Beginning again: Caleb Ewan looks to put a different complexion on trying season
17 August 2018 01:21
Caleb Ewan must be wondering when he's going to catch a break in 2018. The Australian did everything that was asked of him in the finale at Ardooie on stage 4 of the BinckBank Tour, but being the fastest finisher in the bunch sprint was only good enough for second place after Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) clipped off the front with a little over a kilometre to go. The red jersey of points classification leader will be of scant consolation for Ewan, who is keen to finish a trying season with some more tangible prizes as he signs off on his tenure at Mitchelton-Scott. No matter how the campaign ends, of course, the story of Ewan's year will be dominated by his absence from the Tour de France line-up after building his entire season around his planned debut at La Grande Boucle. Since last winter, Ewan had been touted as the team's leader for July, and Mitchelton's decision to send most of its climbing talent to the Giro d'Italia seemed to confirm that the Tour squad would be built around their sprinter. After declining to sign a contract extension with the team, however, Ewan found himself surplus to requirements when the Tour squad was announced, although he is coy about drawing a link between the two events.ADVERTISEMENT "I'm not sure, to be honest. I don't know what they were thinking," Ewan told Cyclingnews in Blankenberge on Thursday. "All I can say is that I was definitely on track to be going well there. The decision was theirs, so I don't know." In the intervening weeks, Ewan has reached a decision of his own, and he recently confirmed that he will ride for Lotto Soudal in 2019. The announcement followed an unexpected spell of midseason downtime as he sat out the Tour and then returned to action at the RideLondon-Surrey Classic at the end of July. Maintaining motivation and rebuilding condition through that period, however, proved trying.
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