As it happened: Sprinters shine at Tour Down Under stage 1

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of the Tour Down Under, the first event of the WorldTour. Stage 1 starts at 11:10am local time or 12:30am GMT and finishes roughly four and a half hours later.

For its 25th edition, the opening WorldTour race goes back to its previous formula, with more fun for the sprinters combined with three stages that offer the potential to create gaps in the GC. Stage 3 will take the racers over Norton Summit, and a new climb - Knott's Hill - a fierce tilts up to a punishing 22.2% grade that will be tackled twice, stage 4 to Victor Harbor, and the double ascent of the iconic Willunga Hill on stage 5.

For stage 1 of the Tour Down Under, racers will head north from Prospect to Williamstown, tackling Gorge Road at Paracombe as their opening climb of the day before turning back towards the Adelaide Hills and the stage finish in Gumeracha. The peloton to pass through the first time host town Gumeracha twice and return for a furious push to the line after 150.7km of racing and 2386 metres of elevation gain.

Stage 1 is underway, starting with a 12.6km neutral section. Today’s course is predicted to favour the sprinters with a fast finish in Gumeracha.

Short stop to defending champion Stephen Williams (Israel-PremierTech) to get his power meter sorted out with his team mechanic.

No panic in such a long neutral.

Wiliams, with the help of his team car, is back in the peloton. 

Speaking of Stephen Williams. Here’s what he said at the pre-race media conference:

“We have a great, a great team and I think the strength and depth is clear and yeah, hopefully we can have another good race here. I think the parcours is suited quite well to me and I do enjoy these races where they are decided on bonuses. They're really tricky and technical, and it's always a bit of a dog fight so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully we can go out in style like last year but I'm under no illusion that there's 140 world class riders here that all want to do the same thing. So we'll just try our best and see what the outcome is next Sunday.”

Of the 140 riders set to start the stage, two -  Manilo Moro (Movistar)  and Miles Scotson (Arkea-B&B Hotels) did not line up in Prospect following a crash at the Down Under Classic. His team reported that Australian Scotson is a DNS due to rib pain.

Flag drop from race director Stuart O’Grady - winner of the first Tour Down Under in 1999 - and we are racing as the road starts going up for the long drag to the first KOM at Kangaroo Creek Reservoir.

And we have our first attack coming from ARA Australia team, joined with four more riders. 

And another attack by ARA Australia, and this time it's Zac Marriage. And more riders jumped. It's going to be a chaotic start.

Flurry of attacks continue off the front, AG2R on the move with two ARA Australia riders jumping on. 

Bastien Tronchon is the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider who launched the break with Marriage and Fergus Browning. 

Martin Tjøtta is working to bridge across with 146km to go.

Peloton happy with the combination of the riders of the front are spreading across the road to stop any attacks.

Cristian Rodriguez gets a wheel change from his Arkea B&B team car but should be able to quickly rejoin the peloton.

Tronchon chats with the two Australians in the break while it doesn't seem that Tjøtta will be able to connect. 

Break

Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) initiated the move and he was joined by ARA Australia teammate Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning. The trio is pushing on with 143km to go. 

The trio has 1:58 gap on the peloton which is quite happy to let them suffer off the front.

Tjøtta sat up and is waiting to be caught by the peloton.

Break see 1km to the top of KOM#1, category 2 Kangaroo Creek Reservoir with a an average gradient of 5.0%

300 metres to the top with the 2 Australian riders leading the break.

Break did not contest the KOM points with Browning taking top points ahead of Marriage and Tronchon. This must have been the result of the earlier chat. 

Trio now has 3:17 on the peloton.

Gap is now 4:25 with 135km to go. 

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe puts a rider at the front of the peloton.

All eyes are on the team to control the break as they have Sam Welsford, named as the one to watch for today’s stage. After all,  Welsford won three stages last year and sprinted to victory at the Down Under Classic three days ago.

Let’s hear from Sam Welsford

“We want to win as much as we can. We know that the Tour [Down Under] is probably a lot harder than last year, some more climbing, harder days, harder sprint days so we are really ready for that,” Welsford said in the pre-race media conference on Monday.

“We want to, you know, take it on and have really strong team here. I have Danny [van Poppel]and Ryan [Mullen] here from last year as well, so we'll be looking to do some of the same lead-ups we did last year, hopefully. For me, just the personal goal is just trying to be competitive in any sprint day I can be and help the guys in any other way that doesn't really suit me. I think we have a quite a good team here with GC and sprint ambitions. So we are all already really ready to get stuck in.”

