Sam Welsford took his second win out in Australia, sprinting to victory in a tight finish at the newly scheduled Cadel Criterium in Geelong.
Having made an eight man break on the 15th lap, it all came down to the final lap as Welsford latched onto a last gasp attack from Fabio van den Bossche (Soudal - Quickstep) to put himself in a great position before unleashing his power.
It was tight on the line, with Welsford battling it out with Australian criterium champion Jensen Plowright (Alpecin - Premier Tech), but the Wombat stormed to the win.
It was a great team effort, with Ben Swift and Embret Svestad-Bardseng also having short stints in breaks, while Michal Kwiatkowski, Lucas Hamilton, Jack Haig and Sam Watson worked together to control the pace in the peloton.
Speaking after the win, Welsford said:
“The boys just played the perfect team game, marking all the attacks from behind and making sure they didn’t get organised and bring us back. Hats off to our breakaway - we worked really well together and fully committed to the finish. It was a hard one out there for sure.
“I knew it was going to snap eventually and up here before the finish was actually really hard. Eventually, I was just following a few moves and then was able to kick into one and all you needed was a few guys to commit to establish a gap. My team did a lot behind looking after me.
“It was actually a really tactical last lap. Everyone started playing cat and mouse, and coming down the finish I was actually stuck on the front with Jensen [Plowright] behind me, and I knew it was a long way from the corner and Jensen is quick so I didn’t want him on my wheel. I just played the game and waited for someone to make that early attack and it was Fabio [van den Bossche]. I just used him as a carrot on this uphill finish and watching behind to make sure I could run in for the sprint and give myself enough room to get to the finish.”
The riders will next tackle the Cadel Evans Road Race on Sunday, facing 182km in Geelong.