MADRID, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Jay Vine (UAE-Team Emirates) won the sixth stage of the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on Thursday after a strong and intelligent ride on the first mountain stage of the race.
The two-time stage winner, who also took last year's Mountains jersey, was part of a 10-man breakaway that spent much of the day away from the main peloton and launched his decisive attack in the closing kilometer of the penultimate climb of the day to quickly take a decisive lead.
Vine finished the stage 54 seconds ahead of Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious), who takes the overall leader's jersey from Jonas Vingegaard.
The stage between Olot and Pal, in the Principality of Andorra, followed Wednesday's team time-trial and took in a third and a second category climb, as well as two first-category climbs, with the last taking the riders to the finish line.
The peloton allowed the breakaway to open a maximum lead of six minutes and 40 seconds with just 30 kilometers left on the stage, with Vingegaard's Visma-Lease-A-Bike team happy to cede the need to defend the red jersey to another team.
The group containing the main favorites finished over four minutes behind Vine, meaning Vingegaard slips to fifth in the standings, 2 minutes and 33 seconds behind the new leader.
While Vine's win was the good news for the UAE, Juan Ayuso provided the negative note of the day as the Spaniard, who many tipped for a possible podium finish, was dropped by the peloton with four kilometers left to ride, losing an important chunk of time.
Friday is another tough stage with two second-category climbs and two first-category climbs and another summit finish in Huesca. ■
