It was a tough day out on the road for UAE Team Emirates-XRG on Saturday at the Santos Tour Down Under, with two riders out of the race and injured after crashes, including defending champion Jhonatan Narváez. However, the squad still remains in an enviable position on the overall standings with Jay Vine in the ochre leader's jersey with an almost unheard of advantage of one minute and three seconds to his nearest rival.
That, unquestionably relieves the pressure on the four riders left to help Vine in his pursuit of a second title at his home WorldTour race, with UAE Team Emirates not skipping a beat even when faced with the tough scenario of losing the powerful card of Narváez – who had started the weather-shortened day of racing on stage 4 in second place – along with Vegard Stake Laengen. Even without these two, on the racing front, Vine's lead never even looked close to being at risk.
"The team was all over it, but you never know," said Vine when asked if there were any nervous moments about the possibility of being caught behind a split in the hot, windy and crash-strewn stage.
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"We're not trying to split it, so we're just trying to stay safe and yeah, it's all about trying to manage your efforts and we really don't care if the breakaway wins, so at the end of the day, trying to conserve our guys as well.
"We don't have to pull the breakaway back. We just have to keep me in front."
Usually, that is easier said than done in a race that often comes down to the finest margins, with bonus seconds often the determining factor, but not after the masterclass delivered on stage 2 when Vine leapt away from the field on the Corkscrew climb, Narváez followed, and the two then proceeded to destroy their rivals' hopes of winning the GC.
Only the third spot on the podium had looked in play, though right at the very beginning of the stage Narváez came down hard and, according to a team medical update, "sustained several stable thoracic vertebrae compression fractures, that will not require surgery at this stage".
So that meant that even though the 2023 winner, Vine, was at the end of the day still standing in ochre with a powerful lead, the atmosphere was far from jubilant.
"This stage really turned into a stressful, stressful day for no real gain, and actually major losses for our team, not only for today but possibly, many, many weeks or months to come for Johnny. So it's pretty disappointing," said Vine.
Narváez, in fact, was the biggest card the team had to play on the 169.8km stage 5, which is set to play out on Sunday with eight laps of a circuit that includes a climb to Stirling, with the regular repeats leading to an accumulated elevation gain of 3,436m.
"We were hoping to get a bit more out of the race, especially tomorrow," said Vine. "I think he was really looking forward to that stage himself. So it's mixed feelings. I got through safe, but we lost two guys."
The question now is what that means for Vine for the day ahead, where he will be looking to close out his second overall victory at the race.
"We have got to be very clever on letting the right move go," said Vine.
"And I've still got a very large gap to second place now so I can afford to ... play the money ball game theory style of race, and let the right break go, and then hopefully let someone else chase a threatening move for their GC position," he said, adding that there was also potenial for teams with stage objectives to chip in, referring to the likes of Visma Lease a Bike with Matthew Brennan.
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