Phil Bauhaus almost lost hope for victory after crash - "A crash with a lot of impacts, so I didn't think I could win"

Phil Bauhaus starts the season with a bang, beating out Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews to secure the first stage victory in Tour Down Under.

He experienced some challenges along the way, including a crash. "Actually, I even fell very hard," he said in the post-race interview. He continues, “A crash with a lot of impacts, so I didn't think I could win. In the end, I recovered a bit, and I must say that the team did a very good job. They kept me in the front all the time.”

The realisation of his victory was slow to sink in, he chose to be prudent rather than let it get the better of him. “Phew, it was very tight. I really didn't want to start cheering too early, that always looks so silly. So I finally heard quite late that I had won from my team leader,” said Bauhaus.

Though he emerged victorious, he couldn't help but wish for fewer accidents during the race. “It was very nervous in this stage, a lot of guys fell to the ground. In that sense it was not a nice stage,” concluded the Bahrain Victorious rider.