Tour Down Under stage 1: Sam Welsford takes the sprint win into Tanunda

Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe) took his first victory for his new team on the first sprint opportunity of the year ahead of Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) in the opening stage of the men's Tour Down Under.

Welsford took the victory in a rolling circuit race around the picturesque wine country of Tanunda and the Barossa Valley. In the end, it was a perfect lead-out and a perfectly timed sprint that put Welsford into the position to win ahead of a fast closing Bauhaus and Girmay.

"That was crazy, I am at a loss for words. The boys kept calm and stayed patient and wow, they did an amazing job," Welsford said at the finish. "Look at this team here, they're probably the strongest team on paper. I am happy to pay it off for them they did so much for me."

A standard sprint day to kick off the 2024 season

The Santos Tour Down Under got underway on Tuesday with a 144km circuit race for the sprinters around the scenic wine country of Tanunda and the Barossa Valley. With only three reps of the short and shallow Menglers Hill (2.1km, 3.8%), the day was always likely to be for the likes of Welsford, Bauhaus and Girmay.

Even with the promise of a sprint, when the flag dropped on the men’s WorldTour season, the attacks flew – most notably from Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Louis Barré (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). Despite the impetus, none of the groups materialised at the front for several kilometres as a few teams made their intentions clear to keep the day firmly in check.

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It was a day full of scenery as the peloton took on some of the best wine country Australia has to offer

Eventually, it was Jardi Christiaan van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) who was able to escape the peloton for the first breakaway to gain any traction. However, the peloton continued to be marshalled by Israel-Premier Tech who had their full line up on the front of the peloton, keeping the tempo high, and Van der Lee was back into the fold with 7km to go until the first sprint point.

Into the intermediate sprint, Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) shepherded his team towards the line as Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgrohe charged hard to get the available bonus seconds. Nevertheless, it was Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) who stole a march and grabbed the full-time bonus on the line ahead of Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) and Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers).

As expected, there was an immediate counter-attack from Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty) and Barré, who had already shown his intentions to make it up the road right from the jump.

The two riders were quick to begin working well together while the peloton seemed keen for the two riders to make the day's breakaway. Within a few kilometres the gap was out over a minute and the leading duo was set to split the spoils of the day between themselves. The first of which came only a couple of kilometres later on the first accent of Menglers Hill with 111km to go.

Barré was the first rider over the top, taking the points uncontested as the veteran Zimmermann seemed content to let the French debutant take the mountain points and thus the jersey tomorrow as the breakaway's advantage stretched over three minutes.

Over the next 40km lap around Tanunda, the race progressed true to form with the break tapping away out front and Bora-Hansgrohe and Jayco-AlUla pulling the peloton for their sprinters. The gap, which peaked at just over three minutes, was steadily cut down as each kilometre ticked down. With 80km to go, the gap was reduced to two minutes.

At 70km to go was the second intermediate sprint and unlike the KoM, there was a slight fight between the breakaway riders as Zimmermann and Barré traded blows. In the end, Zimmermann was able to get the full three-second bonus, while Barré came across second. Behind in the peloton, Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) was able to clean up the final bonus second available as the peloton came across the line only a minute behind the leaders.

With the writing on the wall and the peloton close behind, the breakaway made it up the second offering of Menglers Hill, which was won by Barré with no contest from Zimmermann, and decided to sit up and return to the peloton, bringing the race all back together with 60km left to race.

For the next 40km, the race began its slow boil towards the crescendo of the day. Each team, it seemed, came to the front en masse hoping to keep their sprinters safe and fresh for the final. Jayco-AlUla was able to remain steadfast at the front largely due to the efforts from Michael Hepburn.

On the final time of asking up Menglers Hill, the intensity increased once again with 13km to go. At the top, it was Luke Burns (Australia) who nipped off the front to get three points, adding to his one point from earlier in the day.

On the way off of the climb, it was UAE Team Emirates who were new additions to the front of the peloton to add to the firepower of Jayco-AlUla as other teams continued to cycle through the other slots on the front of the peloton.

Even still, Jayco-AlUla was able to stay prominent at the head of affair and remained there until deep into the race finale. Only after Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) pulled off from a massive pull for his Jayco-AlUla team with 2km to go did the lead-outs began in earnest, as Bora-Hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek and Bahrain-Victorious all tried to bring their trains to the front.

With one kilometre to go, Bora-Hansgrohe were in the driver's seat with a numerical advantage over the other sprint teams in the mix. Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla) was able to slot in behind the final lead-out from Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sam Welsford. While Ewan got a good jump from Welsford's wheel, crucially Welsford had the shortest line to the finish and the power to overpower Ewan in the final 150 metres.

While Bauhaus and Girmay were able to close a long gap to Welsford, they were unable to overhaul the Australian by the line. With the win on stage 1, the second WorldTour win of his career, Welsford also will wear the leader’s jersey for tomorrow’s stage.