Jay Vine: "Finishing Second By One Second Is Heartbreaking"

His first race as a professional cyclist for Alpecin Fenix. He finished 2nd by just one tiny second after “a week that went way better than excpected.” Here’s what he had to say after the race, it’s definitely worth the read!

“I didn’t really know how this Tour of Turkey was going to unfold. We were really hoping for a good result on stage 5, but I had never raced in a bunch this big, and with teammates that I’d never met before. I put a bit of pressure on myself to perform. But that wasn’t the only thing that the team came here for. We came here to win bunch sprints with Jasper. So, learning how to position in the bunch and how to help in the final of sprints was all new to me.”

“Finishing second by one second is heartbreaking. I never stopped believing. Our sports director Frederik Willems over the radio and Jasper himself kept saying throughout the race ‘we go for the split in the final, we’re going to throw the kitchen sink in the last 3 km.’ I was in a really good position heading into that final 360 degrees corner, but got pinched in the wrong spot and came down.”

“I think it’ll take a little bit of time for it to sink in. But I think that shows how much the team was committed to try and go for the win. I think the biggest surprise of the week was just how much that I didn’t know. Like, there’s just so many nuances to moving around in the peloton and reading the rhythms and the ebbing and flowing of the race. And when and where to position yourself in different situations, on climbs, on flats, on descents. There’s lots to pay attention to, and I’ve just started to learn really. I can’t wait to the next bike race.”