2024 Tour Down Under Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2024 Tour Down Under is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Sam Welsford wins TDU opener
Australian Sam Welsford took home the Santos Tour Down Under opening stage with a lightning-fast sprint finish into Tanunda, beating out the likes of Phil Bauhaus and Biniam Girmay, who claimed second and third place, respectively. The win put the Bora-Hansgrohe rider into the ochre race leader jersey.
After a short rollout from Tanunda, the peloton remained together on the approach to the first Ziptrak intermediate sprint, which saw Finn Fisher-Black, Corbin Strong, and Jhonatan Narváez go for it, and they crossed the line in that order. The movement sparked some counterattacks, and the breakaway was born. Georg Zimmermann and Louis Barré attacked after 25 kilometres and opened a lead of 2 minutes. Zimmermann bested Barré to take the most bonus seconds in the second sprint, while Corbin Strong jumped away from the bunch to grab the remaining second.
The bunch swallowed up the two attackers shortly after the second time up Menglers Hill, after they had been away for more than 120km. Despite some action on the climb, the peloton was determined to make this a bunch sprint, one that saw Welsford finish off a strong lead out by Ryan Mullen and Danny van Poppel in the streets of Tanunda.
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