Australia’s Jay Vine claimed stage eight of the Vuelta e Espana with an impressive solo climb on Saturday as Belgian Remco Evenepoel maintained his advantage at the top of the general classification.
It was a second stage win in three days for Vine, who made his move and sped away from the breakaway group with 6km to go, finishing ahead of Marc Soler, who threatened with a late surge, and Rein Taaramee.
“It’s incredible, I think I’ve just got so much more confidence after the first (win). I’ve got that monkey off my back and it just felt so much more natural riding in the group today,” said Vine.
“All the pressure was off me, I had two goals and if one didn’t pay off I always had the King of Mountains jersey to fall back on. I had a lot more confidence in myself and just enjoyed myself – today was such a fun day.”
⏪⚔️ Revive la batalla del ÚLTIMO KM en Colláu Fancuaya gracias a @CarrefourES. ¡@JayVine3 🫣!
🏔️ Take in the final KM of Colláu Fancuaya once more thanks to @CarrefourES.
#CarrefourConLaVuelta pic.twitter.com/4Qm9gZLGPN— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 27, 2022
Evenepoel, Enric Mas and Primoz Roglic all finished on the same time, allowing the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider to preserve his 28-second lead in the race for the overall leader’s red jersey.
The 153.4km stage from Pola de Laviana to Collau Fancuaya proved to be another difficult outing for some of the other contenders as the likes of Joao Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Hugh Carthy and Jai Hindley all lost more than 50 seconds.
Action continues in the Vuelta on Sunday when the riders tackle the 171.4km course from Villaviciosa to Les Praeres.
