Bre Vine Reflects on Jay Vine’s Latest Crash and the Emotional Toll
Bre Vine, wife of Australian cyclist Jay Vine, has opened up about the recent crash that ended her husband’s participation in the Giro d’Italia. The incident occurred on stage two of the race, where Jay suffered a fractured elbow and a concussion after colliding with a roadside barrier at high speed. This marks his third serious crash of the season and the 23rd such incident in the past five years.
“Yesterday was honestly really scary,” Bre wrote on Instagram. “But the main thing is Jay is OK. Considering how bad that crash was, he’s been relatively lucky to come away without anything more serious.”
The crash involved several riders, including UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Mark Soler, whose front wheel lost traction on a slippery descent with 22 kilometers remaining. Soler, Vine, and team leader Adam Yates all hit the barrier at high speed. Soler suffered a fractured pelvis, while Yates, despite limping to the finish, did not start stage three due to a concussion.
The mechanism of the crash was eerily similar to the one that saw Vine suffer a fractured skull and vertebrae at the 2022 Itzulia Basque Country. At the time, Bre was 33 weeks pregnant with their second child, just as she was during the 2022 crash when she was pregnant with their first child, Harrison. This situation brought back painful memories for Bre, who described the emotional struggle of watching the footage replay everywhere.
“Watching the footage replay everywhere definitely brought back some hard memories from Basque Country,” she wrote. “I know people repost these moments because they care and want updates, but sometimes I think it’s easy to forget these are real people with families at home desperately trying to find out if they’re OK.”
Bre will travel to be with Jay now, but there has been no update on when Vine will return to racing, possibly as part of Tadej Pogačar’s Tour de France team in July. “This one hurts, especially after all the work Jay has done to get himself healthy again and back to riding so well,” she said. “But sometimes sport is cruel like that. Right now the focus is simply on getting him fully recovered again, healthy, happy, and back doing what he loves.”
Thrilling Conclusion to Third Stage
After two crash-marred stages on Bulgarian roads, the Giro d’Italia’s sojourn east ended in spectacular fashion on the streets of Sofia. Crowds 10-deep lined the finishing straight to see the three-man breakaway only caught in the final 500 meters by a rampaging peloton.
Diego Pablo Sevilla (Polti VisitMalta), Alessandro Tonelli (Polti VisitMalta), and Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) attacked from the start of the 175km race and must have felt they were in with a shout of upsetting the sprint trains. However, Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) made it two wins at this year’s race in three days, overhauling a powerful surge from Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) on the line to claim line honours.
“I celebrated on the finish line but, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I had actually won or not,” Magnier said. “I’m really happy. Beating Jonathan Milan and Dylan Groenewegen makes me feel like one of the best sprinters in the world. Now we head to Italy and we’ll see how many more stages I can target.”
Jensen Plowright was the best-ranked Australian in 18th spot, sprinting for Alpecin Premier-Tech with Kaden Groves still suffering from his first-stage crash. Guillermo Thomas Silva of Uruguay remains in the pink leader’s jersey.
Monday is a travel day as the peloton makes its way from Bulgaria to the stage four start town of Catanzaro in the southern Italian region of Calabria. There, riders will prepare for Tuesday’s short, 138km ride to Cosenza featuring the 15km second category climb to Cozzo Tunno, which summits with 42km remaining in the stage. The uphill finale will likely suit the punchy sprinters.
