Jay Vine has come agonisingly close to the greatest time trial win of his career and a hat-trick of stage wins at this year's Vuelta a España, with the Australian star missing out by less than a second in Valladolid.

Producing a scintillating, lung-busting effort over the flat 12.2-kilometre course, Vine ended up losing out to Italian time trialling great Filippo Ganna by just 0.9 of a second.

"To come second to Ganna is incredible, just beaten by one of the best time triallists in the world. Nothing more that I could do," Vine said after covering the course in 13 minutes and 1.79 seconds at a staggering average of 56.179 kilometres per hour.

A fraction quicker, he could even have been celebrating his third win of what has been a fantastic Vuelta for the 29-year-old Queenslander, who is

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