Caleb Ewan returns to the Tour Down Under with new team Lotto-Soudal and new motivation

Australia’s fastest man Caleb Ewan returns to the Tour Down Under on Sunday night with a new look, new train and new motivation but with nothing to prove against his old team.

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Australia’s fastest man Caleb Ewan returns to the Tour Down Under tonight with a new look, new train and new motivation but with nothing to prove against his old team.

After four successful years with Mitchelton-Scott, the team backflipped on a decision to send him to the Tour de France in 2018 and Ewan later signed with Belgian outfit Lotto-Soudal seeking a fresh start.

Australian sprint star Caleb Ewan at Victoria Square ahead of his Tour Down Under debut for Belgian outfit Lotto-Soudal. Picture: Tom Huntley

At 4.45pm on Sunday he will come face-to-face with his old teammates when he attempts to kick-start his week by winning the Down Under Classic. But more concern will be going head-to-head with star sprinters Peter Sagan and Elia Viviani and rising star Jakub Mareczko.

“There are a fair few quick guys, it’s a pretty good sprint field,” Ewan said.

“If you can get a win in the classic it’s good for your confidence going into the rest of the tour so I’m hoping to do well there.

“I’m just as motivated as all the other years and training has been going well, I’m just keen to start well with the new team.

“I don’t have anything to prove to them (his old team), that was last year and I’ll be focusing on my goals this year.

“As far as pure sprinters go they don’t really have anyone here, so I guess I’m not really competing against them in what I do best this week.”

Caleb Ewan has his first win for his new team in the Bay-Crit series in Victoria earlier this month. Picture: Kathy Watt

The TDU has been a happy hunting ground for Ewan who has won seven stages and the opening night classic twice in 2016 and 2017.

The 24-year-old returns to Adelaide with high hopes but expectations in check given it’s the first race of the international season.

“I’m obviously here to win stages again and it would be a perfect start for me with the new team,” he said.

“I finished racing early last year (September) so I had a really long break, but I’m back at the level I need to be at to do well here.

“We’ll go full gas for the sprints. I hope I’m ready for it. I have to step up as a leader this year but I prefer the pressure with a full team backing me.”

“But at the start of the season you never really know how your form is and how everyone else is going, I’m in good shape but I guess we’ll have to wait and see once the race starts.”

A key ingredient in Ewan’s success will be how quickly his new lead-out train at Lotto-Soudal is able to gel. He does have reunite with former teammates Adam Blythe and Roger Kluge who are both racing the TDU with him this week.

“We did a fair bit of work in our December training camp, and basically you find a safe stretch of road you can do it on and you practice the train,” Ewan said.

“But it’s something you can only really finetune in racing because it’s hard to replicate a race in training.

“I guess this will be our first real test and first time to learn how to work with each other.

“It depends on the finish but for some of the flatter, faster finishes I wouldn’t mind him (Kluge) going last man, but we’ve got Adam here too and he would be a good last man and is someone I’ve worked with as well. We’ll just make a call on the day.

“Guys like Adam and Roger have come with me I guess, and the rest of the guys (on the team) have worked with Andre (Greipel) the last few years so it’s a good mix of the guys who are super experienced and others who are familiar with how I like the train.

“There is no one here who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

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Originally published as Caleb Ewan returns to the Tour Down Under with new team Lotto-Soudal and new motivation