The final stage of the men’s Santos Tour Down Under unfolded much the way we expected it to.
On a hot day in Adelaide, a break of three got up the road, spent much of the 90 km circuit race out front, were caught with a few kilometres to go, then Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the bunch sprint with relative ease. Overnight leader Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates) stayed out of trouble and finished safely in the peloton to become the first rider from the Americas to win the men’s Tour Down Under.
It was a fitting end to the tour: the best sprinter winning the final sprint stage; the best overall rider winning the race overall.
Narváez’s victory was your prototypical men’s Tour Down Under overall victory. Much like four-time winner Simon Gerrans and two-time winner Daryl Impey before him, Narváez combined his impressive climbing ability with a fast finish to excel on all terrain. He was second on the lumpy stage 3 to Uraidla – beaten only by solo winner Javier Romo (Movistar) – he was third in a bunch sprint to Victor Harbor on stage 4 – without getting to really open up his sprint – and he won atop Willunga Hill. Those three results, and the bonus seconds they delivered – six, four, and 10 seconds respectively – ushered him to the top step of the podium.
Despite having won two stages of the Giro d’Italia in his career – including beating Tadej Pogačar on the opening stage of last year’s race – Narváez views this win as the biggest result his career.
Romo leaves the race in second overall after spending two days in ochre and after an entertaining attack on Willunga ultimately saw him lose that overall lead. Not that he was terribly bothered by it.
“We did second [on GC], I won my stage – it’s a super-good result and I’m very happy,” he said after today’s final stage.
Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) rounded out the podium in third having tried to move himself up one position on the final stage. On approach to the second intermediate sprint – where three-, two-, and one-second time bonuses were available – Fisher-Black set sail from the peloton and tried to make it across to the break.
“I thought second was maybe in reach,” the Kiwi said. “I think the win was pretty far gone unless I really pulled out a ride. But I gave it a go to try and get some seconds; to get away from the bunch and bridge across to the breakaway on the second sprint, but the gap was just too big.
“We didn’t want to close it [the gap to the break] too much, because it would open the race too much. So we brought it down to 20 seconds, and then I tried to jump across, but it was just too big for me to get across.”
Winning that sprint would have put Fisher-Black on the same time as Romo, with Fisher-Black almost certainly taking second on a countback. But it wasn’t to be. Even so, it was a near-perfect week for Fisher-Black and his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team.
“The [plan] before the race was to go for a podium in GC and stage wins with Sam [Welsford],” he said. “So I think we can be really happy with the week. We delivered on everything we set out to do so I’m super happy. It’s a perfect start for the team.”
Welsford leaves the Tour Down Under having won three of the six stages, the points classification, plus the standalone criterium in the days before the race. As he has done throughout the race, he paid tribute to his teammates today – and lead-out man Danny van Poppel in particular – after beating Bryan Coquard in the dash up King William Road.
“I didn’t think three [stage wins] was possible going into this race,” said the West Australian, who managed to avoid a crash that happened with 1.3 km to go in the stage. “I knew it was gonna be quite a hard tour with challenging stages, but the team really believed in me and really backed me in for these stages.
“This last one was a good one for us – a big power circuit. And really happy to get the win today. The boys just did an amazing job. Danny dropped me off with under 200 meters to go. So, yeah, really happy with this tour.”
Welsford won three stages at last year’s TDU as well but went on to have a rather frustrating season on the road, with just one other victory. He’s hoping things will be a little different this time around.
“I’ve done the best winter prep I’ve done so far in my career,” he said. “I’m fitter, putting out better numbers and stuff, so this is already just setting me up for a good year. Just having that base behind you then the racing really enhances your form.
“For me, I’ve got big goals in big races so that’s where I really want to perform. And for me and Danny to start working together again this year and get it right most days was something that was super important for us.”
Which prompts the question: what are those big goals?
“I would love to ride a Grand Tour,” he said. “We’ll have to see if that’s possible. Everyone’s dream is to win a stage but I think for me, the Tour [de France] is something I really want to do. It has some good sprints and stage 1 being a sprint has also got my eye on it. So we’ll have to see what happens.”
Narváez, too, has bigger targets later in the season.
“One of my biggest goals is to be in a great shape for the Flanders Classics, and then for the Ardennes Classics,” he said. “Then we will race the Tour de France also.”
With the first men’s WorldTour race of the season now complete, the peloton will make its way across to Victoria for Thursday’s Surf Coast Classic (UCI 1.1) and Sunday’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race – the first one-day race on the WorldTour calendar.
And from there, it won’t be long until the European season begins. Opening Weekend is little more than a month away …
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