Jay Vine claims esports world championship as teammate's wedding put on hold

And by all accounts, Hill "fully enjoyed" his wedding day.

It was a fitting anecdote, given Vine and his wife Bre both competed for Australia in the world championships, with Bre finishing 11^th.

She was the best-placed Aussie woman, while the men dominated proceedings with Vine storming up the final climb to win, Freddy Ovett second and fellow Canberran Ben Hill fourth.

Ben's brother Sam (61st) helped set up Australia's attack up the final climb despite having only been married in Tamworth on Friday.

They both got up for the pre-race weigh in at 4.45am Sunday before it started a couple of hours later.

"I felt like a bit of a third wheel because I slept at [my brother and his wife's] place last night after the wedding so they had to delay their honeymoon a little," Ben said.

"His ride was even more incredible because I don't think he did curb anything for the wedding.

"He still fully enjoyed the wedding and put zero expectations on himself for the race, and honestly without him we wouldn't have caught the break and we wouldn't have won the race.

"He was definitely ride of the day - especially considering his commitment to the wedding."

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Vine got his big break in ecycling when he earned himself a contract with professional team Fenix Alpecin by winning the Zwift Academy in 2020.

He then impressed so much he re-signed for two years and rode at last year's Vuelta a Espana - one of the three grand tours, along with the Tour de France.

The Aussies worked together to catch a breakaway and then Vine was able to storm home up the final climb to swoop past Gemany's defending champion Jason Osborne.

It meant Canberra's not only the ecycling capital of Australia, having won the national club championship last year, but now the world capital as well.

"I'm super-stoked with this result and it's not every day that you get to do that in front of your wife, and to have her nearly get another top 10 on a course that doesn't suit her right next to you is pretty special as well," Vine said.

Hill said Vine's win continued to frank ecycling as a breeding ground for professional cyclists.

Not only does Vine's professional roots lie there, but female pros Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Sarah Gigante finished one-two in the 2020 world championships as well.

"With Ashleigh Moolman Pasio winning the women's last [time] and being a prominent World Tour rider it really strengthened the women's result and gave it a bit more pedigree," Ben said.

"And Jay being up there in a lot of the big road races and now winning this is going to help boost the sport on the men's side as well."