Jay Vine being Jay Vine: "For anyone questioning why I threw my race aside and pulled for the pelo, that’s why"

The Australian men's road cycling championships sparked plenty of discussion. Jayco AlUla got beaten by Patrick Eddy, who in turn lashed out at his former employer Picnic PostNL. And what about Jay Vine, who may have been the big favorite on paper but never made it to the final. The UAE Emirates-XRG Australian explained why via his social channels.

The 30-year-old came into the Australian Championships with big expectations, especially after already taking the time trial title earlier in the week. But in the road race, things took a different turn. Jayco AlUla executed a clever tactic that effectively rode Vine out of contention — clearly seeing him as the biggest threat, while Patrick Eddy ultimately took the win.

"After it became clear I was going to be marked out of the race, a group of us tried to make a bridge, unfortunately with strong riders still wanting to sit on the move, which kept starting and stopping for about 30 minutes," Vine said. "

In a post-race message posted the day after the event, Vine outlined his reasoning. Once it became clear that rival teams were going to mark him out of the decisive moves, he decided he wasn’t simply going to sit in and roll to the finish. Instead, he became one of the driving forces on the front of the peloton, working for long stretches to try to bridge to the break that would decide the race.

Vine said that television viewers did get their money’s worth — because his efforts on the front kept the gap to the leaders small for a long time. After his hard work, he joked that he rode back to the hotel — empty-tank but smiling — showing respect for the event and hoping to actually win it one day in the future.

Vine also acknowledged that stalling a race can be unpleasant for both spectators and riders. Negative or “strangled” racing — where no one cooperates and the race comes to a crawl — isn’t fun to watch, especially for riders who have travelled far and trained hard just to be there. This was a key reason behind why he chose to animate the race, even at the expense of his own result.

"Strangling a race is terrible to spectate and for all the riders involved who have traveled so far and trained so hard just to get to the start line (I’ve been there as an amateur). So for anyone questioning why I threw my race aside and pulled for the pelo, that’s why."