Laurence Pithie changed teams this season after two solid years with Groupama-FDJ. Now with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, the Kiwi is taking a back seat to his teammates Sam Welsford and Finn Fisher-Black.

"I'm going to be in more of a support role this week, just helping out Sam and Finn. We'll try and be up there on every stage, so I'll just be more of a domestique," Pithie said at the start of stage 1.

When asked about his ambitions down the road, he said he's looking at the Classics.
"Last year was really good. I started well, but in the future, I want to on those podiums and top steps, so hopefully I can do that this year." He's targeting three Monuments (San Remo, Flanders, Roubaix.

Gap continues to increase. The trio now has 5:00 on the Red Bull-led peloton with 130km to go.

Ben Zwiehoff delivered a bottle to his Red Bull teammate Filip Maciejuk setting the pace at the front of the peloton.  Under Maciejuk, around 20 seconds were shaved off the gap to hold at 5 minutes.

Another beautiful warm, sunny day in South Australia.

Maciejuk is keeping the gap at 5 minutes with four Decathlon riders lined up behind him with 125km to go.

Marriage and Browning, both 21 years old, showed great form at the AusCycling Road National Championships where Marriage won the U23 men's time trial title in Perth clocking a time of 35:53 over the 28.8km course.

Browning, the 2024 U23 road race champion, was second at 41 seconds back.

Here's more about Browning who is chasing a contract after Trinity Racing closure

'I need someone to take the gamble of signing me' - Browning told Cyciingnews. 

Peloton is strung out as the gap has dropped to 4:41 with 113km to go. Still Red Bull setting the pace with Decathlon keeping a close eye on his, working for their teammate Tronchon up the road in the break.

Less than 2km to the first intermediate sprint of the day at Victoria Street, Williamstown at Victoria Creek Reserve.

Sprint points - 3, 2 and 1 - and time bonus seconds on the line in the intermediate sprints. There are two intermediate sprints on today's stage.

Tronchon jumps for the intermediate sprint and after a big acceleration, he easily gets the points and the 3-second time bonus. 

Sprint #1 results

• Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)
• Zac Marriage (ARA Australia)
• Fergus Browning (ARA Australia)

By virtue of the bonus seconds, Tronchon is now the virtual leader on the road. And now he sits up leaving the two Australians to continue on. 

Interesting tactics by Tronchon. He initiated the move and sprinted hard for the bonus seconds before sitting up.

In 2024, the Frenchman finished 21st overall, 1:11 behind winner Williams.

Australian Mark Renshaw is leading the XDS Astana team in a critical year for them - they have a big fight ahead to avoid relegation from the WorldTour at the end of the season, and the Town Down Under is step one.

"We've brought really a balanced team. We have a couple of fast guys - our up and coming rider, Aaron Gate was the top 10 most winning riders last year. So we have guys who know how to win, but our big objective is the GC with [Sergio] Higuta and [Martin] Lopez.

"They prepared well in Colombia and Ecuador. It was a long trip for those guys to get here, but they recovered well. And I think in training they looked good, but we'll wait until the race to see how they feel.

"Dream scenario, we have two in the top 10, but in reality, I need one of those guys in the top five. The podium is the objective, somewhere on the podium, but top five will be a good result."

Marriage and Browning are getting instructions, bottles and ice socks from their team car with a gap of 4:38 with 103km to go. 

100km to go

Marriage and Browning in break of two with 4:46 lead to the Red Bull-led peloton. Tronchon is still somewhere in between the two groups.

Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe) still at the front of the peloton.

And Tronchon is back with the peloton with 94km to go. 

The whole Decathlon team, including French champion Paul Lapeira, are still lined up behind the lone Red Bull rider Maciejuk setting the pace at the front of the field.

Lets’s hear from EF Education-EasyPost directeur sportif Tom Southam:

“We have a super young team here, I think it might be the youngest in the race, apart from Esteban, everyone's under 25. We've got so many young riders in our team; there's a lot of development phases you have to go through. We've got guys in this team who are learning to do all sorts of things. It doesn't mean they're not ambitious because Lucas [Nerurkar] has got real ambitions for this race, but he's also learning how to be a leader in a stage race, especially one with quite a lot of pressure, like this one,” Southam said before the start in Prospect.

“It's a strange race because it seems like nothing happens, but there are a lot of key points in the race where everyone's going to want to be in the same place at the same time, which is very hard to manage. It's going to be difficult to manage the crucial points. If everything goes great, I'd love us to get Lucas somewhere up there towards the top end of the GC or in the young rider’s jersey. This guy's got massive talent, but we just have to see how the race evolves. I've come here a few times with super teams with higher missions, and it only takes one small thing for everything to kind of go kind of wrong.”

