Vine climbs to win as departing teammate speaks out
Vingegaard regains red jersey at top of Larra-Belagua
Jonas Vingegaard looked casual while he slipped back into the red jersey at the top of the Larra-Belagua but it was a dramatic day at the Vuelta a España for UAE Team Emirates as Jay Vine, the mountains classification leader, took the stage win after his teammate, Juan Ayuso, has earlier accused management of acting “like a dictatorship”.
Vine took his second stage win, the fourth of the race for UAE, with a well-timed attack on the final climb to distance his final challenger left in the breakaway, Pablo Castrillo. The Australian had originally called off plans to go for a stage win earlier in the day as the peloton attacked the hilly route at pace – with average speeds regularly topping 49km per hour – but as the race unfolded an opportunity arose for Vine to bridge over to the day’s breakaway group and he took it.
Lotto’s Alec Segaert later attacked from that pack of leaders at the 20km banner, but was caught and passed on the way up Larra-Belagua by the nine remaining riders. As the pretenders fell away on a 6.3% average gradient, Castrillo (Movistar) and Vine were left to battle it out. It always looked like Vine would have too much for Castrillo and so it proved when he powered away on a chicane with 5km to go.
