Sam Welsford has won all three bunch sprints of the Tour Down Under. A clean sweep and absolutely perfect start for BORA - hansgrohe's new head sprinter.
"I'm speechless. The way we've been riding all week, we had a bit of pressure today, as expected, but we rode very well," the Australian said in a post-race interview. After winning two sprints and leading the points classification, the race was already a success for the German team who successfully tested their strong leadout with it's new signing. However, they were still the favourites to win stage 4, and they delivered once again.
"It was such a fast approach and I don't know exactly how it all happened, but I had good momentum coming out of the corner. I wasn't right on Danny's [Van Poppel] back wheel, but he knew I was up to that point and I just used the guys between us as my leadout," Welsford describes. He was in the wheel of Elia Viviani starting the sprint, but the Italian didn't have the legs to accelerate, and from behind no-one had the speed to beat Welsford - who had perhaps his hardest earned win of the week.
"This win is just amazing, it's the perfect start to the year for us. It's also really special for me to come into a new team and get that support straight away," he admits. "In the end, this win is a reward for the hard work the guys have put in all week." Now with two hilltop finishes, Welsford will no longer be contesting for sprints, whilst the team changes it's priority to helping Ben Zwiehoff and Roger Adrià in the fight for the overall classification.
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