Welsford sprints to stage-one win at cycling Tour
Australian Olympic cycling gold medallist Sam Welsford has dominated the opening stage of the Tour Down Under in the Adelaide Hills.
Australian Olympic cycling gold medallist Sam Welsford has started where he finished off at the Tour Down Under, winning stage one.
Welsford was the clear favourite for the 150.7km opening leg from suburban Prospect to Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills.
After winning three sprint stages at the Santos Tour last year, he dominated the finish again on Tuesday.
As Welsford looked over his right shoulder, British sprinter Matthew Brennan (Visma Lease A Bike) was closing fast on the Australian’s left side. But it was still a clear win to make Welsford also the first race leader.
Welsford is now concentrating on the road after winning gold as a member of the team pursuit squad on the track at the Paris Olympics.
You might like
It is his third win already this year, after taking out the criterium at the Australian road championships and then Saturday night’s pre-Tour classic street race in Adelaide.
The first stage finish at Gumeracha in the Tour’s 25-year history went to script in 30C-plus conditions.
Though not for newly crowned Australian road champion Luke Durbridge (Jayco AlUla) who was caught in the crash with about 3km left, only seconds after he had been driving the pace at the front of the peloton.
Durbridge had been at the front as support for New Zealand teammate Campbell Stewart.
Stay informed, daily
ARA Australian team riders Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning joined Frenchman Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R) in the early breakaway that gained about five minutes on the peloton.
Tronchon dropped back before 100km to go and the two young Australians survived until 22km to the finish.
Browning won the under-23 road race at last year’s Australian championships, despite being hit by a car the day before, while Marriage won the under-23 time trial at this month’s road nationals.
The national team has been a fixture of the Santos Tour, giving younger Australian riders and more experienced compatriots without WorldTour contracts the chance to impress at the top level.
Miles Scotson, the 2017 Australia road champion, joined Italian Manilo Mori (Movistar) in pulling out of the Tour before stage one.
Mori was the only rider not to finish the classic street race because of the high-speed crash on the last corner that hospitalised a spectator with serious injuries.
Scotson (Arkea-B&B Hotels) hurt his ribs in the crash and also did not start.
