Aussie sprinter to kick off next season at Tour Down Under again but without a guarantee of Grand Tour racing
Welsford managed four wins on the road in 2024 as he focused on the Olympic track events(Image credit: Getty Images)
After completing his dream of winning Olympic gold in 2024, Australian sprinter Sam Welsford is looking to return to his best form on the road next season, with a greater engine and more consistency.
There are no regrets for the Perth man, of course, having reached the very pinnacle of his sport, but with that goal ticked off, he can now reset his ambitions.
"It was tricky season balancing the Olympics and the road. I had a really good start Down Under and then winning in Hungary was nice. But I probably didn't hit the marks I really wanted to hit and I've got really big goals this year to try to win consistently over the year," Welsford told Cyclingnews at Red-Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's December training camp.
"I won four races, but that was stacked in the first half of the season and then not so much after. Obviously, the track focus took away a little bit from the road. But I have no regrets.
"The Olympics was a big goal of mine, and the team really supported that. They knew that I was going to be away for this period and focusing on the track. Thankfully, it worked out really well and I finally got that Olympic gold I'd been chasing."
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It was Welsford's first season on Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and after starting the year off with a bang in Adelaide, he, Danny van Poppel and Ryan Mullen looked to be among the WorldTour's top lead-out trains. However, with the Aussie's primary ambitions being on the track, the trio rarely got to show their prowess.
"I'm not sure about top speed, but for sure, [track] takes away a bit from your engine because it's super short and the total effort you might do for a day would be 20 minutes of hard riding," said Welsford.
"Whereas on the road, you're doing four to five hours of endurance work, so it can be quite a different world. Now that I've got the Olympic gold, I can put a lot more focus on the road."
Welsford is unsure if he'll ever return to track after achieving the gold, especially with the LA Olympics in four years seeming a long way away, however, he isn't ruling out more racing on the boards.
"To win gold after, after a silver in Rio and then bronze in Tokyo was super special. And, to complete the set of medals in the team pursuit is something a lot of people don't get to say they've done," he said.
"It was a nice little ending to my track career - I'm not sure if I'll be back, we'll have to see. LA, that's a long time [away] and four Olympic cycles is a lot but for now, I'm focusing on the road.
"But it's something I'll never forget, you know, breaking the world record and taking Olympic gold is something I had my eye on since I was a little kid."
Welsford and his team pursuit teammates in full flow en route to Olympic gold (Image credit: Getty Images)
No Grand Tour guarantee in 2025
Welsford will once again kick off his season at the Tour Down Under after heading straight back to Australia from training camp in December. He's also moved base in Europe to Monaco from Andorra. However, he is less sure of his calendar for when he heads back across the globe.
The UAE Tour was among the races he's scheduled to be at, alongside one of Tirreno-Adriatico or Paris-Nice, with some of the flatter Belgian Classics no doubt going to be in there. However, the big miss is no confirmation of Grand Tour racing in 2025.
"It's tricky because we also have a lot of really good GC guys in the team, so there's also a lot of GC focus for Grand Tours. But, The Tour has a lot of sprints and the Giro has a few as well, so the possibility to do a Grand Tour is there, but we have to see how the season goes and what the team goals are," he said.
"But I'm really looking forward to just having a consistent season and just trying to win throughout the year a lot more. I think if you're winning in these big races, that opens up a lot more doors.
"The dream for most people is to win a stage at the Tour. I think doing the Tour two years, I got a really good taste for what it's like at the top. I'm really keen to try to get there again but let's see what the team says."
What is certain, however, is that Welsford is set on repaying Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe after they helped him achieve his childhood dream of winning an Olympic title in the green and gold for Australia.
"Having a team who support you on the track isn't really beneficial for them – at the end of the day, you're not running the Red Bull kit, you're not running Red Bull bikes. They know that you have goals in these big non-road aspects of cycling and that I'd invested a lot of my career trying to get that gold medal," Welsford said.
"I'm super thankful that they allowed me to take time away from my job, essentially, they pay the wages, they pay you to be a pro, so yeah I was super happy to get it. Also for me, if I put my mind on something, I can really achieve it and show the team that I can be now fully committed to the road and see if I can be the best sprinter possible."
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