The two-rider break entered the circuit for the first of two loops with a lead of 4:40. 

While all eyes are on Welsford for the win today, the Australian named Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) as a rider to watch.

This morning, directeur sportif Neil Stephens said about the Bahrain Victorious’ goals:

"The leader of the team here in Australia is Phil Bauhaus. Last year he was second on the first stage. The year before, he was first in the first stage. He's trained really hard, and the team basically is targeting stages here in the Tour Down Under.”

"Every stage has got its little twists and turns. There are stages like today which should normally be a sprint, but you can't really take that for granted. Stage 2, it's got a severe climb which Phil may or may not be able to get up with the first riders. And so every day, it's got a bit of a twist. So I wouldn't say that any particular stage concerns me or whatever, but every stage interests me, obviously."

Just over 30C on a hot sunny day. The two Aussies at the front are holding a gap of 4:36 with 80km to go and Maciejuk gets help from a teammate at the front of the peloton to control the gap.

Ben Zwiehoff is the Red Bull rider at the front with Maciejuk and Decathlon is still behind them. 

2km to go to the next KOM, the category 2 Berry Hill Climb. Marriage and Browning are already out of the saddle climbing. Browning took top points in the first KOM, and should be taking more points and the first mountains jersey of the race.

As expected, Browning gets maximum points in KOM #2, Marriage on his wheel. The duo has 4:08 with 72km to go.

Marriage seems to be hurting slightly, after being off the front for pretty much all the stage.

Cofidis adds a rider in the rotation at the front of the peloton. Cofidis' sprinter Bryan Coquard must be feeling good.

It must have been a momentary glitch because Marriage looks strong now as he and his teammate Browning are completely committed to this move. The duo has 4:53 with 62km to go.

A bit more urgency in the peloton as now Bahrain-Victorious adds a rider to the pacemaking in the peloton.

10km to go for the second intermediate sprint, with the sprint points and time bonus seconds on the line.

55km to go

ARA Australia teammates Marriage and Browning, in the breakaway from the start of the stage. The gap has started to come down, now at 3:53.

Team car giving bottles and some words of encouragement to the breakaway pair.  You can see the salt marks on Browning's shorts.

Intensity has gone up in the peloton. Time to reel the escapees in. 

Three riders, one each from Bahrain, Red Bull and Cofidis, are rotating at the front of the peloton, as the gap is now 3:35 with 52km to go.

1km to go to the intermediate sprint #2. Gap down to 3:11. 

Marriage rolls through ahead of Browning in the intermediate sprint. 

Jostling for position at the front of the peloton for the one-second time second.  Decathlon at the front, with EF Education taking over.

Leading out in full swing, and Jhonathan Narvaez gets third on the intermediate sprint, and the one-second time bonus. Narvaez finished second overall last year, nine seconds behind Williams.

More Cofidis riders leading the peloton as the gap continues to tumble down, now at 2:08 at 45km to go.

ARA Australia teammates Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning have been off the front from the start of stage 1. 

Marriage and Browning have a gap of 2:05 as they cross the finish line with one 43km lap to go.

Peloton races by the giant rocking horse in Gumeracha before starting the final lap. Sprinters teams had a chance to see the approach for the expected bunch sprint. 

With 38km to go, the peloton is 1.5km behind the breakaway duo who have a gao of 1:45.

It's not a question of if but when for the catch for the two escapees. Will it happen before the upcoming KOM #3.

Cofidis, and Bahrain are massing at the front of the peloton behind the lone Red Bull rider with EF Education coming up on the left side.

UAE Team is also moving up in the peloton. Jostling is starting to get into position with 32km to go.

Marriage and Browning see 2km to go to the third and last KOM of the day with a gap of 1:41 on the field.

Marriage, on Browning's wheel, gives a quick look behind as they climb. Browning gets top KOM points again and the duo as 1:12 as they crest.

The peloton is not showing any aggression as they climb, everyone seems content to wait for the expected bunch sprint.

Marriage and Browning who have been off the front since the start in Prospect who so far had shown no signs of surrendering, now see their gap tumble under the minute mark.

25km to go

Marriage and Browning are chatting in the break and waiting to be reeled in after a hard day in the saddle. Gap at 41 seconds.

Browning gives a thumbs-up after a job well done. He will have the mountains jersey after being in the break all day.

And the duo is reeled in with 23km to go. Teams lining up at the front, organizing for the upcoming sprint.

Some riders used the gravel gutter on the side of the road to move up. Risky but t worked.

