SPECIALIST climber Jay Vine has scored an upset win in the elite men’s time trial at the national road cycling championships, clinching gold in his first year of participation.<\/p>\n
A winner of two stages at last year’s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, Vine only turned professional in 2021 after winning e-cycling platform Zwift Academy, and prior to the current nationals had not raced competitively in Australia since before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in really undercooked for the road race,\u2019 Vine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal was to play it as smart as I could and you know, really race it as if I was one of the big stars of the day, probably knowing full well that probably coming into the last four laps I wasn\u2019t going to have it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean the time trial is sort of my pet event from back in the day, but I just haven\u2019t been able to go fast in a good position since turning professional so being able to get on a good bike with the team, and in the right position.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I felt good all day today, nervous like nobody\u2019s business, tried giving my wife a few heart attacks last night changing things and this morning as well, but she kept me cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Vine failed to finish the road race on Sunday but now heads to South Australia with a spring in his step.<\/p>\n
Four-time national time-trial winner Luke Durbridge and newly minted road race champion Lucas Plapp were the favourites for Tuesday’s 37.5-kilometre-long individual dash in Ballarat.<\/p>\n
But Townsville-born Vine, racing for UAE Team Emirates, set a formidable target of 46 minutes 38.84 seconds and was not chased down by either man, nor any of the other 16 starters.<\/p>\n
Durbridge finished second, just 2.72 seconds behind Vine with a time of 46:41.56.<\/p>\n
Plapp, who missed the chance to defend his title last year due to a case of COVID-19, came in fourth – 26.43 seconds adrift of Vine – after reporting mechanical issues on lap two.<\/p>\n
Kelland O’Brien, who won the elite men’s criterium on Friday, finished third in 47:04.42.<\/p>\n
Reigning champion Rohan Dennis, one of Australia’s best time-trial riders, opted to sit out this year’s event but will race at the Tour Down Under later this week.<\/p>\n