Tour Down Under 2025: Dream start for Red Bull - top debut for Teutenberg

Perfect start to the season for the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team. Sam Welsford took the first victory for the German racing team on stage 1 of the World Tour opener. The 29-year-old Australian won ahead of 19-year-old Brit Matthew Brennan (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Matthew Walls (Groupama - FDJ/also Great Britain).

Top debut from Tim Torn Teutenberg

The 22-year-old German Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl - Trek) finished fourth on the day and made a convincing professional debut. "That was a hectic finale, I dropped my chain about three kilometres before the finish. My team-mates brought me back and fourth place is a good result in the end," said Teutenberg, summarising his World Tour debut.

Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain - Victorious/ninth place) was another German to make it into the day's top 10. Welsford, meanwhile, celebrated his fourth stage win in total at the Tour Down Under, having already triumphed three times in 2024.

Tour Down Under 2025 - Results: the top 10 of stage 1

1. Sam Welsford (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) 3:26:38
2. Matthew Brennan (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:00
3. Matthew Walls (Groupama - FDJ) +0:00
4. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl - Trek) +0:00
5. Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) +0:00
6. Simon Dehairs (Alpecin - Deceuninck) +0:00
7. Corbin Strong (Israel - Premier Tech) +0:00
8. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) +0:00
9. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain - Victorious) +0:00
10. Jacopo Mosca (Lidl - Trek) +0:00

>> Stages & start list of the Tour Down Under 2025

>> Racing bikes & equipment of the 2025 World Tour teams

>> How the women's Tour Down Under went

Welsford got the sprint in Gumeracha in an exemplary manner from his team-mates, went into the wind 300 metres before the finish, but took off very early to cheer, so that Matthew Brennan almost pushed his front wheel past the Red Bull sprinter.

"The sprint to the finish line was extremely tough. In every corner, someone wanted to go through on the inside and we had to give everything to stay in front. I think I could have actually stayed on Danny's (van Poppel; editor's note) rear wheel a bit longer, as he still had more in the tank when I started my sprint. Fortunately, I had just enough of a lead at the end to fend off Brennan," Welsford is quoted as saying in the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe press release.

The day's winner thus also takes the lead in the overall and points classification, Fergus Browning (Australian national team) leads the mountains classification and Brennan is the best young pro.

Broken collarbone for van Baarle

The Dutch team Visma | Lease a Bike, on the other hand, suffered a setback with the loss of Dylan van Baarle. The classics specialist was involved in a crash in the final and suffered a broken collarbone.