Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) has given a lively TV interview at Giro d'Italia before the start today when he made very little effort to hide his frustration he was now assigned to team duties and may not get a chance to target a stage win for himself.
Vine, who came to road racing after exceling on Zwift, has dropped from 11th after Sunday's TT to 36th setting out on today's stage 13. However, his team mate João Almeida is 3rd overall, just 22 seconds off the race lead and has a great chance of a podium finish.
Vine took two stage wins on last year's Vuelta and has won Tour Down Under and the Australian TT title since the start of this year. He went into the Giro as a real contender for both the GC and stage wins, though Almeida's superior placing must be protected. It appears from what Vine said that that the team wants him to ride for Almeida, but could still aim for a top 10 for himself.
Advertisement
Aiming for a top 10 was something Vine very strongly stated he had not interest in in the TV interview. However, he also eventually said he would ride for Almeida, but only after stating he was not "just here to male up the numbers now. He also said he had no interest in a top 20 because such a result had no monetary value.
Related News
Asked whether today's stage could be one for him to target for a win, now that he was out of the GC, Vine said: "No. Today's my job's to stay with João (Almeida), so yeah."
Asked if he was ready for that, he said: "No I'm just here to make up numbers now. Yes, yes ready for that, yeah." But he insisted the idea put forward by his team that he could still ride to a top 10 result was completely unappealing to him.
"It's unclear at the moment what the team's plan is for me at the moment. I keep getting told I could probably still ride for a top ten (overall), but that's uninteresting for me personally. So, you know, in the ideal world my goal would be to lose 45 minutes and then be really able to target some stages but the other part is looking after João. And getting him on the podium, or for the win, is more important than a stage win for me so, whichever way the team decides I'm happy.
"(A top 10 on GC) has no interest for me because it has no monetary value at all. I've signed for four years and part of that negotiations was 'top tens are meaningless'. So, yeah, I don't care. It might be great for the team and on social media but, no, wins or podiums, yeah, apart from that I'm happy to help João but I personally don't care."
Asked how the Giro had gone overall, he said: "It's been a pretty attritional, guys are joking that we're gonna ride into our Rome with only 100 riders or less. But, I mean, that's what happens in a Grand Tour, especially one that's been wet 90 per cent of the time so yeah you just gotta try and stay lucky. It's unfortunate that so many teams have come in with the best laid plans and missed out."
