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Bloodied Welsford fights back from crash to win another Tour stage / Photo: © AFP
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Bloodied Welsford fights back from crash to win another Tour stage
Bloodied home rider Sam Welsford fought back from an early crash to thrillingly win his second straight stage of the Tour Down Under on Wednesday.
It was the Australian's fifth career stage win at the season-opening UCI World Tour race and yet again he owed much to his lead-out Dutch rider Danny van Poppel and his other Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates to position him for the final push.
Welsford, with his ochre leader's jersey ripped on his bloodied right shoulder and his cycle shorts shredded from the fall, surged past Van Poppel to take the 128.8km stage in the Tanunda township in South Australia's Barossa wine district.
It was a more convincing win for Welsford than his tight win in Tuesday's first of six stages with victory over Germany's Arne Marit (Intermarche-Wanty) and Frenchman Bryan Coquard (Cofidis).
Welsford takes a 14-second lead over Marit and British Team Visma rider Matthew Brennan into Thursday's 147.5km third stage.
"I lost some bark (skin) off in the first five kilometres of the race, that was less than ideal, it was a pretty hard day out there," Welsford said.
"On the last time up the climb I was on my limit, but I had the boys around the whole time, we kept calm, we knew it was a long hard finish."
Welsford, who won three stages in last year's Tour Down Under, praised the selfless work of his team-mate Van Poppel to again present him the opportunity to finish it off.
"He put me back on after the climb and I was happy to finish it off for him alone," he said.
"We knew if we got back on to the peloton we would be in with a sniff and I said to the boys, 'Get me back on and I'm going to win this bloody thing.'"
It was a hair-raising sprint into Tanunda with Welsford bumping shoulders with rival riders to get himself into position behind Van Poppel.
The second stage was the last chance for the sprinters until Sunday's sixth and final stage to go after victory. From Thursday it's more conducive for the climbers and general classification contenders.
Fergus Browning (ARA Australia) increased his lead in the King of the Mountain to 26 points after forming part of an early three-rider breakaway.
N.Flores--SFF
