Sam Welsford (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed victory at Cadel’s Criterium on Thursday, winning not with a bunch sprint, as expected, but instead by slipping into a break and then taking out the charge to the line from among a group of seven.
Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Premier Tech) was the only rider who looked like he could challenge Welsford in what was a close run battle to the Eastern Gardens finish line. Matteo Sobrero took third in the 25 lap 50km long criterium.
The Cadel’s Criterium became the mid-week run in event to the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race after the cancellation the 1.Pro-ranked Surf Coast Classic women’s and men’s event, which were set to run on Wednesday and Thursday. They were called off on Tuesday in the midst of extreme fire conditions, a bushfire in the nearby Otways and temperatures of 45°C.
“On this course, you have to be ready for anything,” said Welsford. “And it was getting really tough, you could see everyone starting to get really tired down there in the crosswind and I knew it was going to snap eventually.”
That one, which launched past the halfway mark of the race, also included Laurence Pithie and Callum Thornley of Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United), Fabio van den Bossche (Soudal-QuickStep), and Kelland O’Brien (Jayco-AlUla).
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…