Sam Welsford

Sam Welsford OAM (born 19 January 1996) is an Australian professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam .

Cycling career Welsford's father was a keen cyclist, and Sam began joining him on rides when he was seven. Welsford worked hard at his cycling and won team pursuit junior world titles in 2013 and 2014.

He rode in the men's team pursuit at the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships winning a gold medal. Welsford won the 2019 UCI Men's elite Scratch race world championships less than an hour after breaking the Men's team pursuit World Record in a time of 3 minutes 48.012 seconds.

Welsford qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and was part of the Men's team pursuit together with Kelland O'Brien, Leigh Howard and Alexander Porter. They secured a bronze medal after overlapping New Zealand who had crashed. Welsford also competed in the Men's Madison where the team finished fifth with a time of 3:48.448 and therefore did not qualify for the final.

After spending much of his career as a track specialist with occasional forays onto the road, Welsford signed with UCI WorldTeam in November 2021, for two years.

Welsford participated in the 2024 Tour Down Under, where he won in three group sprints on the first, third, and fourth stages.

Beginning his 2026 season at the Santos Tour Down Under, Welsford won Stage 3, sprinting to victory in Nairne for his seventh-ever TDU stage win and his first with Ineos Grenadiers after being delivered perfectly by his team in a chaotic finale.

Major results Road

2011 2nd Time trial, National Novice Championships 2014 1st Stage 1 Goldfields Classic 2016 2nd National Under-23 Criterium Championships 2017 1st Overall Tour of Gippsland 1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 2nd Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic 2018 1st Noosa International Criterium 2nd Oita Ikoinomichi Criterium 3rd National Under-23 Criterium Championships 3rd Overall Tour of the King Valley 1st Stage 2 4th Overall Tour of the Great South Coast 1st Stage 3 2019 1st Wal Smith Memorial - Casterton 50 1st Stage 1 Tour of the Riverland 3rd Overall Tour of the Great South Coast 1st Stages 1 & 3 2020 1st National Criterium Championships 1st Overall Bay Classic Series 1st Stage 1 2022 (1 pro win) 1st Stage 5 Tour of Turkey 3rd Scheldeprijs 4th Bredene Koksijde Classic 2023 (4) 1st Grand Prix Criquielion Vuelta a San Juan 1st Stages 6 & 7 1st Stage 4 Renewi Tour 2nd Overall ZLM Tour 2nd Scheldeprijs 3rd Bredene Koksijde Classic 3rd Veenendaal–Veenendaal Classic 2024 (4) Tour Down Under 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1, 3 & 4 1st Stage 1 Tour de Hongrie 7th Scheldeprijs 2025 (3) 1st National Criterium Championships Tour Down Under 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1, 2 & 6 2nd Surf Coast Classic 10th Classic Brugge–De Panne 2026 (1) 1st Stage 3 Tour Down Under 3rd Copenhagen Sprint

Grand Tour general classification results timeline Grand Tour 2023 Giro d'Italia — Tour de France 144 Vuelta a España —

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish IP Race in Progress

Track

2013 UCI World Junior Championships

2014 UCI World Junior Championships

Oceania Championships 1st Team pursuit 1st Madison (with Scott Law) National Championships 2nd Team pursuit 2nd Madison (with Matthew Jackson) 3rd Individual pursuit 3rd Scratch 2015

National Championships 2nd Points race 2nd Scratch 2nd Omnium 2016 1st Team pursuit, UCI World Championships 1st Individual pursuit, National Championships

2017 1st Team pursuit, UCI World Championships Oceania Championships 1st Team pursuit 1st Points race

National Championships 1st Madison (with Cameron Meyer) 1st Team pursuit 1st Scratch 2018 Commonwealth Games

National Championships 1st Individual pursuit 2nd Team sprint UCI World Cup 1st Omnium, Berlin 1st Team pursuit, Berlin 2019 UCI World Championships 1st Scratch 1st Team pursuit Oceania Championships 1st Omnium 1st Scratch National Championships 2nd Madison (with Cameron Scott) 3rd Team pursuit UCI World Cup 2nd Madison, Hong Kong (with Kelland O'Brien) 3rd Madison, Glasgow (with Leigh Howard) 2nd Six Days of Melbourne (with Cameron Scott) 3rd Six Days of Brisbane (with Cameron Scott) 2020 Oceania Championships 1st Omnium 1st Madison (with Kelland O'Brien) 2021

2024