Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) comprehensively proved how strong he is against the clock at the Australian Road Championships just a week ago, surprising his traditional rivals competing in this event for the first time and earning the green and gold stripes of Australian Champion He won.

He wore the stripes for the first time in Tuesday's Tour Down Under prologue. Although he was racing against the clock, he had little in common with last week's race, when he rode his time trial bike 37.5 km in 46:38 on the Australian Championships course near Ballarat.

This was only 5.5 km, with damp conditions and no time trial bike. Nevertheless, Wein finished ninth in 6:34, 14 seconds behind race leader Alberto Bettiol (EF Education Easy Post) and ahead of his rivals in the overall race. [After the prologue of the opening race of the 2023 Tour Down Under, Wein told Cycling News. "You don't get to choose every course. If it had been my choice, it would have been 40 minutes longer."

Riders such as Rohan Dennis (Jumbo Visma), Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers), and Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) would probably agree. Nevertheless, Wein handled the less than ideal conditions with aplomb, finishing in ninth place, one spot ahead of Michael Matthews (Jayco Alura), who was considered one of the favorites for the overall win and faced the wettest conditions.

However, Bettiol was the fourth starter early on, before the rain started to fall, and took the hot seat early and held the lead until the end.

Vine lined up in the final group, and although the rain had eased off, the conditions were far from dry. Weine said it was still quite slippery.

While the high-profile competitors around him struggled, Weine seemed determined to hold on. The Ineos pair of Hayter and Plapp finished 21st and 24th, respectively, with Hayter 19 seconds behind the leader and Plapp another second behind.

"I'm very happy with this result despite the conditions and the short time trial. It's not my strong suit. So I'm really happy."