UAE Team Emirates-XRG finished 2025 with 97 wins, the most a professional cycling team has ever won, but just short of 100. The aim for 2026 then, improbable as it is, is to better their record from last season.
Their year has begun well, then, with a dominant victory on stage two of the Tour Down Under, which saw Jay Vine win after riding away with teammate Jhonatan Narváez. There are still three stages to go, but the pair have a minute on the field.
On Thursday, the inevitable happened on the Corkscrew climb, as Adam Yates – an 18-time WorldTour winner – put the peloton under pressure, stretching things out, allowing Vine – a six-time WorldTour winner – to attack alone, only to be joined by Narváez, himself a four-time WorldTour winner, and the defending champion.
“It’s been on my mind since the last time I wore it. I really love this jersey,” Vine said post-race. “It’s incredible to win on such a hard stage. We’ve got such a strong position now with me and Jhonny, and being led out by Adam is pretty incredible as well.”
“With two guys in the front, it’s pretty simple what’s going to happen,” Yates added. “I just followed the guys that were attacking and we ended up with a group of five or six. They were working quite well together, but we had two super strong guys in the front. So yeah, it was a good day for the team.”
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