Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) can’t stop winning at the Santos Tour Down Under.
After picking up the opening stage and the overall race lead yesterday, he made it two for two today — though it didn’t come easy.
Just 1km into the stage, Welsford got caught up in a touch of wheels that brought down about 10 or so riders. He was able to remount and carry on, his shorts tattered, and set up perfectly for the final sprint to win with a much more comfortable margin than stage 1.
Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) finished second and Bryan Conquered (Cofidis) third.
Welsford has now won an impressive five stages at the Tour Down Under between the 2024 and 2025 editions.
How it happened
A three-man break consisting of Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Wanty), Fergus Browning (ARA Australian Cycling Team) who was in the break yesterday as well, and Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) spent most of the day out front, with Zimmerman and Konrad vying for the intermediate sprint points and bonus seconds on offer.
The trio gave up the fight around 40km out, with still one more ascent of Menglers Hill climb remaining.
Welsford ran into a bit of trouble late in the stage with a high pace on the climb almost seeing him fall off the back at 16km to go.
“That was bloody tough out there today,” he said. “They didn’t make it any easier for me on that climb. They started launching attacks harder than expected but we had a good chase to get back on. My team worked hard.”
Thanks to that strong work from the Red Bull squad, Welsford recovered with great positioning for the sprint finish.
“The boys did a mega job bringing me back and still did a lead out which is pretty impressive today,” he said.
Welsford now holds a 14 second lead in the GC, though he’s unlikely to wear the leader’s ochre jersey for much longer now that we start getting into the serious climbing stages.
What’s ahead
The GC race begins in earnest with stage 3, a 147.5km stage from Norwood to Uraidla with some 3,236 meters of elevation gain, the most in a stage of this year’s race.