Only in Australia would a kangaroo pose a genuine threat to a rider’s GC lead.
For Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), eventual winner of the 2026 Santos Tour Down Under, the bizarre incident on today’s final stage was yet another reminder of the unpredictability of bike racing.
After winning stage 2 in commanding fashion, Vine looked to be cruising to a relatively easy overall victory. The past few days, however, have been anything but cruisy. Losing his co-leader (and second on GC) Jhonatan Narváez to a crash early in yesterday’s stage was a body blow, so too the loss of Vegard Stake Laengen later in the day.
And then with 95 km to go on today’s stage 5 – the longest stage in the history of the Tour Down Under at 170 km – a pair of kangaroos bounded into a peloton that was flying along at nearly 60 km/h.
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