form part of any team, after all, and in Vine's case they don't appear to have done much harm to his chances in the past.

"I've no idea [yet] what the team wants. I wasn't told whether I could go with the polka dot jersey last year either in the Vuelta and" – possibly because Pogačar's participation remained uncertain – "I wasn't even told I was doing the Vuelta until 2 days before San Sebastian."

Following the Giro, Vine would not be drawn on what he'll be doing further down the line, too. While it did not involve the Tour, "not next year, though I'd love to do it some time," he said simply that "You'll probably find out very soon, but I'm very busy in June, July."

"That [the first half of the season] is [already] 50 race days or something like that. After that, it's time for a big reset and whatever I do after that will be great."

First, in any case, comes Vine's renewed focus on Australian racing. Come this weekend, he'll have already found out in part how successful that sharper start on the season can be.

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