Inside of 20km to to as the peloton is still spread across the road. Welsford is sitting on his leadout man Van Poppel in the peloton.

Bauhaus is surrounded by his Bahrain teammates in the peloton. Riders are still using the gravel gutter to move up into position,

Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) is off the back of the peloton and in the cars with 16km to go.

Intermaché is now starting to come to the front. 

Trains are forming at the front with 11km to go. Bahrain, Red Bull,  Cofidis, Intermarche and Decathlon are trying to take control of the peloton.

Washing effect - continual movement - is in full force with 9km to go.

Lapeira is on Welsford wheel in the peloton with 8km to go.

Teams still spread across the road with 6km to go. Bahrain is on one side, and Red Bull on the other with more teams in between. Andresen shouldered off Strong to take Bauhaus' wheel.

Intermarche on the right side of the road with Cofidis on the left. Lots of jostling to get into position with 4km to go.

Liv makes a push to the front with Ineos behind them. Red Bull second wheel behind the Cofidis rider. Lots of movement with 3km to go.

Crash

A few riders down including Durbridge and Bauhaus.

Ineos coming to the front with 1.5km to go. Soudal also moving up. Red Bull does not have complete control yet.

Alpecin doing a big push at the front with van Poppel on his wheel, as riders scramble to get on Welsford's wheel.

Welsford opens up his sprint with 250 metres to go and holds on for the win! 

While Welsford was celebrating before the line, Matthew Brennan was coming up fast on his left side. Brennan took second and Matthew Walls was third.

Results

Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) holds off a charging Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) to win stage 1

Let's hear from stage 1 winner Sam Welsford who also takes the first ochre leader's jersey.

“Bloody hell. I get sick and tired of going early now that's enough. Super hard run in, I probably stepped off Danny a little bit too early. Actually,  I think he had a lot more to give, and he did such a big good job, and he was on the front for so long. He probably hit the front a bit early, and that last straight was super hard to control the front. It was pretty hard, and they were getting dive-bombed every corner, so we had to kind of come back a bit and wait. We ran out of guys, but boys did an amazing job today. And we took it on, we were the only team riding all day until the end, and then so happy to pay them back for the win.”

About the other sprinters coming close at the finish. “I checked when I went and I was like, oh, this is long. And I could see someone underneath me, under my shoulder. And then I was like, okay, I'll see if they can come around. And then my legs were burning, like maybe 15 meters ago, and now I saw him kind of distance off, so I checked right, and then realized I had him. But then he came on the left when I saluted, and I was like, oh no, don't tell me, but I think I had enough room, but I was just so cooked I couldn't even get the other arm up."

About expectations and pressure after winning three stages last year. "It's more like a point to prove. You know, no one gave us anything today, so we had to go the hard way about it. And, some teams came in the last, you know, 50k or bit more. But the start, we had to take control, and we've had Pihilip up on the front for the whole day by himself. So bit of a statement today. We're happy. First win, first WorldTour win for the team, and I can't be happier."

Let's hear from Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) who finished a close second, and claims the best young rider's jersey after stage 1:

"Coming second is really nice, and got to say big thanks to the team. They looked after me really, really well today, kept me coming well protected. And then just in the final few Ks, just trying to figure it out. And yeah, managed to find that little slot on the side of the side of the road, and went for it."

What did the second place do to your desire to get a first place?  “Oh,  it's a really nice result, but, you know, it would be nice to win. It's really nice being the young riders jersey. That's something that we're going for this year but it would always be nice to come first.”

Learn from today that you can implement tomorrow?  “Yeah, sprint is hectic, isn’t it? Yeah, I think just being around the team really helps a lot. And I think going on to the next few days, that will become more and more important.”

ARA Australia teammates Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning were awarded the most combative prize for their effort in the breakaway on stage 1. Browning claimed the first mountains classification jersey of the stage.

Let's hear from the Aussie duo:

Browning: “Yeah, it was pretty special. I think to get out the front, on semi home roads is something I definitely won't forget.”

Marriage on deciding who would get the KOM points: “Fergus crossed the KOM first. and we thought we'd split it. So yeah, just to maximize our points on each of the classifications. It was pretty easy, to be honest.”

Browning on going for the KOM jersey: “I think being the national team, we got to look for every opportunity we can get. And definitely, looking at the KOM points and sprint jersey is definitely something that we're targeting this week. But as well, we have a really strong team and we want to try and do a bit of everything.”

Our race report, results, and photos can all be found here:

Tour Down Under: Sam Welsford sprints to victory in chaotic finish on stage 1