Jay Vine was left battered and bloody after a crash during the time trial at the Road World Championships in Zurich but got back on his bike, raced on and finished fifth behind repeat champion Remco Evenepoel.
Vine finished with blood running down his face from a cut above his eye and splatters of blood and dirt on his arms and legs. The images were reminiscent of Stefan Küng's crash at the 2023 European Championships.
Live television didn't capture the moment Vine crashed.
"It’s gut wrenching to think what could have been," said Vine later in an Instagram post. "Silly mistake on a non technical section of the course cost me potentially the bronze medal. I just went into a corner faster than I did in the course recon and ran out of road. Simple as that."
The Australian was third fastest at the second time check after 26.6km but was only 15th fastest for the 10km section between the second and third time checks that included the fast descent to the shore of Lake Zurich.
Vine's finishing time of 54:26 put him 1:24 off Evenepoel and 30 seconds away from bronze medallist Edoardo Affini (Italy), who he had been battling with earlier in the time trial.
"I’m going to be beating myself up about this one for a while. Heart broken," said Vine in the post. "5th place is still good, but for the time being I’m gutted. Sorry team, I really tried."
It's the second time in a row the Australian team's hopes in the men's elite time trial have been hit by a crash, with Luke Plapp – who Vine replaced on the Worlds team – also crashing at the Olympic Games time trial.
Vine was given immediate medical care after the race but Vine's post didn't give any more detail on his injuries or whether he would be lining up for the road race as planned. We will update this story when medical details are available.
In April Vine suffered a cervical and two thoracic vertebral spine fractures at the Itzulia Basque Country and only returned to form at the recent Vuelta.
It is not clear where Vine's crash happened but the section many riders were concerned about after their reconnaissance rides on Friday and Saturday was the descent. Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws described it as diving into a black hole.
Filippo Ganna admitted he lost precious seconds on the descent, preferring to break because he struggled to see as his heart rate neared 200 bpm. Evenepoel admitted he did not touch his brakes and was clearly in more control, gaining ten seconds on Ganna in the middle sector of the course.
Eduardo Affini was asked about the climb, which will be used in other time trials in the next few days, including para cycling and tandem racing.
"I'm sure they could have found a better road to descend to the lake. It was really steep and so fast," Affini said, carefully choosing his words.
"The biggest problem was the road surface. On a TT bike with a disc wheel and a high- profile front wheel, it's often hard to control at that speed.
"Of course, it's up to us if we take risks or not. I didn't take any risks, I took a breather on the descent, but it shouldn't be like that. They did a good job of designing the course but that part was a bit too much."
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