\u201cI spoke to Caleb a lot. Once he found out I was in talks with Ineos, he was really pushing for it and he was giving me his insights – how much they did for him in that short time he was there,\u201d Welsford said.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso for him, his experience there was super-positive. He said the level of support he had there was incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was pretty keen to have me there. He sees it as a really good fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaleb is a rider I really trust and he\u2019s been through a lot. To be able to pick his brains was amazing … I look up to Caleb and we get along really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the contract confirmed, Welsford is determined to realise his undoubted potential. A big European goal this year will be to go for sprint stage wins at a Grand Tour, with the Giro d\u2019Italia in his sights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough year, last year, with all the injuries and bad luck. But the Ineos signing was at the end of the rainbow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been really happy to get stuck in there, be welcomed with open arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be the best I can be as an athlete, more consistency across Europe. I want to win a lot more in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to go to a Grand Tour and compete for wins there. I\u2019d love to go to the Giro – it sounds amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first elite events at the nationals will be the Thursday afternoon time trials, with Brodie Chapman the strong favourite to defend her women\u2019s crown.<\/p>\n
Her big threat is emerging rider Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, the 2023 junior world champion.<\/p>\n
Luke Plapp is going for his third men\u2019s time trial championship in a row and the fourth in total.<\/p>\n
Jay Vine, who won in 2023, looms as Plapp\u2019s main rival and fellow WorldTour star Ben O\u2019Connor is also in the field.<\/p>\n
Two of Welsford\u2019s 2024 Olympics gold-medal winning teammates, Oliver Bleddyn and Kelland O\u2019Brien, will compete as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI spoke to Caleb a lot. Once he found out I was in talks with Ineos, he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-397325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}