Welsford: "Tough day, my teammates were patient"

Sam Welsford is the absolute protagonist of this start of the Tour Down Under . The Australian sprinter of Red Bull Bora , in addition to a great condition, has also shown great character, given that he fell in the first kilometers of the second stage and managed to hold on on the last climb of the day.

“Bloody hell! We went down in the first 5km of the race and it was far from ideal,” Welsford said after the stage. “It was a really tough day, the three breakaways got caught quite early and then everyone started to get nervous and on the last climb I was on the limit. It was really tough, I had my teammates around me all the way up the climb and we just stayed calm and did a great job getting through that. There were some attacks on the right and I was just hoping we could get back to the bottom on the descent and we did. The guys were really patient because it was a long, tough finish in the wind, we got to the front quite early but the guys took long turns pulling.”

Welsford also jokes about the fall: “Nothing serious, just a few scrapes, I’ve had worse. I’ve just healed up on the left side from the fall at the nationals and now my right side is in the same condition. At least I’ve managed to balance it out.”