UAE Team Emirates-XRG cemented their position as the squad to beat after rider Jay Vine cruised to overall victory on Sunday at the season-opening Santos Tour Down Under in Adelaide, Australia.
Thrilling sprints, scorching heat, and even an Australian wildlife drama dominated the first UCI World Tour race for the 2026 calendar.
Despite the chaos, it was Vine who went home with the ochre leader’s jersey after six days of racing, besting all 140 riders from 18 UCI WorldTeams and the Swiss ProSeries team Tudor Pro Cycling.
Kangaroo chaos on final stage
It was clear from the early stages that Vine wanted to win on his home soil again, snatching the stage two victory with an attack on the Corkscrew climb with teammate and defending champion Jhonatan Narváez.
From there, Vine took the lead and never quite gave anyone a chance to steal it back.
It was not all smooth sailing, however.
The final stage in Stirling saw Vine and three other riders getting knocked off their bikes with 95 kilometres left to go after a kangaroo caused chaos in the peloton, nearly disrupting Vine’s bid for the overall victory.
Other riders involved in the crash abandoned the race as a result, but Vine quickly switched bikes with teammate Ivo Oliveira and raced to join the main group again.
While Vine didn’t win stage five, he comfortably finished one minute and three seconds ahead of Swiss Mauro Schmid of Team Jayco AlUla.
Australia’s Harry Sweeny of EF Education-Easypost completed the podium in third.
“To take the win here in my home race is incredible. It was more challenging time wise three years ago,” Vine said in a UAE press release. He won his first Tour Down Under back in 2023.
“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.”
Redemption for Visma’s Matthew Brennan
The stage five victory went to Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matthew Brennan, who got redemption after a not-so spectacular week for the Dutch team.
“The past week didn’t always go as we hoped, and results were hard to come by,” he said.
“But as a team, we worked hard every day and gave 100 per cent in every stage.”
Visma showed strong teamwork on the last local circuit, shutting down attacking attempts from other riders.
An excellent lead-out then paved the way for Brennan to sprint towards Visma’s first win of the season.
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Hard-fought victory for UAE
Besides having to wrestle with kangaroos, riders also had to deal with soaring temperatures up to 43 degrees and an extreme fire danger rating.
The conditions led to a shortened and altered stage four on Saturday, where 2025 Tour Down Under champion Narváez crashed out and was forced to abandon the race.
UAE’s medical doctor later confirmed he sustained “several stable thoracic vertebrae compression fractures”, according to a report from Domestique Cycling.
The doctor affirmed Narváez will not require surgery but will remain at the hospital for “further observation”.
However, bad luck continued to plague UAE, with Vegard Stake Laengen also abandoning the race following a separate crash during the same stage.
And in stage five, Mikkel Bjerg was ruled out of the race after yet another kangaroo collision, with Juan Sebastian Molano also exiting later from the race.
This meant Vine only had two teammates left to rely on before the stage finale.
“This year, we started off more positive and we just got more and more bad luck as the race went on,” Vine said.
“We really had to fight to the end.”
Misfortune or not, UAE still managed to send a message to all other World Tour teams with Vine’s win: They will be the squad to beat for the 2026 season.
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