Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) wins stage 1(Image credit: Getty Images)
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Welsford claims leader's jersey after stage 1 win(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage winner Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) discusses the stage with his leadout man Danny van Poppel (Image credit: Getty Images)
Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) holds off a charging Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) to win stage 1(Image credit: Getty Images)
ARA Australia teammates Fergus Browning and Zac Marriage escaped in the first metres of the stage only to be caught with 23 km to go(Image credit: Getty Images)
Peloton races by kangaroo crossing sign(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Peloton makes its way past the Birdwood Motor Museum (Image credit: Getty Images)
Fergus Browning Zac Marriage, both of ARA Australian with the peloton behind them(Image credit: Getty Images)
Fan cheers on the Ineos-Grenadiers team on stage 1(Image credit: Getty Images)
Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe) set the pace at the front of the peloton (Image credit: Getty Images)
Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon Ag2R La Mondiale) initiated the break(Image credit: Getty Images)
Riders line up for the start of stage 1 in Prospect(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Peloton make their way over a bridge near Cudlee Creak (Image credit: Getty Images)
ARA Australia teammtes Zac Marriage and Fergus Browning were each awarded the most combative prize after spending the day in the break(Image credit: Getty Images)
Sam Welsford of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe claimed victory on stage 1 of the Tour Down Under after launching his sprint early and holding off his rivals in a chaotic finale. As Welsford was celebrating just before crossing the line, Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) who was flying up, ran out of road and had to settle for second place.
Matthew Walls (Groupama-FDJ) was third.
Having won three stages last year, and the Down Under Classic days ago, Sam Welsford was a marked rider and the peloton looked to his team to control the pace. His teammates Filip Maciejuk and Ben Zwiehoff kept the breakaway within a manageable five-minute gap before two other teams joined the effort midway through the stage, finally reeling in the two escapees with 23 kilometres remaining.
Once the pair was reeled in, Welsford slotted behind his leadout man Danny van Poppel in the peloton while the teams jostled for position at the front, before jumping with 250 metres to go.
“Bloody hell. I get sick and tired of going early now that's enough,” Welsford said a laugh. “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.
“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.”
Welsford admits that he was surprised by Brennan coming up on his left side.
“I checked when I went and I was like, oh, this is long. And I could see someone underneath me, under my shoulder,” he said. “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.”
"Coming second is really nice, and got to say big thanks to the team," Brennan said. "Just in the final few Ks, just, just trying to figure it out. And managed to find that little slot on the side of the side of the road, and went for it. "
Welsford claims the first ochre leader’s jersey of the 2025 Tour Down Under. He leads the general classification with four seconds on Brennan. Zac Marriage (ARA Australia) who spent the majority of the stage in the break, sits in third place, five seconds down by virtue of the time bonus seconds taken in the intermediate sprints.
Stage 2 should deliver another chance for the sprinters on the 128.8km route starting and ending in Tanuda.
How it unfolded
The long line of team cars lined up at the start in Prospect, not far north of Adelaide, as the riders got set for the first of six days of racing that would take them through Adelaide and the surrounding hills and vineyards of South Australia. The 150.7km stage to Gumeracha, the home in the hills of the giant rocking horse, was always slated as one for the sprinters but it certainly wasn’t a flat journey, with 2,386m of elevation gain through the sunny stage with temperatures in the low 30’s.
It was an early launch for the break, with the flurry of attacks ultimately resulting in a three man group as Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was joined by two riders from the ARA Australian Cycling Team, Fergus Browning and Zac Marriage. Browning took top points at the first KOM at just 11.2km in the race and then the group worked together on the undulating tree-lined roads to stretch the gap to around five minutes with 130km to go.
At the sprint in Williamstown, with 109.7km still ahead, Tronchon took the points and then soon decided it was time to sit up. The two Australians however, weren’t going to let their moment out the front of the WorldTour race end so soon.
Browning, who won the U23 men’s Australian road race championships last year, had been making a mark in Europe with Trinity last season though the rider who won stage 1 of the Tour de l’Ain was left adrift by the closure of its road squad, so is on the lookout for a way back. Marriage is fresh from scooping up the U23 Australian time trial title in Perth and also stretched his legs in the first two stages of the new top-tier Australian domestic series, ProVelo Super League, which has a stagiaire contract with Jayco-AlUla up for grabs for the U23 men’s winner.
At around 100km to go the margin to the ambitious 21-year-old duo was 4:45 with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sending one rider, Filip Maciejuk, up the front to try and keep the break in check so Sam Welsford could have his sprint chance. Then as the stage progressed fresh riders appeared, with Bahrain Victorious contributing as they looked to the chances of Phil Bauhaus. By the time there was 50km to go the gap was down to under three minutes. There was also an acceleration as the peloton competed for the remaining bonus second left, with Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dashing out to take the advantage.
By the time the riders made their first pass through Gumeracha, the teams had started to group together and keep chipping away at the gap. Browning swept up the top points on the final KOM at Berry Hill at 29.5km to go and with that he clinched the climber's jersey.
It wasn’t long after that the leading duo had to concede that their time at the front of the Tour Down Under was done, for today at least, and the time had come for a pat on the back before they were absorbed back into the peloton with around 23km to go. The field was back together and it was now time for the teams to start getting organised for the sprint.
Teams jostled at the front, with riders battling to get the wheels of the top sprinters, as the peloton sped to the finish line. With three kilometres to go, a crash took down Australian champion Luke Durbridge (Jayco-AlUla) and a few other riders.
No team managed to take control as Ineos-Grenadiers, Alpecin-Deceuninck all took turns at the front but Welsford stayed on the wheel of his leadout man until the final 250 metres.
Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
