Watson sprints to fifth on debut

Sam Watson sprinted to fifth place on his INEOS Grenadiers debut as the WorldTour peloton enjoyed a first hit-out of the year at the Villawood Men’s Classic.

The showpiece criterium was tackled at a fierce pace on a sweltering evening in Adelaide. The Grenadiers worked well together, ticking off the 30 laps before setting up Watson in the sprint.

Maintaining strong positioning throughout, Michal Kwiatkowski was able to marshal the team behind the train of Red Bull - BORA – Hansgrohe, hitting the front at the bell lap.

Ben Swift then helped move Watson up, with our lead-out riders able to avoid a nasty pile-up on the final corner.

Watson edged out a top-five with a strong sprint, while the victory was claimed by Australian Criterium champ Sam Welsford (Red Bull - BORA – Hansgrohe). Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) rounded out the podium places on Saturday evening.

Geraint Thomas returns to Tour Down Under in 2025 and the Welshman hit the front briefly on lap nine – chasing the day’s three-man break of Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R). The trio would be caught heading onto the final lap.

The stage race itself kicks off on Tuesday with a 150.7km test from Prospect to Gumeracha.