After claiming three stage wins at the Tour Down Under for a second year in a row, Australian sprinter Sam Welsford is hoping he's done enough to convince his team he's worthy of a start at the Tour de France.
The Team Pursuit Olympic champion has big dreams for July, with the opening stage in Lille Métropole suited to sprinters and awarding the first yellow jersey. A victory there would add a second major achievement to the 29-year-old's palmares.
"Everyone's dream is to win a stage [of a Grand Tour], but for me, the Tour [de France] is something I really want to do. It has some good sprints, and stage 1 being a sprint, has also got my eye on it. So we'll have to see what happens," Welsford said after collecting the points classification victory in Adelaide.
Welsford is in a contract year with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and has pushed himself to raise his performance over the winter. After splitting his focus between his road career and the national team on the track for the Olympic Games in 2024, he's laser-focused on getting results for his WorldTour team this year.
"I've done the best winter prep I've done so far in my career already," he said. "I'm fitter and putting out better numbers, so this is already setting me up for a good year. Just having that base behind you, then the racing really enhances your form."
Welsford nabbed his three stage wins at the Tour Down Under by claiming the opening stage and ochre jersey on stage 1, a more difficult victory on stage 2 where he had to chase back after a late climb and an early crash, and a fairly straightforward flat final stage in Adelaide.
"I didn't think three stages was possible. Going into this race, I knew it was going to be quite a hard Tour with challenging stages, but the team really believed in me and really backed me in for these stages," Welsford said.
"We knew this last one was a good one for us – a big power circuit. I'm really happy to get the win. The boys just did an amazing job. Danny [van Poppel] dropped me off with under 200 meters to go, and I'm really happy with this Tour."
Van Poppel played a huge role at the Tour Down Under, not only leading Welsford out but surviving the first ascent of Willunga Hill to then work for team GC leader Finn Fisher-Black.
Demonstrating once again that he is clicking with his lead-out man could be the ticket he needs to convince his team that splitting their Tour de France goals between the GC with Primož Roglič and trying for stage wins in an edition with at least eight days for the fast men is a good idea.
Welsford said that the sprint performances were consistent and achieved "in a good way, where we're not always just getting lucky, we're doing it on pure performance."
"For me and Danny to start working together again this year and get it right most days here was something that was super important for us," Welsford said. "I would love to ride a Grand Tour. We have to see if that's possible.
"I've got big goals in big races, so that's where I really want to perform."
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