Jay Vine gave UAE Team Emirates-XRG yet another victory - the team's 80th win of the season - on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España, soloing to the summit of the Puerto de Belagua ahead of Pablo Castrillo (Movistar Team). Javier Romo (also Movistar) held off the charging chase group for third on the stage.
It was Vine's second stage win of the race and the team's fourth, and gave the Australian a 23-point lead in the mountains classification over Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep).
"Winning is so, so hard. It's such an incredible feeling when it happens. I don't think I'll ever get used to it," Vine said.
The stage was clicked off at a breakneck pace, with no breakaway going clear until well after the midpoint of the stage. It wasn't until a large escape group formed with 74km to go that there was any respite from the relentless attacking.
"I think I made my move for two and a half hours at the start of the race, just trying to follow the big groups," Vine said of the fight to get away. "The guys helped me where they could, trying to get me in position. And then I think at the two hour hour mark, I just called on the radio, 'Guys, it's not happening better, save for tomorrow'.
"And then there was a crash, and I got stuck behind that, and then we kept jumping for another 45 minutes. So Mikkel helped me bridge across," Vine said of his entry into the late move.
"I thought that was the hardest part of the race, until I got to the final climb, and then that quickly turned into the hardest part of the race."
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Vine, part of a 30-rider group, eventually bridged across to solo attacker Castrillo and immediately left him behind.
"I didn't want to drag everyone up the climb, so I tried playing a bit of possum at the bottom, and was able to sort of attack my way across to the other riders, then got rid of Archie [Ryan] and then got to Pablo, and was able to drop him through the last s-bend and, and it was just grit my teeth to the end."
Torstein Traeen of Bahrain - Victorious hands off the red leader's jersey to Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike after stage 10 finish (Image credit: Getty Images)
The red jersey changed hands as Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) lost touch with the group of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG), moving the Dane back into the race lead.
Træen lost 1:03 on Vingegaard and now lies second overall at 26 seconds, while Almeida is third at 38 seconds. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) had a stellar outing in the mountains to move into fourth overall at 58 seconds.
How it unfolded
The peloton together for 175.3km from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua (Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton must have felt quite refreshed after the first rest day, because the first two hours of the 175.3km stage to El Ferial Larra Belagua were clicked off quickly and no breakaway went clear.
One promising move from Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Clément Braz Afonzo (Groupama-FDJ) lasted briefly until the Frenchman crashed while grabbing a feed from the team soigneur with 84km to go.
After they were caught, Victor Campenaerts launched Vingegaard into a 10-rider move while Almeida and Træen were caught napping. The bunch nullified the cheeky move and immediately (IPT, XDS) attacked.
Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) attacked with 76.5km to go, having to weave his way through a large group of pro-Palestinian protesters being hastily ushered off the road by race marshals.
Thierry's move helped spark a huge attack. He was joined by Xabier Azparren (Q36.5), Fausto Masnada (XDS Astana) and a rider from Lotto led an attack that grew to 27 riders ahead of the Alto de las Coronas.
Gijs Leemreize of Picnic-PostNL and Pierre Thierry of Arkéa - B&B Hotels compete in the breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
The move included Jay Vine and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Orluis Aular, Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo (Movistar), Matteo Sobrero and Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep), Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Bruno Armirail and Johannes Staune-Mittet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Azparren and teammate David Gonzalez, Harold Tejada, Masnada and XDS Astana teammate Nicola Conci, Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Abel Balderstone, Joel Nicolau and Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Thierry, Gijs Leemreize and Vermaerke (Picnic-PostNL), Lars Craps and Alec Segaert (Lotto) and Pier-André Côté (Israel-Premier Tech)
The group was later joined by Junior Lecerf (Soudal-QuickStep), Sean Quinn, and Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost), making for an enormous 30-rider move.
Bahrain Victorious took control of the chase, keeping it below 90 seconds until the Alto de las Coronas, when the gap was out to 2:30 as Javier Romo made a move midway into the ascent.
Romo remained clear at the summit to take the maximum points and, chased by Vine, the Spaniard had only a slim advantage when he was joined by Vine with 40km to go.
When Romo and Vine were caught, it was only by a fraction of the original 30-rider escape, with Bernard, Castrillo, Ryan, Azparren, Conci and Balderstone joining with 25 seconds over the rest of the attackers. Segaert bridged across to make it nine, then Vermaerke made it to the leaders to bring the first escape to ten.
Alec Segaert of Lotto and Archie Ryan of EF Education - EasyPost compete in the breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
With 19km to go, Segaert made a solo attack and quickly got out of sight of his previous companions. He still had 40 seconds as he started up the final climb, the Puerto de Belagua, while the red jersey was a more distant 3:23 behind the leader.
Segaert began to fade and was caught by Castrillo with 7.5km to climb. Behind, the red jersey lost touch with the UAE Team Emirates XRG pacemaking with 6.5km to go.
One by one, the breakaway riders were caught and passed by the Almeida/Vingegaard group as Castrillo was chased by Vine about 1:25 up the road.
Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike leads the chase group on El Ferial Larra Belagua (Image credit: Getty Images)
The mountains classification leader passed Castrillo with 5.2km to go, while behind, Almeida attacked Vingegaard to no avail, bringing the leader's advantage down to 1:20.
The race lead began to quickly shift as Træen slipped further and further behind Vingegaard, finally shifting in favour of the Visma-Lease a Bike leader with 4km to go.
As the gradient eased slightly with 2km to go, the gaps stabilised with Castrillo fighting 29 seconds behind Vine and Matteo Jorgenson reeling in escapees as he ushered Vingegaard along 1:22 behind the lone leader.
Vine held onto his lead to win the stage over Castrillo.
Jonas Vingegaard back in the red leader's jersey after stage 10 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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