Source : ABC NEWS
Jay Vine has taken another major step on his remarkable comeback to professional cycling by making the podium in third place at the Tour de Romandie.
Vine, whose career was in the balance last year after a horror crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, put in a terrific final-day time trial in the Swiss race to grab his first overall podium place at a UCI World Tour event since winning the 2023 Tour Down Under.
The 29-year-old Queenslander appears to be approaching peak form ahead of this week’s first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d’Italia, as part of a strong Australian line-up.
Vine’s UAE Team Emirates Portuguese teammate João Almeida took the overall win after finishing second in the 17.1-kilometre time trial around Geneva, which was won by double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.
Winner of the third stage in brilliant fashion, Vine had been fourth overall going into the fifth and final stage.
He needed to claw back half a minute on the leading trio of Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Italian Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) and Almeida, who were separated by just 3 seconds on the general classification standings.
Almeida produced a brilliant ride to finish second in the time trial.
Martinez had to fight to keep hold of second place overall with the 13th-fastest time of the day.
He managed to keep the charging Vine at bay by just 15 seconds but the Australian comfortably leapfrogged the struggling Fortunato into third.
Vine was the first Australian to make the Romandie podium since Richie Porte finished runner-up in 2021.
He also took home the orange jersey as points classification winner, ahead of his teammate Almeida.
AAP
