Jay Vine faces his downhill trauma and overcomes it with brilliant solo win in Coppi e Bartali

Stage three of the Italian stage race led from Riccione to Cesena, covering 142.1 kilometers. After Caleb Ewan’s sprint win on day one and Paul Double’s surprise punch on day two, stage three was anyone’s game. Plenty of climbing in a local circuit completed three times, followed by a final climb with gradients over 8 percent. Would climbers, puncheurs, or strong climbing sprinters prevail at the finish?

With the course going up and down from the start, the fight for the breakaway was intense. Pascal Eenkhoorn launched a strong move after 25 kilometers and formed the day’s breakaway. The Dutchman from Soudal Quick-Step was joined by Alexander Konychev (Team Vorarlberg) and Marcel Camprubí (Q36.5). Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) bridged across after a long chase with 100 kilometers to go.

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The four breakaway riders defended a maximum lead of around three minutes. Since none of the leaders posed a threat to overall leader Double, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies took control of the pace in the peloton—and it paid off. The gap dropped below two minutes as the race hit the Sorrivoli climb on the local circuit for the first time. Baudin was already paying the price for his earlier efforts to bridge across and was dropped.

On the second ascent of Sorrivoli, Eenkhoorn attacked solo with 50 kilometers still to go. A bold move, but a necessary one. The peloton was closing in quickly, with Lotto, INEOS, and Jayco-AlUla also taking turns at the front. As they approached the third and final ascent of Sorrivoli, Eenkhoorn was the last of the early break to be reeled in—and the real finale began. One last time up the 1.4-kilometer wall averaging 10.6%, followed by the climb to Diolaguardia (8.5 kilometers at 3.5%).

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Visma | Lease a Bike and Soudal-Quick Step moved to the front, with Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates-XRG even daring to attack. He was joined by Mauri Vansevenant of The Wolfpack, and together they reached the base of the final climb. There, Vine dropped the Belgian and shook off Double from the group with a fierce tempo. What followed was a tense cat-and-mouse chase between Vine and the peloton during a wet descent. The Australian, never known for his descending skills, impressively managed to stay out front.

What had been a 6-second gap at the top of the climb grew to 18 seconds with three kilometers to go. Vine not only held off the peloton but also conquered his personal demons from recent years. After so many crashes and criticism of his bike handling, he could finally raise his arms in victory on stage three of Coppi e Bartali. Magnus Sheffield came in second for INEOS and takes over the overall lead.