Welsford on the ground after five kilometers, but still wins: "Bloody hell," Brennan didn’t get to sprint

Australian sprinter Sam Welsford won the second stage of the Tour Down Under just as he did in the opening stage. After a 128-kilometer stage in and around Tanunda, he was again superbly launched by his lead-out Danny van Poppel. Although Van Poppel was later relegated, Welsford finished the job impeccably and secured the victory. Matthew Brennan did not get to sprint.

Last year, Welsford won three stages at the Tour Down Under; this year, he is well on his way to doing the same. "Bloody hell," Welsford said afterward in the flash interview about the stage. "It was bike off in the first 5k to the race, which was less than ideal. It was a pretty hard day out there. The break of three came back quite early, and then everyone started getting quite nervous."

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Welsford

Welford fought till the last stretch and was brought perfectly

The focal point of the stage was Menglers Hill (2.8 km at 6.6%). Three times, the climb had to be done, the last one at 23 kilometers from the finish. "The last time up the climb, I was on my limit. Had the boys around me the whole climb, so we kept calm and did a really good job of getting over.' He had been dropped out of the peloton by then, though. While one half of the team stayed with Welsford, the other half at the front tried to keep everything together. 'Attacks were coming after a while. I was hoping everything would come back on the downhill and eventually got back home."

After that, the Australian was perfectly positioned. "The boys sat really patiently; we knew it was a long, hard finish with the wind. We hit the front quite early, but the boys did some long turns there."

From the crash at the beginning of the stage, the sprinter did not have terrible injuries. "Not too bad. I've had worse. I just healed my left side from a crash during the nationals, but now it's my right side. At least I have balanced it out a bit."

Brennan simply failed to show himself

Brennan of Visma l Lease a Bike finished nicely second yesterday and started today in the Zwift young rider's jersey. During the second stage, the young Brit simply was not up to the task. "It was a hectic final," Brennan recalled. "On the last climb, we did a great job as a team, but unfortunately, I couldn't compete for the win. There are still a few opportunities, and I look forward to tomorrow's stage. It's a tough stage, and I'm curious to see how far I can get there."

Yesterday, the Brit did pick up a nice statistic. At 19 years and 168 days, he was the youngest rider to finish on the podium in a WorldTour race since 1931. Still, it's a nice statistic to bring home.

Sports director Addy Engels also saw that the team did a good job, but unfortunately, Brennan was unable to make it to the finale. "Unfortunately, we didn't manage to create a gap with the pure sprinters, and in the end, it became a bunch sprint with all the top sprinters together. Brennan was still in a good position for a long time but ultimately couldn't sprint for the win." Tomorrow, the Dutch team will focus on Tom Gloag and his GC.

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