UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider Jay Vine overcame a collision with a kangaroo to win a dramatic Tour Down Under on home soil.
It had been a chaotic few days in Australia that had seen Stage 4 shortened due to extreme heat and fire risk, while Vine's teammates Jhonatan Narvaez and Vegard Stake Laengen were both involved in race-ending crashes on Saturday.
Proceedings then took a bizarre turn in Sunday's fifth and final stage when two kangaroos jumped into the peloton, knocking Vine and teammate Mikkel Bjerg off their bikes.
Vine, who had earlier won Stage 2 to take the overall lead with a team-led attack on the Corkscrew climb alongside Narvaez, quickly remounted, switched bikes with teammate Ivo Oliveira, and managed to rejoin the main group.
“People always ask me what the most dangerous thing in Australia is, and I always say kangaroos,” Vine said. “They hide in the bushes and then suddenly they’re in front of you. Point proven today.
“Two kangaroos jumped into the peloton and I think we were riding at 50kph. One of them stopped, went right, left, and I couldn’t avoid him. Fortunately, I’m OK, but I’m also thinking about Mikkel.”
The Australian went on to finish safely in the peloton and claim overall glory by more than a minute in what was the second biggest winning margin in the race's history.
Though only starting with five riders, each member of Team UAE stepped up to secure the lead of Vine, despite various dangerous attacks from his rivals.
Bjerg was ruled out of the race after falling victim to Sunday's kangaroo collision, which occurred with under 100km of the 169.8km-long final stage remaining, and only Adam Yates and Ivo Oliveira joined Vine in arriving to the line in Sterling.
The crashes on Saturday's Stage 4 had left Narvaez with a severe back injury while Laengen suffered a rib injury. “Narvaez was taken to hospital for precautionary spinal and neurological assessment,” read a statement from Team UAE's Medical Director, Dr Adrian Rotunno.
“He has sustained several stable thoracic vertebrae compression fractures, that will not require surgery at this stage. He is currently stable and will be kept in hospital for further observation.”
Laengen was also taken to hospital and was being “monitored further over the coming days”, according to the statement.
“I know how it is to lose half a season because you've got broken bones, it's never something you want,” said Vine, who also won the Tour Down Under back in 2023. “If it's out of your control, with what happened, it's not good.”
It was a manic first win of 2026 for UAE Team Emirates, who secured a record-breaking 97 victories last year. “To take the win here in my home race is incredible,” added Vine. “It was more challenging time wise three years ago. This year, we started off more positive and we just got more and more bad luck as the race went on. We really had to fight to the end. I’m so pleased to have been able to finish it off today. I always say it’s a team sport and I feel incredibly proud to be riding for this team on days like this.”
Britain's Matthew Brennan took the fifth and final stage of the race with the Visma-Lease A Bike rider beating New Zealand's Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe to the line.
