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ABC News
03-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Jay Vine wins stage three of Tour de Romandie in Switzerland
Jay Vine has added to Australia's recent cycling success in Europe, surging clear in the final kilometre to steal the third stage of the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. The 29-year-old Townsville rider's brilliant effort came 24 hours after Loading Twitter content Vine's win was also emotional for the UAE Team Emirates star. It was his first individual World Tour victory in Europe since his terrible crash at last year's Tour of the Basque Country, during which he feared he might never walk again. Vine broke two vertebrae, but was back racing four months later. His remarkable recovery culminated when he claimed the King of the Mountains classification at the Vuelta a España in September. "It's pretty incredible. It's been a long road back to recovery from my neck injury last year," Vine said. "It's three wins this year so far, and my first World Tour win in a long time, so I'm really happy." Photo shows Sophie Marr crosses the line as Talia Appleton is bent over Sophie Marr and Jack Ward have earned development contracts with Australian professional teams Liv AlUa Jayco and Jayco AlUla in a thrilling finale to the inaugural ProVelo Super League. It was a brilliant piece of opportunism that propelled Vine to victory just after the "flamme rouge" one-kilometre-to-go marker on the 183.1km trek around Cossonay in the west of Switzerland. "The first two hours had been really, really hard, felt like it was being motor paced," he said. But after that climb, the gap was being reduced to (the leader) Stefan (Kung), and I thought, 'OK, I gotta be up here in this group to minimise time gaps, so I might as well see what I can do and have a crack.'" Vine's win leaves him sixth in the general classification, 41 seconds behind French leader Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), but with two stages to come, one a brutal climbing test and the other an individual time trial, he's not ruling out the prospect of winning the race on Sunday. "Yeah, it's all to play for tomorrow, and then the time trial on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to that, ahead of the Giro d'Italia. The GC is still wide open," he said. AAP The ABC of SPORT Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday. Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
ABC News
02-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Michael Matthews wins UCI World Tour Eschborn-Frankfurt one-day race
Michael Matthews has opened his UCI World Tour account for 2025, sprinting to victory in the Eschborn-Frankfurt one-day race. The 34-year-old, known to his friends and rivals as "Bling", ended his impressive campaign of one-day races in Europe by demonstrating his enduring quality with a 43rd career victory in the race known as the German Classic. Photo shows Sophie Marr crosses the line as Talia Appleton is bent over Sophie Marr and Jack Ward have earned development contracts with Australian professional teams Liv AlUa Jayco and Jayco AlUla in a thrilling finale to the inaugural ProVelo Super League. Matthews has become the first Aussie to win the race for 40 years since Phil Anderson sealed back-to-back victories in 1984 and 1985. The win also maintained the Canberra star's brilliant winning record. The COVID-plagued 2021 campaign is the only season in the past 16 in which Matthews has failed to reach the top step of the podium after a race. The win follows impressive results earlier in the season, including finishing fourth in Milan-San Remo and fifth in the Gold Race in the Netherlands. Matthews has twice finished on the podium in the German Classic, including a third-place finish on his debut appearance in 2011, while his runner-up spot a decade later was his best result in that difficult 2021 campaign. "I think my shape through the spring was good, I just wasn't on the top step," Matthews said. ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that's making headlines. "It's nice to finish off this block with a win here in Frankfurt. "It's a race that has really suited me for a lot of years and I haven't been able to win it, so to come here with the team and the way we rode — we rode perfectly — and to execute a performance like we did today it was the icing on top of the cake." Matthews is in his fifth season with his Australian-based Jayco AlUla team, and his teammates did the heavy lifting for him on the 198.7km route, particularly on the second big climb when their efforts did much to split up the race and leave a reduced field of 24 for the sprint denouement. "I didn't expect my team to go so hard on the second long climb, but we split the bunch a lot and got rid of a lot of the fast guys, which was the goal," Matthews said. "The team's performance was exceptional and to finish it off the way I did, I'm so thankful to my teammates." Matthews comfortably outpaced Denmark's runner-up Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility) and third-placed Spaniard Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar) for his first individual win since taking the Quebec Grand Prix last September. AAP The ABC of SPORT Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday. Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
