Sam Welsford says all rivals’ eyes will be upon him and his team from Tuesday after he took out his maiden Villawood Classic criterium race tonight at the Santos Tour Down Under.
Welsford also got lucky when he avoided a nasty crash on the final corner of the Adelaide East End Street Circuit claiming his top speed was 68.1km/h during the one-hour race.
Italy’s Manlio Moro, 22, from the Movistar team was one known rider that crashed.
Welsford, who raced in the national criterium colours for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, said he was unaware of the crash which happened behind his final sprint home on Rundle Road.
“Around that last corner I was pretty close to the barriers,’’ Welsford said.
“I kind of checked and saw that it was strung out and I had about a metre before the barrier, and I thought I’m just going to work as hard as I could.
“I knew with the downhill (finish) it would be hard to overtake and the rest is history.
“I didn’t hear anything (the crash) I came under (teammate) Danny van Poppel but I had a good run from him.
“He said “go”, it’s a super fast corner and I hope everyone is alright.
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Welsford won three stages of the Santos Tour Down Under last year.
He sounded a stern warning to rival sprinters before the 2025 WorldTour season starts with the Ziptrak stage 1 Prospect to Gumeracha on Tuesday.
“I’m really happy how it kicked off but the real stuff starts on Tuesday when all eyes will be on us,” he said.
Germany’s Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished second followed by Great Britain’s Matthew Brennan (Team Visma | Lease a Bike).
Brennan also avoided the crash which happened in front of him.
"It was quite chaotic,’’ Brennan said.
“A lot of people were keen it was the first race of the season and my team did a lot of work to keep me out of trouble and keep me safe.”
Villawood Men's Classic intermediate sprint results
Winner: Sam Welsford
Lap 5: Ziptrak preme sprint #1: Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek)
Lap 10: Ziptrak preme sprint #2: Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL)
Lap 15: Ziptrak preme sprint #3: Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates XRG0
Lap 20: Ziptrak preme sprint #4: Jordan Labrosse (Declathon AG2R La Mondiale)
