ADELAIDE, Australia — Jay Vine clinched a second Tour Down Under title Sunday after a kangaroo sprinted into the peloton and sent the race leader to the road, while Britain’s Matthew Brennan won the final stage in a sprint. Vine remounted, changed bikes and finished in the main group to protect the ochre leader’s jersey, Jan. 25, 2026.
Tour Down Under finale turns chaotic
The collision came with about 100 kilometers remaining on the 169.8-kilometer Stirling circuit, where riders were traveling around 50 kph when two kangaroos bounded across the road. Vine hit one animal and tumbled, then chased back after a bike change; “Everyone asks me what the most dangerous thing in Australia is … it’s the kangaroos,” he said, according to a Reuters report, adding that the animals seem to wait until riders can’t stop.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported the field briefly eased so Vine could regain contact, but the crash still thinned an already battered bunch. Several riders were forced out, including UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Mikkel Bjerg and Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s Menno Huising, leaving both the Tour Down Under leader and the eventual stage winner down key helpers for the run-in.
Brennan, 20, finally converted a week of near misses at the Tour Down Under by finishing off Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s lead-out on the punchy Stirling finish. The finale — eight laps and nearly 3,000 meters of climbing — encouraged attacks, but a late break was hauled back inside the final kilometer. “I’m really happy with this win,” Brennan said in a team statement, after his team set him up for a reduced sprint that delivered its first victory of the 2026 season. According to Cyclingnews, Finn Fisher-Black was second and Tobias Lund Andresen third.
Vine’s overall margin at the Tour Down Under — 1 minute 3 seconds over Switzerland’s Mauro Schmid and 1:12 over Australia’s Harry Sweeny — was built earlier in the week when he attacked on the Corkscrew climb on stage 2 alongside defending champion Jhonatan Narvaez. Narvaez later abandoned after a crash on the shortened stage 4, and Vine spent the final weekend trying to manage a depleted roster and the pressure that comes with defending a race lead in the opening event of the 2026 WorldTour.
Tour Down Under context for Vine and the race
Vine has used the Tour Down Under as a launchpad before. In 2023, he won the race on debut after holding off Simon Yates on the final day, one of the first signs he could translate his rapid rise into weeklong WorldTour consistency.
The event’s recent history adds weight to this year’s chaos. The race was canceled in 2021 and 2022 because of pandemic travel rules, then returned in 2023 as the calendar’s traditional curtain-raiser. Last year, Israel-Premier Tech’s Stephen Williams used the final stage to snatch the overall title, a reminder that Down Under general classification can swing late even without a long mountain finish.
This time, the biggest threat to the leader’s jersey wasn’t a rival’s attack but wildlife. Vine’s second Tour Down Under trophy gives UAE Team Emirates-XRG an early-season statement, and Brennan’s breakthrough provides momentum heading into the next stretch of WorldTour racing.
