Sam Welsford celebrated his birthday in style by scooping up his third win at the Tour Down Under on stage 4. The Australian sprinter, who turned 28 today, lost the wheel of his lead-out train on the final hectic dash to the line but exploded through a gap to claim the win in Port Elliot.
Team Ineos Grenadiers took over the front of the peloton inside of eight kilometres to go, hoping to launch their sprinter Elia Viviani to victory. Welsford and his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates waited behind, keeping out of the wind on the right side of the road before moving up in the final two kilometres. In the scrappy dash to the line, Welsford was pushed back but his teammates, first Ryan Mullen, then Danny van Poppel still accelerated at the front in the hopes that the Australian sprinter could make it through.
Viviani opened up his sprint but he was no match for Welsford who came around while the Italian simply shook his head and slowed down.
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) sprinted to second place, and Lars Boven (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took third. Viviani ultimately crossed the line in 19th place.
"I've lost the words, mate. That's crazy. That was such a fast run in and I don't know how it happened, but I just had a good run out of the corner. I wasn't directly on Danny, but he knew where I was the whole time and I just used the guys in front of me as that lead out,” Welsford said at the finish line.
“This has been a perfect start to the year for us and really special for me to come into a team and have that backing straight away.”
Welsford knew that all eyes were on him on the stage as a double-stage winner. His team put in one rider along with one from the Astana Qazaqstan squad to control the pacemaking at the front of the peloton for most of the stage.
“I think we always knew we had a bit of pressure on us today. It's why we were riding as well. But I think the final was also super fast with the cross-tail [wind], so it always allowed some people to come from the back.”
Girmay said that he was happy with his second place.
"A good start to the season, still chasing the win," the Eritrean rider stated. “I couldn't push more than this. Today, Sam was unbelievable, I think now he's in the best shape. So today I'm in perfect position, everything’s perfect. He's stronger than everyone today, I think, just say congrats to him."
Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the line and still leads the general classification with a slim one-second advantage on Girmay. Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) dropped to third place overall, still at two seconds in arrears.
How it unfolded
The 136km stage 4 started with a neutral zone at Murray Bridge, which saw the peloton cross the mighty Murray before pushing east to Langhorne Creek and the only climb of the day, Gemmell Hill near Strathalbyn. It was expected to be another day for the sprinters, even with the short uphill finish at Port Elliot towards the ocean on The Strand.
As Stuart O'Grady blew the whistle to signify the start of stage 4 from the race director's vehicle, expectations were high that early attacks would quickly ensue, but instead, the peloton spread wide across the road, somewhat subdued after the previous day's crash that forced national champion Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) to abandon.
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) made the first move of the day, countered by Vinicius Rangel (Movistar) and Jackson Medway (Australian National Team), the youngest rider in the field, who formed an early breakaway of two.
The pair pushed their lead out to 4:30 minutes after just 25km of racing. The peloton appeared happy to let that gap grow since Medway was positioned 8:53 down on GC behind overall leader Del Toro and Rangel was 10:31 back.
An overlapping of wheels caused riders to go down, including Louis Barré (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Axel Mariault (Cofidis), who crashed into the gravel at the side of the road.
Jayco AlUla took a more conservative approach to the day, while Astana and Bora-Hansgrohe, UAE Team Emirates set the speeds at the front of the peloton and held the breakaway at just under three minutes with 95km to go.
Medway rolled through to take total points at the first intermediate sprint and bonus seconds ahead of Rangel, as their gap dropped to 2:30 minutes. Behind, Kelland O'Brien (Jayco AlUla) took the remaining points, preventing other teams from taking the time.
At the second intermediate sprint, Rangel rolled through for the points ahead of Medway. Jayco AlUla took the remaining points from the field again, this time with Campbell Stewart.
Within 50km from the finish, the gap fell to 1:15 as they approached the day's only KOM at Gemmell Hill (4.1km at 3.9%). Over the top, Rangel collected five points, Medway three, and mountain classification leader Luke Burns (Team BridgeLane) picked up the remaining two points.
The gap dropped to under a minute with 40km to go as the teams with powerful sprinters picked up the pace led by Bora-Hansgrohe for Welsford and UAE Team Emirates keeping Del Toro safely near the front.
Medway and Rangel continued working together to hold a gap of 45 seconds inside 25km, but their efforts weren't enough to hold off the big teams looking for another sprint victory. The pair put in a valiant effort but they were reeled in at Goolwa as the fight for position raged in the peloton.
The Ineos Grenadiers team took control and lined up on the right side of the road, with Intermarché-Wanty moving up while Bora-Hansgrohe was still further back with eight kilometres to go, though their rider Welsford again hit the front when it counted.
Results
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