Caleb Ewan always had talent, but the Australian rider’s emergence as a world cycling superstar is only just beginning
As a 12-year-old, Caleb Ewan was matching it with riders years older than him. It is fitting that over a decade later the rising Australian star continues to punch above his weight on the road to cycling stardom.
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Anyone who has been involved in Caleb Ewan’s cycling career has their own unique story about where it all began, but they are all on the same page when it comes to where he is going.
As the 25-year-old on Friday won his ninth stage of the Tour Down Under, he continued to emerge as a force in world cycling that was long suspected, but last year officially confirmed when he won three stages of the Tour de France on debut.
His Stage 4 win after 152km from Norwood to Murray Bridge was the result of several factors.
The work of his Lotto-Soudal teammates to position him where he needs to be, his sublime bike handling skills to navigate the technical finish, his impeccable timing of when to launch and then his brute force to win even when it looks like he won’t.
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When Ewan targets a stage of any bike race, he now expects to win, not hopes, and anything less is seen as a disappointment in his eyes.
“To be honest, as a sprinter if you’re not first you’re last, so ...” Ewan said.
“A finish like that suits me with a corner right near the finish and when it’s an acceleration to the line, and I knew if my legs felt good I could accelerate past them and, yeah, that’s what I did.”
The symbolism shortly after was impossible to miss as German superstar Andre Greipel – who Ewan replaced at Lotto-Soudal last year – rode past and patted him on the back in acknowledgment of his victory.
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Richie Porte retained the leader’s ochre jersey, but had his overall lead cut by three seconds after defending champion Daryl Impey made up three seconds at the intermediate sprints on the road with two stages remaining.
But the day belonged to Ewan who having also won the Classic on Sunday night and Stage 2 on Wednesday, signalled the beginning of another massive season, which by the end should make him one of the most recognisable athletes in Australian sport, if he isn’t already.
Like Cadel Evans, who became the first and only Australian to win the Tour de France in 2011, Ewan looks like becoming the Australian cyclist of his generation.
Ewan’s breakthrough 2019 is similar to tennis star Ash Barty, whose French Open triumph put her on another level as a commercial athlete, and the more Ewan wins, the more people are able to see and hear from him.
Australian Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ben Kersten remembers a 12-year-old Ewan riding with the Illawarra Academy of Sport as he found his way from the track to the road and was racing against guys years older than him.
He wasn’t winning at that stage, but he was toughing it out.
“He was too young to win anything, but no-one could shake him at training,” Kersten said.
“He could stay with anyone up or down hill, he was that tenacious.”
French cycling journalist Jeff Quenet hosted Ewan for three months in 2011 after Brad McGee sent the emerging star to Europe to experience the international racing scene.
“Brad told me ‘we have a super talent, but he knows nothing (about the road), so take him to some races so he can discover for himself what it’s like,” Quenet recalled.
“When I picked him up at the airport he told me there is one thing in cycling I am not good at and I don’t like, and that’s time trialling, so I called a friend of mine and said ‘can you lend me a time trial bike for a short guy?’
“We went to get one and I sent him to as many time trial races as possible ... the year after? He became Australian (junior) national time trial champion.”
In October that year, Quenet took Ewan to Paris to attend the unveiling of the Tour de France route for the following year.
“On the way we went to the Champs-Elysees and I stopped the car and said ‘this is where the stage finishes’, and he said to me ‘I will win here one day’.”
That day became July 28, 2019 when Ewan raised his left index finger as a victory salute and crossed the line first on arguably the biggest stage for a sprinter in the world.
The look on his face said he was shocked, but he was about the only one.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Caleb Ewan always had talent, but the Australian rider’s emergence as a world cycling superstar is only just beginning