Sam Welsford makes his own luck, sprinting to victory after early crash

Source : ABC NEWS

Superstition permeates every inch of professional sport.

So, despite the carnival feeling as the Tour Down Under visited the beautiful town of Tanunda for the second stage of this year’s race, there was still just a hint of trepidation about.

It is the 13th time the race has visited the picturesque heart of Barossa wine country, and the crowds came out in force to welcome the peloton back.

Thirteen is not an auspicious number for cyclists, many of whom turn the number upside down if they have it on their backs — although Jayco AlUla’s Chris Harper has not done so in this race.

As a gentle cooling breeze took the edge off the summer heat and the sun shone down from azure skies, it was hard to think about bad luck.

And yet, it has a way of making itself known.

Race leader Sam Welsford, winner on stage one and clad in the ochre jersey, appeared to take the brunt of the misfortune that comes with the “unlucky number” 13, hitting the deck within a couple of kilometres of the start.

It left him with torn shorts and an “uncomfortable” day in the saddle ahead.

“Unfortunately, just a touch of wheels at the start, just after the break went,” Welsford said at the finish.

“Everyone’s really nervous, they’re tight, they don’t want anyone to attack, ricochet effect and I copped the bad end of it.

“It wasn’t too bad, just a bit of skin off. I’ve had worse.

“Just ended up being annoying because half my arse was hanging out for the whole stage.”

Never mind that.

Welsford — whose nickname is the fastest wombat due to his tendency to wiggle his aforementioned derriere while sprinting on the track — put aside that discomfort to claim a second-straight victory at this year’s race and fifth overall — level with Simon Gerrans for sixth all time.

“I really wanted to show [with] the training I’ve been doing and the prep I’ve done over the winter that I can suffer on these harder days and still produce a good sprint at the end,” Welsford said.

“I was really happy to pay the team back after their work.

“They believe in me and commit to me 100 per cent in any way they can.

“My legs were screaming at the end because I was already on the limit for so long, but I knew I had to do it for them because they looked after me for so long, so well today.”

Welsford had been under pressure all day, the peloton using the short, 128.8-kilometre route through the rolling hills of one of Australia’s most famous wine regions to test his track-honed legs for the rigours of the road.

Three times the peloton rode up the energy-sapping Menglers Hill climb, the final ascent of which came with just 22km remaining in the stage.

By the time they did that final climb, an early three-man breakaway had been caught, priming the group for a grand explosion on that climb to stretch Welsford and his Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team to the limit.

The attacks were inevitable as the pace ratcheted up on the steep early slopes, with Welsford distanced off the back of the main bunch as multiple teams put the hammer down.

Welsford was spat out the back, having to empty the tank just to latch back onto the hammering peloton, with Danny van Poppel, Ben Zwiehoff and Laurence Pithie all coming back to tow their sprinter back into contention.

“It’s always stressful when you see the bunch attacking and riding away from you,” Welsford said.

“We just tried to keep calm. Eventually they were going to slow down, we just had to keep them in check, keep them really close.

“It was a little bit stressful but the guys really looked after me there and made sure I didn’t have to do much.”

Enormous crowds lined the roads of Murray Street, occupying roadside cafes and bars, eagerly waiting for the riders to whiz through.

They were treated to an astonishing finishing sprint, messy and a tad controversial as van Poppel deviated from his line after peeling off with just under 200m to go.

Van Poppel became the first man in the professional peloton to be given a yellow card, was fined and relegated to last place in the sprint.

But nothing, not even cursed luck, could stop Welsford winning again — his second victory at Tanunda after last year’s triumph — as he extends his lead at the front of the race to 14 seconds.

Fergus Browning makes own luck as king of mountain

One man who thoroughly enjoyed his day was Fergus Browning, the king of the mountain who helped secure his reign for at least a couple more days by claiming maximum points on the first two ascents.

Browning attacked right from the get go and initially seemed surprised that nobody was willing to jump with him.

He was eventually joined by Patrick Konrad (Lidl Trek) and Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché Wanty), who let the young Aussie extend his lead at the top of the mountains jersey classification atop the first ascent of Menglers Hill.

“I was gonna come here with two sort of goals,” Browning told ABC Sport at the start line in Tanunga.

“It was either gonna be, save myself and have a crack at stage three and stage five up Willunga, or go for every opportunity I can get and try and go for a leaders jersey like the KOM jersey.

“Yesterday I found myself up the road and I think that’s the path I’m going down this week, so yeah, definitely flat for it now.”

A degree of bad luck has cast its shadow over Browning’s fledgling career, making an extended stay in the spotlight an enormous boost.

The 21-year-old, who sees himself as a puncheur who can specialise in hard one day races, is currently back in Australia after two years in Europe with continental team Trinity Racing.

He had some success too, winning the opening stage of the prestigious Tour de l’Ain last year.

However, he’s now back in Australia with local continental team Ccache x Bodywrap after Trinity Racing collapsed.

It’s an ongoing concern of cycling, with a relentless and necessary search for sponsors occupying an enormous amount of attention at every level of the sport.

The casualties, as ever, are the athletes, who are often left without a team.

That’s what happened with Browning, and, although he holds no malice towards his lot, he still has a dream of competing in Europe.

“Obviously it’s super difficult being at that level coming from Australia. We’re so far away on the other side of the world and it’s not as big over here,” he said.

“It was an amazing opportunity with Trinity and I loved every minute of it.

“Just a bit unlucky in some ways, not finding another European team.

“For sure getting in the jersey is a lot of exposure, and getting up the road.

“Obviously it’s such a big race and it reaches a lot of people, so it definitely doesn’t hurt just to help get my name out there and to try and get that ride back in Europe.

“At the moment, things are just a bit up in the air.

“Hopefully I can get back over and get a nice year of racing in, and do what I can to make it to the top level.”

Just getting a chance to ride a World Tour race is one that’s not available too often to teams outside of the world’s elite — the Tour Down Under one of the rare examples where a national team is allowed a wildcard entry.

“It’s super cool to get the opportunity there to ride in this calibre of race,” Browning acknowledged.

“To do it with a bunch of Aussies, which you don’t get to do very often is is pretty cool.

“It’s a very special thing that I’ll remember forever.”

Thirteen may be unlucky for some.

But Browning will remember the race’s 13th visit to Tanunda forever — especially if he holds onto the mountains jersey all the way to Adelaide.