"I’m beyond stoked with what we’ve achieved together" - Sam Welsford starts off season with three World Tour wins
Cycling
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe had a pretty good week at the Tour Down Under to open up the season. New signing Finn Fisher-Black rode himself to the podium, but like last year, Sam Welsford stormed to take three stage wins.
After succeeding earlier in the race, and recovering from two minor falls, the Australian started today's stage as the main favourite and once again succeeded, with comfort. The incredible leadout work of the German team and specially Danny van Poppel saw Welford enter all his sprints in perfect position, and he had the speed to finish the job.
Today in a criterium-style stage, the national champion of that discipline found himself in front with his leadout, and in the extremely sketchy finale (where many riders went down in a crash) he only had Bryan Coquard in his wheel when he started his sprint. It was a short burst of power, and enough to bring in another win and the points classification.
"I’m pretty speechless right now. The team absolutely took charge of the race today, and I couldn’t be more grateful for how everyone worked to bring me into the finale," Welsford said in a press release. "I also want to mention that Finn did so well, he was outstanding on Willunga Hill yesterday. As a squad, we came into this race with big goals, and to see them all come to life is just amazing. Winning three stages and Finn securing third overall, it’s an incredible result, and I’m beyond stoked with what we’ve achieved together".
Team DS Bernhard Eisel looks back on the week fondly, with lots of success to take into consideration. "This is an incredible start to the new season. With Finn and Laurence [Pithie] as new riders on the team, the squad has shown great ability to work together and achieve a fantastic team performance. Three stage wins by Sam as well as Finn’s third place overall are truly outstanding. Every single one of the guys gave everything for our two leaders. We can be proud of each rider’s performance, and now we’re looking forward to the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race next week."
Read also
🇦🇺 #TourDownUnder
— Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (@RBH_ProCycling) January 26, 2025
SAM DOES IT AGAIN! 🏆🏆🏆
Our Aussie takes the final stage of the @tourdownunder! pic.twitter.com/JRc8O9Cq1j
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- Sometimes I really think that things get lost in translation. Every little detail of a riders season, preparation, and racing tactics is carefully calculated to provide optimum performance. Of course, how one feels on the bike is something that needs to be added to the overall equation as well.
santiagobenites09-03-2025 - what? The exception does not invalidate the rule: you, in the vast majority of situations, are calculated and guided in detail by your sporting director, little or no-initiative of your own. It is not offensive at all, it is simply your style.
maria2024202409-03-2025 - We are trully blessed to have two such high class acts competing with each other at this time in our sport.Cyclingsbestfan09-03-2025
- agreed you said it better than I did. it wasn’t some charitable sporting act. tadej had already basically closed the gapmij09-03-2025
- Very humble of him to apologize to Tom and Ben.
KerisVroom09-03-2025 - Good luck Bradley. I'm glad you are in a better place. The 2012 tour was fantastic for us. We were there at Bonneval to watch you getting focused for the time trial. You sealed the overall of the tour on that stage. We set out on the long drive home to Scotland later tha day in a very happy mood. Great memories!Cyclingsbestfan09-03-2025
- He attacked Pogi after he saw him crashed and then Connor Swift stopped for quit sometime. He slow when he can't take some more time and Pogi blitztering his pace like a mad man to catch Swift then drop him after and that's the time he realized he will NOT beat Pogi in all races even he crashed.
James2631809-03-2025 - He already is the GOAT. Merckx rode decades ago when the sport was far less professional and the opposition weaker. You might as well say Djokovic is approaching Rod Laver or Messi is getting near to Stanley Matthews. If a sport advances and you are at the top, you are the GOAT.Renz09-03-2025
- Excellent point about when it’s too late to respond. I was watching the ‘23 Flanders race again, and the break, the bridge, and Mads Peterson all did the right thing. Not enough, but still, the attempt was the thing. I love watching Pogacar race, but I am really hoping for more of that kind of early hard attack in the coming months.RidesHills09-03-2025
- Pure class and nice for him to wait. After Tadej shared some liquids earlier. And besides Tadej took out that gap pretty instantly. No offense to Pidcock but he sat up at the top of a climb with the bridge over was obvious. And this is meant as no offense.mij09-03-2025