Sam Welsford demonstrated his growth as a sprinter by winning his third race at the Tour Down Under, overcoming adversity including a crash and a tough final climb. After a shift in coaching focusing on improving his aerobic capacity, Welsford managed to regain his position and maintain his lead in the overall classification. He acknowledged the challenges posed by rival sprint teams and noted the support of his teammates during crucial moments in the race, showcasing his determination and training effectiveness in endurance and sprinting skills.
I always wear my heart on my sleeve out here, and I really wanted to show with the training I've been doing and the prep I've done over the winter that I can suffer on these harder days and still produce a good sprint at the end today.
I have a new trainer now, and I've been targeting a lot of hours on the bike and lots of general fitness. I have a lot of power from the track in the legs, so ... that aerobic capacity is probably more my weakness, and improving that allows me to still do my good sprint [while] carrying fatigue.
They didn't make it easy for me on that climb. I knew they were going to start launching attacks, and we just tried to keep a steady pace. It ended up being probably a little bit harder than we expected.
I had Ryan on me the whole time pacing so we knew if we got on, we'd be in for a sniff. I said to the boys, 'Get me on and I'm gonna bloody win this thing'.
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