Jay Vine focusing on the polka dot jersey: "I need to write down all the mountain points and see how they are distributed"

Vine wants to win the blue polka dot jersey, just like last year. He has 34 points, which is 11 more than Louis Vervaeke and 14 more than teammate Juan Ayuso. “We are regrouping and seeing what we can do in the last two weeks. I have to write down the possible mountain points and how they are distributed per stage.”

“There are still stages that earn 30 points if you take them all. It will be interesting to see how that develops over the next two weeks,” said Vine.

On Instagram, he looked back on Sunday's stage in more detail. “When the break finally went I knew the final climb was going to be a GC group, and I was going to help Almedia for as long as I could. The pace was on during the lead-in, and I got disconnected from the UAE train coming into the climb, so I had to work my way back into position.”

“I got myself up towards the front of the group just as we turned left, so I could help Joao,” said Vine, who saw Jonas Vingegaard go at that moment. “The pace was on, and everyone was going backwards, I was sitting third or fourth wheel when Jonas attacked with Ciccone in his wheel. I saw the attack going so I tried to snap close it, and I was about a second off before I realised Joao wasn’t there and he called me to stop so I could try and pace him back.”

“I tried setting a hard pace, but one that Joao would be comfortable with, and I managed to bring it down to about a 12 second gap to Jonas, and split the group to about 6 riders,” said Vine. “But with Vingegaard in full attack mode, I started only being able to hold the gap, and I knew Joao needed to go then and there.”

“I set as hard of a tempo as I could, hoping to give him the best chance to limit the gap and go when he needed,” said the Aussie, who, unlike some other UAE riders, was able to help Almeida. “Mixed emotions at the end — I gave everything I had out there, but of course I always want to do more for team. We keep fighting,” he assured.