Vine won the Vuelta mountains classification in both 2024 and 2025 and took two stage wins there last year — he's not a rider who's usually invisible at this race. This year he's showing up in service, and Pogačar noticed: «When Jay [Vine] let me pass on the wheel of Decathlon, then I knew, OK, I don't want to be also isolated against all the GC riders, because they will all play against me.» That's not a headline result, but after a season that fractured his body twice before the Giro even started, it's the validation that matters.