Sam Welsford wins men's Cadel's Criterium, sprinting to victory from the break

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 (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took third in the 25-lap, 50km long criterium.

"The boys just played the perfect team game, just marking all the attacks from behind and making sure they didn't get organised and bring us back," Welsford told broadcaster SBS straight after the finish. "But hats off to our breakaway, we worked really well together and everyone fully committed to the finish. So a hard one out there for sure."

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.

Conditions have eased and temperatures cooled since, with the men's criterium on the 2km long bayside Eastern Gardens circuit taking place in temperatures in the low 20s. While the temperature may have been cooler, the racing was anything but with the pace on from the start and the field looking determined to make the shorter than originally anticipated mid-week hit out count.

"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."

"Up here towards the finish was actually really hard and eventually I was just following a few moves, and I was able to sneak into one."

That move, which launched past the halfway mark of the race at around 15 laps in, 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).

Working together, and with Ineos massing at the front to try and disrupt the chase, the break pulled out the gap to around 30 seconds. Still with a few laps to go the cohesion started to break down a little, but the drive to make sure the effort out front wasn't wasted and Thornley's efforts to drive the group for his teammate Pithie, helped keep it rolling.

By the time the bell for the final lap came it looked like the break would be able to make it but there wasn't enough time to play too many games for the break which now numbered seven, as with his job done Thornley popped.

Van den Bossche tried to leap off the front, but the lead group held together for a sprint and while Pithie went early it wasn't enough to catch Welsford or Plowright off guard.

Welsford managed to hold off his Australian rival, though it was close enough that the celebration perhaps should have waited till the wheel was across the line. Sobrero was next as Pithie faded to fourth after his early launch. It was then O'Brien – who was also on the attack early in the race – ahead of Cavagna and Van den Bossche.
Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling) claimed the bunch sprint behind, which unfolded just eight seconds back from Welsford.

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