Vine solos to brave victory in Turkey

Jay Vine powered his way to a memorable solo victory on stage 7 of the Tour of Turkey.

The Australian last tasted victory back in January at the Tour Down Under and ends the season on a high with this win following a disappointing exit from the Vuelta España last month.  He held off a hungry peloton by 7” in the end which was led home by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Vine attacked solo and picked up maximum mountain points to seal the mountains classification on the way to a victory which meant a lot after a week of illness and mishaps.

Vine: “It was all-in on the stage win today. We hoped that the climb would see a lot of the helpers dropped and no one would be able to pull on the lead-in through town. I just emptied myself and then the sports director came through on the radio, said I had 50 seconds with 8 kilometres to go and I thought that could be enough.

After crashing out of the Vuelta this was an opportunity for the end of the season and I trained pretty hard after recovering from that.To come here and just have bad luck all week, stomach problems on stage 3 and not being able to anything and then a puncture yesterday meaning I couldn’t even compete for the win. This is a consolation prize, and it’s good to be able to show my form and get a win somehow. I’m glad I could give the team that.”

Stage 7 results 

1.Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) 3:36:51

2.Jasper Philipsen (Deceuninck-Alpecin) s.t

3.Cees Bol (Astana) s.t