The white or 'light grey' shorts of Ineos Grenadiers drew a mixed reaction when launched last month, but they have already delivered a rider to a win. Confidence is needed to wear them, something the team seem to have back at the moment.
It took two bunch sprints for Sam Welsford to open his account for his new team, and means that the British team now have two wins in four WorldTour opportunities in 2026. If they keep this momentum up, it would mean a doubling of their record from last year, a quadruple of their nadir in 2024.
It was not simple for Welsford or his Ineos Grenadiers colleagues on stage three, who were forced to fight to the front in the closing kilometres; in effect, the 30-year-old had to sprint twice, once to get in position, and then again for the win.
"At 2km to go, I was on Kwia [Michał Kwiatkowski] and Swifty [Ben Swift], and we were like 80th wheel. I was thinking, 'There's no chance'," Welsford said post-stage, Cyclingnews reported.
"But Kwia was just so, so calm and so experienced. He said, 'No, we'll be fine. We'll get there.' And then in my head, I was, like, 'How? How are we going to get there from here?'
"There was so much traffic in front of us, but he just has so much experience, and also Swifty in the end there, these guys just were amazing. They knew that it was going to be into a headwind sprint, so the pace would come off the front, and that's how we made our move."
It was his first WorldTour win since stage six of last year's race. Ineos Grenadiers will hope to get more return on their investment throughout the season, but one win already looks like validation for the strategy of signing a solid sprinter, something the team have not always had in recent years.
"I think it just shows the, you know, the level of support you have in this team, and the level of support that these riders give everyone. It doesn't matter whoever puts their hand up, we back them 110%, and even when you don't believe you can probably win from there, they believe," Welsford said.
"To have those guys in your corner just means everything, and for me, if I look up and see Kwiatkowski and Swift, you know these guys have copious amounts of experience. To have a world champ in front of you, all you have to do is just turn the brain off and just follow them as much as you can."
The victory, Welsford's seventh at the Tour Down Under in the past three years, meant a lot.
"For me, this is one of my most special ones," he said. "Coming off a really hard, hard year last year with injuries and broken bones, I lost a lot of self-belief.
"And also with the team last year, we didn't get a really nice last bit of the season with injuries and stuff as well. I lost a lot of opportunities as a sprinter. As a sprinter, you need that belief, you need that momentum, and I kind of lost my way a lot of last year.
"So for me to come here and win on a day that did probably didn't really suit me on paper – still a sprint, but the hardest sprint day – I'm really happy with that."
Ineos Grenadiers, with two wins in four days, first with Sam Watson and with Welsford now – the two Sams – look in a much more settled position than they have over the past few seasons. They might not be a super-team of UAE Team Emirates-XRG's level anymore, but they are winning – it's a good start.
