Aussie star crashes in 'frenzied' start to Tour Down Under as favourite races clear for victory
Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) has opened his account for 2025 winning a fast and hectic bunch sprint into Gumeracha, claiming the stage victory and the overall race lead on Tuesday as the Tour Down Under for 2025 got under way.
It's the second consecutive year that Welsford has won the opening stage and claimed the leader's jersey.
It was a chaotic final 5km that traversed a twisty and narrow road, taking away opportunity for the major sprint teams of Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe and Bahrain Victorious to control the front of the peloton.
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A frenzied fight for position amongst the peloton saw a crash with 3km to go, Australian national champion Luke Durbridge (Jayco Allula) the main victim whilst teammate and overall contender Luke Plapp narrowly missed the crash.
Luke Durbridge (middle of picture, in the green and gold) was one of the riders to crash in stage one. Getty
In the final downhill run to the finish line, Welsford just edged out British duo Matthew Brennan (Visma Lease a Bike) and Matthew Walls (Groupama FDJ).
"The run in was super long with the (head) wind and the turns made it quite difficult to defend the front," Welsford said.
"I went pretty long and didn't have much legs left, I should've realised that it was a really fast downhill sprint in the end."
It was an impressive performance by the West Australian who was touted as pre-race favourite having won last Saturday's Villawood Classic.
Welsford and his Red Bull teammates knowingly shouldered that responsibility and were forced to chase the day's breakaway by themselves, however the sprinter was more than happy to finish off his teammates' hard work.
"We had a lot of eyes on us today and (had) our backs up against the wall from the start, no one wanted to help us today and we kind of expected that, so we went out there and kept the break in check," the winner added.
"I'm really happy with the team, we're really relieved, there was a lot of pressure coming in from last year so I'm really happy to get the first one on the board."
Sam Welsford poses in the Ochre leader's jersey after stage one of the Tour Down Under. Getty
While the day that always seemed destined for a sprint finish it was the Australian National cycling team duo of Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning who entertained the roadside fans.
The pair shared the spoils that came from being in the day-long breakaway.
Browning secured the King of the Mountains points jersey whilst his teammate Marriage was awarded the combativity prize for being the most aggressive rider of the day.
Wednesday's second stage appears likely to be another sprint finish with the final climb arriving 25km before the finish into Tanunda.