“I was thinking, ‘There’s no chance from here,'” said Welsford after taking his first UCI win for Ineos Grenadiers.
Stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under was billed as a day for the sprinters. One of just two days for the fastmen in a particularly tough edition of the race.
And while it was a bunch sprint that ultimately decided the day in Nairne – with Sam Welsford taking his first UCI win since joining Ineos Grenadiers this year – it very nearly didn’t happen that way.
Three riders were up the road for most of the day: KOM leader Martin Urianstad (Uno-X Mobility), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United), and Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermarche). They never really seemed like a threat to win the stage, until they did.
“We had it under control when we [Ineos Grenadiers] were all just riding the front with Visma[-Lease a Bike] and Decathlon [CGA CGM],” Welsford explained later. “We had good cohesion there. We were keeping it in check, and knew that we could bring them back in the last, you know, 30 to 40 km. But everything kind of got twisted on itself.
“I think Jayco started attacking and opening up the race. And then it was kind of a chaos moment.”
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