In April this year, Australian rider Jay Vine was lying in intensive care, a brace around his neck.

He had fractures in his cervical and thoracic spine.

His skull too was cracked, following his devastating crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, a crash that had repercussions throughout the entire cycling season.

Now, just five months after fearing for his ability to walk and play with his then-unborn son, Vine is back on top of the world, part of a trio of Australian riders taking centre stage at the Vuelta a España.

The 28-year-old Queenslander is wearing the polka dot jersey as king of the mountains.

Beaming with pride as he took to the podium in Lagos de Covadonga, Vine would have been filled with relief that he even had the ability to ride at this level again, let alone succeed.

His fellow countryman Ben O'Connor is in the red jersey, having led the race overall for 11 days — the most by any Australian at any grand tour in history.

In addition, Kaden Groves is wearing green as the leader of the points jersey.

The three major classifications jerseys are all in Australian hands.

Given there have only ever been 12 instances of an Australian wearing one of the three major jerseys at a grand tour in history, that's some achievement.

Only three Australians have ever won the mountains classification at any of the grand tours: Matthew Lloyd (2010 Giro), Simon Clarke (2012 Vuelta) and Michael Storer (2021 Vuelta).

There is admittedly a degree of fortune about how both he and Groves found themselves at the very top of their respective leaderboards.

Wout van Aert, runaway leader and champion elect in the green jersey competition, was further extending his lead in the king of the mountains classification with another stunning performance on stage 16 until he crashed heavily on the descent of Collada Llomena.

It was a crash that ruled him out of the race immediately and left both classifications wide open, albeit in a bitter way.

"I didn't expect at all to get the green jersey," Groves, winner of two stages at this year's race, and the only ever Australian winner of the points jersey at the Vuelta (in 2023) said.

"Wout [van Aert] had such a convincing lead in the points classification and, coming into the race, I knew it would be super likely that he takes the green [all the way to the finish in Madrid].

Vine echoed those sentiments, after Van Aert dominated the Aussie in the mountains before his crash, saying it was "Absolutely not the way I wanted to take the polka dots" at the conclusion of the stage.

"It's a real shame to see Wout go out the way he has, you never want to take a leader's jersey in this way," Vine wrote on Instagram, during which he celebrated a stage win for teammate Marc Soler.

"We will continue focusing on stage wins for the team, whilst also trying to maintain mountain jersey. Here's to five more opportunities!"

But while Groves was sombre-faced when he collected the jersey, Vine was beaming a wide grin. What those polka dots represent must be even more important to Vine, a sign of how far he has come since being confined to that hospital bed in April.

Vine's career trajectory has been slightly different to most in the professional peloton.

He has gone from winning the 2020 Zwift Academy program — a program that aims to give aspiring riders a chance to win a spot on a World Tour team — to winning some of cycling's biggest prizes on the road.

Indeed, Vine is no stranger to the blue and white polka dots — he wore it for 10 stages at the 2022 Vuelta, where he also won two stages — before losing it in a crash.

"I lost the KOM [king of the mountains] jersey back in 2022 due to a crash out of the race," Vine wrote in his Instagram post.

"So I know exactly how it feels. I hope his injuries aren't anything too serious, and wishing him a speedy recovery!"

That was Vine's breakout year, winning the overall classification at the Étoile de Bessèges, coming second at the Tours of Turkey and Norway and winning the UCI Esports World Championships, earning him a move to UAE Team Emirates.

With his new team, Vine won the overall prize at the Tour Down Under and the mountains classification at the Tour of Turkey the following year, as well as the national time trial championships.

Two time trial wins at the Vuelta a Burgos and Paris-Nice at the start of 2024 kept his road career rolling, while his wife Bre was expecting their first child.

All in all, things were looking very good.

Then it all came to an abrupt halt in a concrete ditch in the Basque Country.

Bre travelled through the night to be at Vine's bedside, where doctors emphasised just how lucky it was that Vine didn't suffer injuries worse than those he had, given the severity of the incident.

"Just can't believe that I will still be able to walk and play with my kids one day," Vine said a week after the crash.

"It was pretty scary for a couple of days when we weren't sure if surgery or neurological problems might present themselves.

"Long road ahead for my recovery, but I am looking forward to getting the process rolling."

It's safe to say it's been rolling along pretty nicely.

Vine rode into contention for the mountains jersey just as the race reached its second rest day, battling to be level on points with van Aert.

The Australian wore the jersey on loan from van Aert on stage 16 as the Belgian cannot wear both and protocol dictates that the points jersey takes preference.

But now Vine owns it outright and can wear it with pride on Tuesday's 141.5km ride from Arnuero to Santander — a stage that is relatively flat, with just two categorised climbs, a relative luxury on this most mountainous of Vueltas.

Despite the fortune, the 28-year-old had battled so hard to work himself into contention, thanks to a little extra motivation.

"Yesterday was Father's Day in Australia, and I had my son born the day before I came to La Vuelta," Vine wrote on Instagram, joining O'Connor in being a new father at this Vuelta.

"So today is a pretty special day for me, and I wanted to make today count, whether that was with a stage win for the team or taking KOM points.

"When we look back in ten years and I explain to him that I couldn't be there with him but it was because of all this, I think it will be something very special."

Given there was a very real chance that Vine may not have been here at all, given the severity of the Basque Country crash, the entire Vine family can have far fonder memories of Spain in 2024, whatever happens in the next five days.