"I’m beyond stoked with what we’ve achieved together" - Sam Welsford starts off season with three World Tour wins

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."