Two moments at the Vuelta a Espana show young Aussie Caleb Ewan won’t be pushed around, writes Reece Homfray
ANALYSIS: Caleb Ewan is barely five feet tall, 21 years old and in his rookie professional season but twice this week he’s shown world cycling that size, age and experience means nothing.
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CALEB Ewan is barely five feet tall, 21 years old and in his rookie professional season but twice this week he’s shown world cycling that size, age and experience means nothing.
The first poignant moment in his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana arrived at the start of Stage 3.
The night before Italian Vincenzo Nibali — a Tour de France winner no less — had vented his fury at Ewan through the media by accusing the young Australian of causing a crash in the bunch.
Problem was Nibali was wrong — and annoyed at being booted off the race for hitching a ride with his team car after the fall.
The following morning Ewan fronted reporters at the beginning of the stage and returned serve.
The little fella from the NSW Southern Highlands told Nibali to get his facts straight.
Ewan said he hadn’t caused the crash and what Nibali had said was hurtful and quite simply, wrong.
That takes a fair bit of guts to stand up to a three-time Grand Tour champion when you haven’t even finished a week of one.
But Ewan knew he was right, stood his ground and got on with the job.
Getting on with the job meant winning the biggest race of his life on Stage 5 two days later.
After 167km of racing, Orica-GreenEDGE delivered him perfectly to the line and let him do the rest.
Ewan produced a textbook finish and was simply too fast for two of the best sprinters in the world in Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb.
The stunning thing is he won and the scary thing is he predicted it by declaring “today is a stage for me” at the start of the day.
It was the 11th victory of Ewan’s neo pro season, which began in Buninyong in January where he was second to Heinrich Haussler in the national championships.
But what made his maiden Grand Tour victory even more impressive is that Ewan has endured a tough first week at the Vuelta.
He had to fight just to make it to the finish on three of the first four days after his Orica-GreenEDGE teammates buried themselves on the front to protect Esteban Chaves who was a surprise race leader.
Ewan could have been dejected at finishing in the grupetto. Could have thought perhaps the race was too much too soon or it was the end of a long debut season on the WorldTour.
But instead he put his own struggles and the Nibali controversy side and went out and won.
As stunning as the victory was, there will be a few people close to Ewan who wouldn’t have been that surprised at all.
Anyone who has followed his cycling career to date will know age and experience has never held him back.
He announced himself by becoming the youngest rider to ever win the Bay Crits in 2013 on home soil.
But the day cycling knew he could take on the world came in Adelaide in January, 2014, when riding for wildcard team UniSA-Australia, Ewan was third by less than the width of a wheel to Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel in the opening criterium.
The image of two hulking German sprinters, with faces grimacing and muscles bulging, powering to the line with pint-sized Ewan trying desperately to get between them proves the old adage that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog.
Last week an AFL football coach was asked at his press conference whether his young team was performing beyond expectations.
“The game doesn’t know how old you are,” the coach replied.
The same goes for cycling and Ewan who remains polite, respectful, modest and softly spoken yet this week has made it very clear that he won’t be pushed around.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Two moments at the Vuelta a Espana show young Aussie Caleb Ewan won’t be pushed around, writes Reece Homfray
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