Scheldeprijs has once again marked out an important step in the development of Sam Welsford’s career. The Team DSM rider finished second in the prestigious high-speed sprint, making it clear that, in just his second year on the road, he is already amongst the fastest finishers.
The 27-year-old Australian, who has had no shortage of success on the track, finished on the podium for the first time at the 2022 Scheldeprijs. It was an edition that was split by crosswinds so the normal sprint never happened. Alexander Kristoff won alone and Welsford was third.
This year Scheldeprijs lived up to its reputation as the unofficial World Championships for the sprinters and Welsford charged through along the barriers to finish behind Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and ahead of Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan).
“It was a pretty hectic final,” Welsford told Wielerflits in a post race interview.
“There was lots of movement in the bunch and I was lucky to find Jasper’s wheel on the left but also we were very hard on the barriers and I had to pick my time to get through and then almost just didn’t really have a run because I ran out of room.
“Happy with second, but you always want to be on the top step, but happy with how the shape is going at the start of the year.”
In 2022 Welsford made it to the podium twice more after Scheldeprijs, taking a win on stage 5 of the Tour of Turkey and third on stage 5 of the ZLM Tour.
He has already found those steps six times since the start of 2023. That includes his first WorldTour podium on stage 4 of the UAE Tour and wins on stage six and seven of Vuelta a San Juan as well as at the Grand Prix Criquielion.
The rider, who has won a rainbow jersey on the track on multiple occasions, has shown his abilities go beyond just sprinting, with his presence on the podium at two very different editions of Scheldeprijs.
“I think my sprint is one of my big strengths but I think I also can handle a harder race,” Welsford told the Dutch website.
“I think maybe I would like to develop that as I go on in my career, to do those harder races, Roubaix for example would be a race I would really love to do, but we will see.”
As far as the plan for the rest of the season goes, stepping onto the podium at Scheldeprijs alongside Jasper Philipsen and Mark Cavendish, who are expected to line up at the Tour de France, is perhaps a signal that a Grand Tour debut could be the next leg of the Australian's development.
“We are just taking it step by step this year but I’d love to put my hand up to do a Grand Tour this year,” Welsford told Wielerflits.
“I think that would be really good for my development and I think I’ve shown that I’m probably one of the best sprinters in our team.
"I’ve been up there consistently in the podium at these races which is good for my development and I think it is good for the team so hopefully, maybe there is an opportunity but we will just see how it goes.”
Could that Grand Tour perhaps be as early as July?
“That would be my dream to race the Tour but I think it has to all line up with what we think is important for my development,” Welsford said.
