When the Bora-Hansgrohe team for the Giro d'Italia was announced it was widely expected to include sprinter Sam Welsford, who had joined the team in January and straight away delivered an impressive winning run at the Tour Down Under, but there was no sign of the Australian's name on the list.
Lining up to make a debut in the Italian Grand Tour had been in the early plans, with the usual caveat of "all going well with selection" being added by the rider when he discussed the possibility with Cyclingnews at the start of the season. Things changed through the following months, with the rider who had been key to Welsford's lead out in South Australia, Danny van Poppel, chosen to line up as the team's sprinter for the Giro d'Italia instead.
“We were thinking of bringing Sam here, particularly after his super great start to the year, coming into the team and smashing it in the Tour Down Under with three stage wins,” head sports director Rolf Aldag told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 2 of the Giro. “But then he lost a little bit for different reasons – health, program, this and that.”
After the trio of victories at the Tour Down Under there was just one podium placing through the early season, with a third in March at the UAE Tour on stage 5, and beyond that the best result was a seventh at the race known as the unofficial sprinters World Championships, Scheldeprijs. The winning form was not in evidence as it had been in January for the rider who came from the track and joined the WorldTour in 2022.
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“So we said -Hm, the Giro is definitely not easy, it starts hard and for sprinters of his type he needs to be in super-super good form. Because here it’s not just about the sprinting, you also have to get to the sprints,” said Aldag. “And you know, starting a Grand Tour should never look like a punishment. Because we don’t want to say ‘hey, you have to go there.’ and then we have to have public discussions about what is going wrong and so on.”
“So we talked about it, we analysed it – me, himself, his sports coaches and his directors all sitting together to say what can we expect, what should we expect, would it be helpful to go there. We came to the conclusion that it would be better for him not to do it, but we’ve still got big goals for him, including the Olympics.”
Welsford may have shifted to the WorldTour but has still been pursuing a path between the track and the road as he heads toward his third Olympic Games in 2024. He already has a silver and bronze on the track, in the team pursuit, and is still chasing that gold.
“That was always part of our planning. For many people to be an Olympic gold [medallist] is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Aldag said “and we don’t what to mix things up too much.”
“So he’s going to race in the Tour of Hungary in May, and he’s building on his shape, saying he’s already getting ready to go for it. So certainly, it’s not like this [not being at the Giro] is damaging a relationship between a team and the rider, it’s based on facts and making a joint decision.”
Welsford wasn't the only change of tack, with Emanuel Buchmann – who voiced his frustration – also not included.
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