photo credits @ TDU
Today marked Sam Welsford seventh career victory in the Tour Down Under, which was by far his most rewarding.
Welsford was visibly emotional when he was first to roll his wheels over the Nairne finish line in the Ziptrak Stage 3 which gave Henley Beach a debut for the stage race.
It was Welsford’s first win for his new team INEOS Grenadiers after two seasons at Red Bull BORA hangrohe where he won six stages of the Tour Down Under.
“For me it’s just one of my most special one (wins),” Welsford said.
“I think coming off a really hard year last year with injuries and broken bones, I lost a lot of you know self-belief and also with the team last year, I think you know we didn’t get a really nice bit of season with injuries and stuff as well. I lost a lot of opportunity as a sprinter and I’m a sprinter you need a you need that belief you need that momentum and kind of lost my way a little bit last year. For me to come here I’m win on a day that did probably didn’t really suit me on paper spring by the heart of sprint day I’m really happy with that,” he added.
The stage finish at Nairne, the former home of the original Chapman’s Smallgoods factory, was regarded as the last chance saloon for the big sprinters in the peloton before the race ends in Stirling on Sunday.
Australia’s Jay Vine still owns the Santos Ochre Leader’s Jersey after his UAE Team Emirates XRG surrounded their superstar, ensuring he would be well protected in a day marked for the fast guys in the peloton.
Vine is six seconds ahead of teammate Jhonatan Narvaez with Jayco AlUla’s Mauro Schmid still 1min 05 seconds behind Vine.
“The last 50km was really stressful,” Vine said.
“After we came through the sprint point everyone started attacking as we got into the circuit but yeah I have a good team around me they helped me and as we came with 4km to go it was yeah stay on with the group and avoid any crashes.”
Vine in fact did avoid a crash near the end of the race when Liam Walsh from the Australian national team hit the deck. Walsh’s crashed delayed naming Vine as the race leader for several minutes.
Before Welsford recorded his 13th UCI WorldTour win, there was an immediate attack from three European riders who weren’t regarded as being the most powerful sprinters at the Santos Tour Down Under. However they had high credentials for climbing and charging breakaways.Frenchman Enzo Paleni (Groupama – FDJ United) and Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermarche) and efex King of the Mountain jersey holder, Denmark’s Martin Urianstad Bugge led the charge up the Southern Expressway.
The trio had a 1min 03 sec gap with 137km to go before the Nairne finish line.
The field didn’t react to the breakaway with UAE Emirates XRG protecting race leader Vine and second placed Narvaez during the early stage of the race.
Urianstad Bugge earned maximum points at the KOM Wickham Hill climb 32.3km from the start, followed by Veistroffer and Paleni.
The trio had a 2min 06sec gap but the peloton after the KOM but the main peloton remained unfazed. Veistroffer earned the first maximum bonus Ziptrak sprint points followed by Paleni and Urianstad Bugge at Meadows before the Mount Barker KOM.
The sprints kings’ teams started to attack the breakaway just before the Ziptrak intermediate sprint at Echunga with 33km before Nairne.
The main peloton reduced the gap to 46 seconds before Veistroffer earned maximum bonus seconds, ahead of Paleni and Urianstad Brugge at Meadows.
After Meadows was done, UAE Team Emirates XRG started to position their prized riders Vine and Narvaez before efex King of the Mountain points at the Mount Barker climb 116.5km from the start.
Urianstad Bugge added more points to his already secure jersey followed by Veistroffer and Paleni.
The peloton had to chase Veistroffer and Paleni hard to the Nairne finish after Urianstad Bugge ran out of gas after his Herculean effort in the saddle in the heat.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
