Jay Vine

Born in Townsville, Jay Vine was living and working in Canberra when he got his big break. By winning the 2020 Zwift Academy talent identification program, Vine earned a contract with Alpecin-Fenix and began his pro cycling career at the age of 25.

Before then, Vine had been a standout amateur rider on the domestic scene, having won the 2019 Tour of the Tropics (part of the National Road Series) and impressed with his climbing at the 2020 Herald Sun Tour, where he finished fifth overall.

In his debut pro season, Vine came close to a win at the Tour of Turkey – finishing second in a mountaintop sprint – and on stage 14 of the Vuelta a España, where he finished third from the breakaway despite crashing while feeding from his team car.

In 2022, he seized his opportunities by winning not one, but two mountaintop finishes at the Vuelta. The first came on stage 6 on a fog-covered Pico Jano, where he soloed away from the GC favourites; the second was from the day-long breakaway on stage 8.

That earned him a stint in the polka-dot jersey of the KOM classification, but, cruelly, Vine crashed out before reaching Madrid.

2023 saw Vine transfer to UAE Team Emirates. Having become known as a climbing specialist, he surprised the nation by winning the Australian individual time trial championship in Ballarat, beating the likes of Luke Durbridge and Luke Plapp. That performance signalled to the world that Vine could be turning into a grand tour GC contender.

He continued his winning summer by triumphing at the Santos Tour Down Under overall – his first general classification victory as a pro.

Later that year, Vine completed his first Giro d’Italia, where he placed seventh in the opening ITT. He made his representative debut for Australia at the UCI Road World Championships in the individual time trial. He also won a stage and the KOM jersey at the Tour of Turkey.

Vine began 2024 with some podium results at the UAE Tour before helping his team win the team time trial at Paris-Nice. He broke through another barrier by winning his first professional individual time trial in Europe at the Vuelta a Burgos.

The victory was made sweeter by the fact that, four months earlier, Vine had been involved in a horrific crash at Itzulia Basque Country that left him in intensive care with spinal injuries.

Vine returned to Spain for his fourth Vuelta and made amends for his 2022 DNF by securing the polka-dot jersey of the mountains classification.

He then raced the ITT at the UCI World Championships in Zurich, placing fifth despite a crash. Three days later, he helped Australia win the world title in the mixed relay team time trial alongside Michael Matthews, Ben O’Connor, Grace Brown, Brodie Chapman and Ruby Roseman-Gannon.

He and his wife, Bre, make their European home in Andorra with their son, Harrison.