“I want to go to a Grand Tour and win” – Sam Welsford confident new INEOS set-up can take him further than ever before

For Sam Welsford, the move to INEOS Grenadiers is not just about sprinting better. It is about aiming higher.

“I want to go to a Grand Tour and win,” he said in quotes collected by Cycling News. It is a simple line, but it immediately shifts how his 2026 season should be read. This is not just about stage wins in January. It is about turning early-season speed into something that lasts all year.

Welsford arrives at INEOS with one of the clearest records at the Tour Down Under of any rider in the peloton. Six stage wins across the last two editions have made the race feel almost personal to him. “It’s my favourite race of the year,” he said, and the numbers back that up.

But 2026 is different. The route is tougher, sprint chances are fewer, and he is building a new lead-out around him. For Welsford, that is not a problem. It is the point.

“For every new sprint team, Down Under is a really good hit out to really nail the process, drive things as a lead out,” he said. “For me, I really want to be successful here, it’s my favourite race of the year and also for me to set up the racing leading into the next couple races.”

That is where INEOS comes in. Over the winter, the team has reshaped how it thinks about racing. Geraint Thomas has stepped into a Director of Racing role, with greater influence over how the team prepares, races and develops riders. Former sprinters like Elia Viviani have joined the sporting structure, while experienced figures such as Daryl Impey have also been added to the management group.

This is the environment Welsford is stepping into. He is not being asked just to finish races. He is being asked to be part of a system that wants to build something more deliberate.

Inside that system, roles are already clear. “Kwiatkowski will be the captain of the lead-out,” Welsford said, pointing to Michal Kwiatkowski’s job of guiding timing and keeping the group calm. Of Samuel Watson, he added: “Sam Watson will probably be the second last guy, just a young guy with loads of power so I really am happy to have him in front of me.”

That is not just a list of helpers. It is a structure, and it is one he believes can be sharpened quickly. “The racing comes quickly and you don’t really have much time to work on these things outside of the race so for us, we really want to get it right here,” he said.

Welsford knows he cannot expect the same number of sprint chances as before. “For me, there’s probably still two sprint chances,” he said. “I can’t be too picky, I won three last year here, so I guess it’s not always going to be the same amount of sprint days.”

What matters more is what comes after. “Hopefully this year I can really get the ball rolling,” he said. “I want to win in Europe. I want to win on the bigger stage. I want to go to a Grand Tour and win.”

That is why the INEOS move matters. Not because it guarantees wins, but because it gives him a structure built around long-term racing rather than short bursts of form.

The Tour Down Under will still matter to him. It always will. But now, it is no longer the endpoint. It is the starting line for something bigger as he looks to take the next step in his career.