Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Welsford took the top spot on stage 1 of the Tour Down Under after opening his sprint early and held off his rivals for the victory. Celebrating before the line, Welsford held off Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) who was flying to the line.
Brennan took second, half a wheel back, and Matthew Walls (Groupama-FDJ) was third.
Winner of three stages last year, Welsford was a marked man, and his team had to control the front of the peloton for the majority of the stage. Red Bull’s Phil Maciejuk, and then Ben Zwiehoff, kept the breakaway to a manageable five minutes before two other teams added some horsepower midway in the stage to bring back the two escapees with 23 kilometres to go.
Once the pair was reeled in, Welsford slotted behind his leadout man Danny van Poppel in the peloton while the teams jostled for position at the front, before launching his sprint with 250 metres to go.
Welsford claims the first ochre leader’s jersey of the 2025 Tour Down Under.
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